Average Cost of Private School in Utah County, UT
The nice part about searching for private schools in a specific region is that there are going to be few enough options that all can be explored and discussed. So, in Utah County, Utah what private schools are there and how much do they cost.
The average cost of a private school in Utah County, Utah, is about $13,000. There are 15 private schools in Utah County and only two of those schools offer teaching from kindergarten to 12th grade. However, the average price may be higher if you include kindergartens that offer daily rates.
The difficulty in assessing the average price of these private schools comes from the extreme difference in services these schools offer.
The Schools
According to USA.com, these are the 15 private schools in Utah County:
- Cascade Mountain
- Maple Lake Academy
- Kids Village
- Wunderkind Academy
- Provo Canyon School – Springville Campus
- Telos Academy
- Heritage
- Clear Horizons
- Ivy Hall
- New Haven
- Montessori
- Liahona
- Kindercare
- Discover Academy
- Provo Canyon School – Provo Canyon
Liahona is the only one of these schools that currently enrolls students in every grade from kindergarten to 12th grade. However, 6 more of the schools offer schooling from at least 8th grade to 12th grade. And so right off the bat, less than half of these schools are what people traditionally think of when they think of private schools. In fact, 3 of these schools are more like daycares than private schools. Here is a table showing what grades each school offers and how many students are enrolled there.
| Grades | Number of Students | |
| Cascade Mountain High School | 9 to 12 | 7 |
| Maple Lake Academy | 8 to 12 | 23 |
| Kids Village | PreK to 12 | 5 |
| Wunderkind Academy | PreK to K | 22 |
| Provo Canyon School – Springville | 3 to 12 | 90 |
| Telos Academy | 8 to 12 | 52 |
| Heritage Schools | 8 to 12 | 140 |
| Clear Horizons Academy | Ungraded | 30 |
| Ivy Hall Academy | PreK to 8 | 126 |
| New Haven School | 8 to 12 | 66 |
| Montessori Learning Center | PreK to K | 95 |
| Liahona Prep School | PreK to 12 | 225 |
| Kindercare Learning Center- Orem | PreK to K | 100 |
| Discover Academy | 7 to 12 | 105 |
| Provo Canyon School – Provo | 7 to 12 | 97 |
So even though some of these schools say they teach many grades, in reality, they have some grades that are void of students.
In addition, schools like New Haven and Montessori Learning Center do not advertise a yearly tuition rate but instead give a daily rate. New Haven, as far as I could find, lists a rate of $565 per day in their contract. That is a steep price if you are enrolling your student for a typical 260-day academic year.
Some of the other schools won’t advertise a yearly tuition rate unless you are in the process of enrolling your student.
However here are the tuition rates that were offered freely from their respective websites.
| PreK to 8th grade | 8 to 12 | |
| Cascade Mountain High School | NA | $21,000 |
| Heritage Schools | NA | $9,717 |
| Clear Horizons Academy | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| Ivy Halls Academy | $8,700 to $10,000 | NA |
| Liahona Prep School | $5,860 | $5,860 |
| Discover Academy | $7,100 | NA |
The average of all of these is about $13,000, but as you can see, it will clearly depend on how you are counting all of these schools. The Montessori school advertises $150 per day, and to enroll them over a full academic year you would end up paying about $40,000, which will drastically change the average.
How Does This Compare?
Private School Review has lots of information on private schools across the nation and it is from this website I’ll be pulling information. According to Private School Review, the average cost of a private school in Utah State is $11,074.
There are exactly 174 private schools in Utah that enroll 21,425 students out of Utah’s 675,000-grade students or about 3.17%. So Utah County should be expected to be higher in average price, especially when compared to sparser counties like Garfield or San Juan counties.
But if you are a fan of paying less money, be grateful. The national average for the United States is $16,040. It might be surprising to learn, however, that despite being below the average, Utah has one of the top 20 highest average tuition costs among the US States.
Religious Affiliation
If you live in Utah, you are sure to know of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You probably even know a few hundred adherents. But what might surprise you is that only 2 of the 15 schools in Utah county are religiously affiliated.
Ivy Hall doesn’t specify with which religion they embrace simply stating one of their goals for students is to have “Faith in God, Faith in Others, Faith in Self”.
Liahona, on the other hand, is sponsored and run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Religious schools probably aren’t as scary as most people believe. There is a stigma that is built in the old rigorous traditions of Catholic private schools that is not very existent anymore. More than likely, religious schools teach very similar things as every other school with the addition of a religious class or two. Plus, it is religious values that tend to draw large numbers of families to private schools.
Is It Worth It?
Private schools consistently perform better in every school subject than their public school student counterparts. Liahona School is especially known for having a high quality of education provided and typically 100% of the students there are accepted into college. Now if that isn’t a good stat for school I don’t know what is.
If you are seeking a school in Utah county either for its religious or non-religious affiliation… it honestly won’t matter very much. Even if you go to Liahona High School, it will not be very much different from any other public school in the area. So many of the teachers and students are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that students who attend are guaranteed to learn the values of that church.
In the end, there are not a great number of options for private schools in this county but you may find it worth the cost in order to ensure your kid gets the personal teaching of a private school.