Guide
Public vs private high schools in Santa Barbara
How Santa Barbara's public and private high schools compare: how many of each, typical size, tuition, and what the published data does and doesn't tell you.
Santa Barbara's public high schools are large, comprehensive campuses in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, free to attend, and the only ones with published state academic data (CAASPP). The private and independent schools are far smaller, charge tuition, and report their own figures rather than state ones — so a like-for-like academic comparison usually isn't possible. Here's the shape of each cohort.
Public, charter & alternative
- Schools
- 5
- Average enrollment
- 1,250
- Enrollment range
- 77–2,187
- Tuition
- Free
- State CAASPP data
- Published
Private & independent
- Schools
- 5
- Average enrollment
- 292
- Enrollment range
- 52–449
- Tuition range
- $7–$87,340
- State CAASPP data
- Not reported
Tuition ranges are parsed best-effort from each school's published figure and are approximate; check the individual profiles for the current number and what it includes.