The largest private schools in this metro are church schools, not diocesan ones. Baptist, Assembly of God and non-denominational campuses run from the two biggest K-12 schools in the six parishes down to small church academies with a few dozen students. The table marks BESE approval, which decides whether LA GATOR can pay tuition, and 2024-25 STO participation, which decides whether a Tuition Donation Credit scholarship can sit on top of it.
Calvary Baptist Academy
Shreveport
School details →Assembly of GodEvangel Christian Academy
Shreveport
School details →ChristianWord of God Academy
Shreveport
School details →BaptistFirst Baptist Church School
Shreveport
School details →BaptistMt. Olive Christian School
Athens
School details →ChristianCentral School
Grand Cane
School details →| School | Type | City | Grades | LA GATOR tuition | K-12 students* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bossier Christian Academy | Christian | Bossier City | PK-7 | ✓ BESE-approved | 57 |
| Calvary Baptist Academy 9333 Linwood Avenue | Baptist | Shreveport | K-12 | ✓ BESE-approved | 957 |
| Central School 1035 2nd Street | Christian | Grand Cane | PK-12 | ✓ BESE-approved | 146 |
| Community First High School | Christian | Minden | 9-12 | ✓ BESE-approved | — |
| Evangel Christian Academy 7425 Broadacres Road | Assembly of God | Shreveport | K-12 | ✓ BESE-approved | 724 |
| First Baptist Church School 533 Ockley Drive | Baptist | Shreveport | PK-8 | ✓ BESE-approved | 305 |
| First Beginnings | Christian | Shreveport | K | ✓ BESE-approved | 0 |
| Mercy Christian Academy | Christian | Shreveport | K-5 | ✓ BESE-approved | 36 |
| Mt. Olive Christian School 15349 Highway 9 | Baptist | Athens | PK-12 | ✓ BESE-approved | 155 |
| Nehemiah Christian Academy | Christian | Shreveport | — | ✓ BESE-approved | 0 |
| Shreveport Adventist Christian School 7023 Greenwood Rd | Seventh-day Adventist | Shreveport | K-8 | Not approved | 12 |
| SIHAF Learning and Career Institute | Christian | Shreveport | K-8 | ✓ BESE-approved | 0 |
| Word of God Academy 2820 Summer Grove Drive | Christian | Shreveport | PK-12 | ✓ BESE-approved | 384 |
* K-12 enrollment on the state's 2025-26 BESE approval list; federal survey enrollment for schools not on that list. "BESE-approved" means the school can accept LA GATOR tuition if it registers in Odyssey for the year. "Not approved" schools can't be paid tuition from the account.
Two campuses carry most of the enrollment
Calvary Baptist Academy reported 957 K-12 students to the state and Evangel Christian Academy reported 724. Between them that is more students than every other Christian school in these six parishes combined, and both run kindergarten through grade 12 on one campus with large teaching staffs: the federal survey recorded 77 full-time-equivalent teachers at the first and 62 at the second. Schools at that scale have an admissions office, a published fee schedule and a business office that has billed state scholarship money before, which makes them the simplest schools in the market to get a straight answer from and the most likely to be full in a popular grade.
And then there is a long tail
6 of the Christian schools on the approved list report fewer than 60 K-12 students, no enrollment at all, or no figure to the state. Some are single-grade-band programs, one is a high school approved in January 2025 that had not enrolled a cohort when the figure was collected, and others are church schools that have stayed deliberately small. None of them is disqualified from LA GATOR by size: approval is approval. What changes with size is what you need to ask. At a school with 30 students, ask how many teachers there are, which grades actually run this year, and what happens if two families leave.
How church discounts interact with the account
Most church schools here quote a member rate and a non-member rate, and some discount further for staff of the sponsoring church. The question to settle in writing is sequencing: a school that applies your member discount first and then the account leaves you a smaller balance than a school that applies the account first and recalculates the discount against what is left. Both approaches exist locally and neither is improper, but the difference can be several hundred dollars a year. Ask which fees, beyond tuition, are billed through Odyssey as required fees, since books, testing and technology fees are often where the remaining balance hides.
7 of these schools were on the state's 2024-25 Tuition Donation Credit list, which is what allows a qualifying family to stack an STO scholarship on top of the account. Our stacking guide has the order the layers apply in.
See what your family's account would cover here
Five questions, no documents. An advisor calls back with the amount you are likely to get, which Shreveport-Bossier schools take it, and what covers the rest.