Education and schools in New Orleans are a top priority for many parents moving to the city. There is plenty of choice, but settling on the right school can be tricky. As is the case throughout the US, the schooling system in New Orleans is divided into three levels:
- Elementary school (Kindergarten to Grade 5)
- Middle school (Grades 6 to 8)
- High school (Grades 9 to 12)
NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS), which answers to the Orleans Parish School Board, is the local district. It authorises and oversees the city’s charter schools rather than running most of them itself.
Factors to consider when deciding on a school in New Orleans include the type of school, the standard of teaching, the cost, extracurricular activities, and proximity to the family home and the parents’ place of work.
Public schools in New Orleans
Public schools in New Orleans are unlike those in any other city in the country. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005, the state took over most schools and rebuilt the system around charters. It became the first US city with an almost entirely charter public school system.
The city has almost no attendance zones, so your choice of address doesn’t tie you to a school. EnrollNOLA runs one citywide application called the NOLA-PS Common Application Process (formerly OneApp). You rank up to 12 schools in order of preference, and the district then matches each child to a single place. A few selective-admission schools also ask for entrance tests or extra paperwork.
Charter schools
Charter schools are a subset of public schools overseen by external boards. Although they do have more freedom in terms of teaching methodology and admissions, these schools remain accountable to NOLA Public Schools.
These institutions have charters that detail the school’s operations, programme, goals, and assessment methods. Charter schools use this independence to adjust their teaching methods and largely set their own objectives.
Selective-admission and specialised schools
A small group of charter schools in New Orleans set their own entrance criteria and admit academically strong students. Benjamin Franklin High School, the top-ranked public school in the state, is the best known of these, and several others kept the selective intake they had as magnet schools before Hurricane Katrina.
Other schools build their whole programme around one field. The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), for instance, gives high-schoolers pre-professional training in the arts, and various charters concentrate on STEM, the classics, the performing arts, or language immersion.
Useful links
Private schools in New Orleans
Private schools in New Orleans are another route for families, and the city has dozens of them. Most are affiliated with a religion, and the great majority are Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Private schools generally have a higher standard of teaching and more modern facilities than the average public school. They also run more honour programmes, both for academically gifted students and for those who show an aptitude for sport, music, visual art, or drama.
Naturally, the downside of private education is the price tag. Extra tuition fees, uniforms, books, stationery, extracurricular expenses and field trips can all add up.
Useful links
International schools in New Orleans
For foreign residents, international schools in New Orleans can keep children on a familiar curriculum, or in their home language, through the upheaval of a move.
New Orleans has an unusually strong set of options here, and most of them are free public charters rather than costly private schools. The city has deep French roots, and several schools teach through language immersion: the International School of Louisiana teaches in French and Spanish, and Audubon Charter runs an accredited French programme. At the Lycée Français, children follow both the Louisiana and the French national curriculum and can graduate with an American diploma alongside the French Baccalauréat.
For the International Baccalaureate, public charters such as the International High School of New Orleans and Morris Jeff Community School run the programme, so families can pursue an IB education without private-school fees.
Useful links
- International Baccalaureate: Find an IB World School
- Louisiana Parents for French Immersion: School List
Special educational needs in New Orleans
Children with special educational needs in New Orleans are well supported. Louisiana provides special education services to eligible students up to the age of 21 at no cost to families. The support structures in place are extensive and multifaceted, and the schools cater to a wide range of disabilities, from autism and ADHD to physical mobility challenges.
Students with special needs are accommodated in public schools as far as possible, but there are specialist facilities if a child’s learning challenges are too severe for mainstream schools.
Useful links
- NOLA Public Schools – Special Education
- Louisiana Department of Education: Students with Disabilities
- Families Helping Families of Greater New Orleans
Tutors in New Orleans
New arrivals will find no shortage of tutors in New Orleans. Whether you want to prepare your child for exams, keep up fluency in your family’s home language, coach them through the ACT or SAT, or simply help them settle into the local curriculum, you’ll be able to find someone who fits the bill.
Schools can often provide a list of recommended local tutors, and there are several established tutoring companies in New Orleans.