Riverdale Academy

What LA GATOR covers at Riverdale Academy

Approval status first: Riverdale Academy appears on the 2025-26 BESE-approved nonpublic school list as accredited, which is the condition Louisiana attaches to LA GATOR tuition. Registration in Odyssey happens separately each year, so confirm the school is set up for 2026-27 before you count on the account. Its Brumfield v. Dodd nondiscrimination approval, required of any school taking state-funded students, dates from 2003.

On that list the school reported 141 K-12 students plus 20 children in pre-K, making it the 15th-largest of the 21 approved schools we rank by enrollment.

It is one of 10 approved schools in this market that carry a student from the early grades through graduation on one campus. For a family budgeting LA GATOR that is the significant fact: you are not planning a transfer at grade 8 or 9, you are renewing the same award at the same school for over a decade while tuition climbs with the grade level.

Locally it ranks 3rd by enrollment of the 3 approved schools across Red River and Claiborne parishes, with Claiborne Academy the largest. Its pre-K program, 20 children, is the usual path into kindergarten, which is the first year the account can pay anything.

It was not on the 2024-25 Tuition Donation Credit list, so an STO scholarship may not be usable here unless the school has joined since. That matters more at the higher-tuition schools than at the ones the award nearly covers on its own. LA GATOR itself is unaffected.

The federal Private School Survey (2023-24) recorded 174 students, 14.6 full-time-equivalent teachers and about 11.9 students per teacher. The school reports membership in State/regional independent school association (e.g., ISAS). Figures from the two sources differ because they were collected in different years.

The multi-year figure

Kindergarten through grade 12 is 13 funded years at this school. Held at 2026-27 levels the whole way, that is roughly $68,159 at the standard amount, $99,138 at the 250%-of-poverty amount, and up to $198,289 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. Thirteen years at one school is the longest single-campus run the account can fund in Louisiana.

Closing the gap

Independent schools set tuition without a church subsidizing it, and most run need-based aid through FACTS or a similar service. The order of operations is the question that matters, and at the outer-parish academies the account may cover most of the published rate on its own.

Check my funding for this school →

Questions for the office

1. Are you registered with Odyssey for 2026-27, and do you bill tuition quarterly to match the deposit schedule?
2. 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?
3. Do you take STO (Tuition Donation Credit) scholarships, and is the STO award applied before or after LA GATOR?
4. Does tuition step up at a particular grade, and what did it rise by over the last three years?
5. Does a pre-K seat carry over into a kindergarten seat, which is the first year the account pays?
6. How far do your families drive, and is there a bus or carpool from Shreveport or Bossier City?

Closest other private schools

Straight-line distance between campus coordinates, which in this metro usually understates a drive across the river.