What LA GATOR covers at First Baptist Church School
The state lists First Baptist Church School as accredited on its 2025-26 BESE approval list. That approval is what lets the school receive LA GATOR tuition payments through the Odyssey platform once it registers for the year, which is an annual step schools take themselves and the state does not publish. Its Brumfield v. Dodd nondiscrimination approval, required of any school taking state-funded students, dates from 1976.
On that list the school reported 305 K-12 students plus 75 children in pre-K, making it the 8th-largest of the 21 approved schools we rank by enrollment.
Because the school ends at grade 8, the account has a second act: it follows your child to any approved high school that admits them. The nearest approved schools serving grade 9 are Loyola College Prep, Word of God Academy, Providence Classical Academy, Central School.
Locally it ranks 6th by enrollment of the 14 approved schools in Caddo Parish, with Calvary Baptist Academy the largest. Its pre-K program, 75 children, is the usual path into kindergarten, which is the first year the account can pay anything.
The school also appears on the state's 2024-25 list of schools accepting Tuition Donation Credit scholarships. For a household at or below 250% of the poverty line that is worth real money here: since Act 403 an STO award stacks on top of LA GATOR up to the school's actual tuition and fees, and at north Louisiana prices the two together can cover most of a bill.
The federal Private School Survey (2021-22) recorded 346 students, 62.9 full-time-equivalent teachers and about 5.5 students per teacher. Figures from the two sources differ because they were collected in different years.
The multi-year figure
Kindergarten through grade 8 is 9 funded years at this school. Held at 2026-27 levels the whole way, that is roughly $47,187 at the standard amount, $68,634 at the 250%-of-poverty amount, and up to $137,277 for a student with an IDEA disability, before any STO scholarship. Awards reset every year and depend on what the Legislature appropriates, so treat it as a planning number, not a guarantee. Pre-K years are not eligible; the account starts at age 5.
Closing the gap
Church schools often discount tuition for member families and for staff. Confirm those discounts survive when part of the bill is paid from a state account, since a few schools apply the award first and recalculate the discount afterward. Ask which fees go through Odyssey.
Check my funding for this school →
Questions for the office
- Are you registered with Odyssey for 2026-27, and do you bill tuition quarterly to match the deposit schedule?
- What is the all-in cost for this grade with fees, and what would a family at the $5,243 and $7,626 levels still owe?
- Do you take STO (Tuition Donation Credit) scholarships, and is the STO award applied before or after LA GATOR?
- Which high schools do your grade 8 students usually move on to?
- Does a pre-K seat carry over into a kindergarten seat, which is the first year the account pays?
Closest other private schools
| School | Type | Grades | Distance | BESE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southfield School | Independent | PK-8 | 1.1 mi | ✓ |
| St. Mark's Cathedral School | Episcopal | PK-8 | 1.1 mi | ✓ |
| St. Joseph Catholic School | Catholic | PK-8 | 1.3 mi | ✓ |
| The Montessori School for Shreveport | Montessori | PK-8 | 1.6 mi | ✓ |
| St. John Berchmans Cathedral School | Catholic | PK-8 | 2.1 mi | ✓ |
| Loyola College Prep | Catholic | 9-12 | 2.1 mi | ✓ |
Straight-line distance between campus coordinates, which in this metro usually understates a drive across the river.