From the Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires to the Cathedral School for Boys, San Francisco offers a variety of alternatives to public education. In fact, many parents in the City chose to send their children to its hundreds of private schools. If you are interested in learning more about this option, consider the following resources:

• The Online Guide to Bay Area Private Schools maintains listings of over 700 institutions. You’ll also find links to financing resources and guides to the school search process.
  
  
• About.com’s online article, A Tour of San Francisco’s Schools, looks at the diversity of San Francisco’s private education choices.
  
  
• The California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) offers guidance in finding the best school for your child. In addition, you can search CAIS’ full database of member institutions using select criteria.
  
  
• Ivy West provides “a list of some of the most popular private and parochial upper schools in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas along with their admission test requirements.”
  
  
• The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) offers insight to the admissions process and how to choose the right school. You’ll also get information on financing private education, including links to various scholarship and tuition loan providers.
  
  
• Private School Review “provides free, detailed profiles of… private day schools and their surrounding communities. The site evaluates schools relative to each other and to state-wide private school averages for several key criteria like teacher:student ratios.”
  
  
• The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Accrediting Commission for Schools supplies details on school accreditation and maintains a searchable directory of member institutions.