The most striking pattern in the 2026–27 data isn’t how much schools are raising tuition — it’s which grade bands they’re raising it on.
What the 2026–27 tuition data actually shows
When private schools make significant tuition moves for 2026–27, those moves are heavily concentrated in pre-K. Schoolhouse HQ has tracked 1,274 year-over-year tuition comparisons across 366 private schools, and the most striking pattern in the data isn’t how much schools are raising tuition — it’s which grade bands they’re raising it on.
The headline number is 4.3%
The median private school is raising tuition 4.3% for 2026–27. That is in line with prior years and consistent with a market practice of pricing slightly above cost-of-living — the 3-to-5% band that most boards have settled into.
The variation by school type is modest:
| School Type | Median YoY Increase | Comparisons |
|---|---|---|
| All Schools | 4.3% | 1,274 |
| Religious Non-Catholic | 5.5% | 222 |
| Non-Religious | 4.3% | 584 |
| Catholic | 4.3% | 371 |
| Montessori and Other | 3.3% | 97 |
But the per-grade-band picture is where the real story is.
Pre-K is moving twice as hard as the rest of the school
At the median, pre-K is moving in line with other grade bands. The story shows up at the high end:
| Grade Band | Median YoY | Step Increases (10–20%) | Total Comparisons | % That Were Step Increases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 4.0% | 39 | 401 | 9.7% |
| Elementary | 4.3% | 12 | 229 | 5.2% |
| Middle | 4.5% | 5 | 164 | 3.0% |
| High School | 4.1% | 14 | 303 | 4.6% |
The medians are tightly clustered — within half a percentage point of each other. But the rate at which schools make significant moves of 10% or more diverges sharply. Pre-K’s step-increase rate is 9.7%, more than triple middle school’s 3.0% and roughly double the rate at elementary and high school.
Among schools making 10–20% step increases, pre-K alone accounts for 45% of those moves, despite representing only 31% of the comparisons we tracked. Most schools are raising tuition by similar amounts across their grade bands. But when a school decides to make a significant move, that move is far more likely to land on pre-K than on any other grade.
Religious Non-Catholic pre-K is the hottest pocket in the market
The grade-band pattern is sharpest in one specific cell of the market. Religious Non-Catholic schools are raising pre-K tuition at a 6.5% median — roughly double the 3.0–3.2% pre-K medians at Catholic and Non-Religious schools.
Why this specific area is harder to say cleanly. Pre-K is the most-demanded entry point at most schools, which gives schools that capture the demand the most pricing room. Religious Non-Catholic schools have also been the fastest-growing category in voucher states broadly, even though most ESA programs don’t extend to pre-K specifically. Whatever the mechanism, the data is consistent: if a school is going to make a significant pre-K pricing move in 2026–27, it’s most likely to be a Religious Non-Catholic school.
Most step-increase schools are making selective moves, not whole-school ones
When a school does make a step increase — a move of 10% or more — it usually doesn’t apply that move across all of its grade bands. Only 15% of schools with at least one step-increase grade band raised all their grade bands 10% or more. The majority — 60% — made selective moves: one or two grade bands moved 10–20%, while the rest stayed at the normal 3–6% pace.
This is a meaningful framing shift for any school leader thinking about their own pricing. Significant tuition moves are not whole-school events. They are program-level pricing decisions, made one grade band at a time.
Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, Tennessee is a clean example. FRA raised pre-K tuition from $16,040 to $18,450 — a 15.0% increase. At the same time, it raised elementary 5.8%, middle school 5.8%, and high school 5.8%. The school made one big move — on the grade band where pricing pressure is highest — while keeping the rest of its program at the market-typical pace.
Asheville Christian Academy in North Carolina shows the same selective pattern on a different grade. ACA raised elementary tuition 14.9% while keeping pre-K, middle school, and high school all at roughly 7%. Different grade band, same playbook: one targeted move, normal pricing everywhere else.
What this means for school leaders
The 4.3% median masks the real pricing action. The pace of increase is consistent across grade bands at the median — but the upside is concentrated in pre-K.
Significant tuition moves are program-level decisions. Most schools making 10%+ moves are making them on one or two grade bands, not across the board. Whole-school step increases are a rare choice.
Pre-K is where pricing pressure is highest. If your school has held pre-K flat while peers move 10%+, you may be undercutting the highest-demand entry point in your program.
Religious Non-Catholic schools are running the hottest pre-K market. The reasons aren’t fully clear, but the pattern is strong enough to flag for any school in that category benchmarking its pricing.