Ask a family in New Orleans about school funding and they will talk about 8th grade, because that is where the elementary schools stop and the high schools start. Ask in Shreveport-Bossier and the conversation is different, because 10 of the 27 approved schools here run from pre-K or kindergarten through grade 12 on a single campus. You enroll a five-year-old and, if it works out, you never choose a school again.
The schools that span the whole range
| School | City | Grades | K-12 students | Type | STO list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calvary Baptist Academy | Shreveport | K-12 | 957 | Baptist | ✓ |
| Evangel Christian Academy | Shreveport | K-12 | 724 | Assembly of God | ✓ |
| Providence Classical Academy | Bossier City | PK-12 | 617 | Classical | ✓ |
| Glenbrook School | Minden | K-12 | 453 | Independent | ✓ |
| Word of God Academy | Shreveport | PK-12 | 384 | Christian | ✓ |
| Claiborne Academy | Haynesville | PK-12 | 164 | Independent | — |
| Mt. Olive Christian School | Athens | PK-12 | 155 | Baptist | — |
| Central School | Grand Cane | PK-12 | 146 | Christian | — |
| Riverdale Academy | Coushatta | PK-12 | 141 | Independent | — |
| McKinney Byrd Academy | Shreveport | PK-12 | 12 | Independent | — |
Source: LDOE 2025-26 BESE-approved list; TDC 2024-25 list.
What thirteen funded years is worth
Held at 2026-27 levels the whole way, a child who starts kindergarten at one of these schools and graduates from it draws roughly $68,159 at the standard amount, $99,138 at the 250%-of-poverty amount, or as much as $198,289 with an IDEA disability. Nobody should budget on that figure, because the award is reset each year and depends on what the Legislature appropriates, but it is the right order of magnitude for a decision that is genuinely thirteen years long.
What the figure hides is that tuition is not flat. A school charging one rate in the lower grades commonly charges more for middle school and more again for high school, while the award does not step up with the grade. So the balance you owe tends to start near zero and grow. That is the question to put to a school you are considering for the long run: what does tuition do at grade 6 and grade 9, and what has it done over the last three years?
The alternative: schools that end at 7 or 8
6 approved schools in this market stop at grade 7 or 8, including Southfield School, First Baptist Church School, St. Joseph Catholic School, St. Mark's Cathedral School, The Montessori School for Shreveport. Choosing one is not a worse plan, it is a different one: you get a small elementary environment and a deliberate decision at 13 rather than at 5, and the account moves with your child because it belongs to the student rather than the school. The one wrinkle is the protected Louisiana Scholarship Program amount, which ends at the final grade of the school where the old voucher was used; a transfer resets that student to the standard tiers.
Renewal is not automatic in practice
It is automatic in principle: a current participant is the top priority group and keeps funding. But renewal still has to be filed inside the spring window, and families who assume otherwise lose a place they already held. Put the window in your calendar for every year of those thirteen, not just the first one. In a year when the program is oversubscribed, a missed renewal does not go to the back of a short line.
Three questions for a thirteen-year school
- What is tuition in kindergarten, in grade 6 and in grade 9 this year?
- Do you re-apply the account automatically each year, or does the family handle renewal?
- How many of your current seniors started in your lower school?