Private Schools in Fredericton and Every Other Alternative to the Default Public Stream

The Whole Map, Before the Details

If you are arriving from Toronto, Calgary or overseas expecting a private-school market, recalibrate now: Fredericton has two real ones, and most families with money and options still send their kids to the public system. That is not a failure of the city. It is the local consensus, and it is worth understanding before you spend a weekend on school tours. Our schools-explained guide covers how the public system is built (catchments, Anglophone School District West, the language duality); this guide is about everything that sits beside or outside the default stream, and about the choices hiding inside it.

Here is the complete inventory as of September 2026. Full-time private schools: Fredericton Christian Academy (K to 12, north side) and Fredericton Montessori Academy (Casa through Grade 8, south side). Small and specialized: Our Lady of Grace Private Catholic School in Nasonworth, and Cedar Brook Forest School on Woodstock Road with a Kindergarten to Grade 3 program. Supplementary, not a replacement for school: the Fredericton Islamic Association's Sunday school. Boarding: Rothesay Netherwood School, a bit over an hour down Route 7 toward Saint John, which is where Fredericton families go when they want an IB diploma and a residence. Homeschooling: legal, lightly regulated, with an active local community. Inside the public system: early and late French immersion, the District scolaire francophone Sud for families with French-language rights, out-of-catchment placement requests, and a genuinely broad program menu at Fredericton High and Leo Hayes.

What we could not find, despite looking: a Waldorf or Steiner school, a full-time Islamic or Jewish day school, a secular independent academy, and any private school at all in Oromocto, New Maryland proper, Hanwell or the Kingswood area (Hanwell's school is Hanwell Park Academy, a public K to 8 that opened in September 2022 and already has about 550 students). Real estate listing sites still show a "Devon Park Christian School" near MacLaren Avenue; that is the origin and former name of Fredericton Christian Academy, which Devon Park Baptist Church still lists among its ministries, not a separate school you are missing.

One geography note, because parents here plan around the bridges: both FCA campuses are north side (Devon and Marysville), the Montessori academy is south side off Regent, the forest school is on the south bank west of downtown, and Our Lady of Grace is south of New Maryland on Route 101. None of the private schools run buses, so your commute is the schedule.

How New Brunswick Regulates Private Schools (and What "Approved" and "Designated" Actually Mean)

New Brunswick has no private schools act, no per-student funding for independent schools, no tuition tax credit, and no inspection regime that produces a public report card. The legal architecture is simple to the point of bluntness. The Education Act requires children from five to eighteen to attend school, and section 16(2) lets the Minister exempt a child "where the Minister is satisfied that the child is under effective instruction elsewhere." A private school is, in law, one form of "elsewhere." When Fredericton Christian Academy says it is "approved to operate by NB Department of Education," that is what it means: the department recognizes the program as effective instruction, so its students are not truant, and FCA has aligned its high school program with provincial diploma requirements. It does not mean the province funds it, audits its teaching, or vouches for it the way it vouches for a public school. Then-education minister Dominic Cardy put it plainly to CBC in 2019 when a Moncton family asked for tuition help: "There are no private schools that operate under the New Brunswick system, or have links with it." Nothing has changed since.

The practical consequences for you. First, the province will not pay any part of tuition, including for children with learning disabilities who would arguably be cheaper to educate privately; that request has been made and refused. Second, a private school's teachers may or may not hold New Brunswick teaching certificates, so ask. Third, an NB High School Diploma is issued by the province through public schools; a private school that wants its graduates to hold one has to run a program the department recognizes, which FCA says it does. If you are looking at anything smaller, ask exactly what credential your child will graduate with and which universities have accepted it.

Now the word "designated," which trips up parents because it means two different things on the same government website. For schools, it means almost nothing: every primary and secondary school in Canada is automatically a Designated Learning Institution for study-permit purposes ("All primary and secondary schools in Canada are DLIs"), so a school advertising DLI status is stating a fact about all schools, not a distinction. For preschool and after-school programs, "designated" is the one that matters to your wallet. Every licensed centre on the province's Parent Portal carries a Designated yes-or-no flag. A designated centre has signed on to the provincial early-learning funding deal, which brings operating money and the province's fee rules and subsidy program with it. A non-designated centre sets its own fees. Cedar Brook Forest School is designated; Fredericton Montessori Academy's Casa is not, which is why a Montessori year for a three-year-old costs what a Grade 5 year costs. Our childcare guide goes deeper on the subsidy side.

Fredericton Christian Academy: The Established One

Fredericton Christian Academy is the city's only private school that runs the full Kindergarten to Grade 12 ladder, and at 48 years old (established 1978) it is the one most locals mean when they say "the private school." It is an independent, university-preparatory Christian school and a member of the Association of Christian Schools International, with the elementary and middle school at 778 MacLaren Avenue in Devon and the high school at 241 Canada Street in Marysville, both north side. Enrolment is around 150 students according to the directory listings we could find (the school does not publish a number), of which the school says roughly 10 percent are international students from more than 18 countries. Class sizes, in the school's own words, "range between 18-24 students," which is honest of them: that is not dramatically smaller than an ASD-W elementary class, and if small classes are your whole reason for going private, compare that number with what your catchment school tells you.

Tuition for 2026-27 is $7,284 for a first child, $6,552 for a second and $6,192 for a third and beyond, and the school says all prices include textbook rental and workbooks. The add-ons are modest and listed on the admissions page: a $130 school supply and STEM fee for K to Grade 5, $50 lab fees for sciences, $150 for co-op, $65 to $300 for sports depending on the team, $396 for Grade 12 graduation, and class trips at cost. You can pay in full or by pre-authorized monthly withdrawal over twelve months from July to June, which spreads the first-child fee to about $607 a month. Registration is open year-round ("students are welcome to register at anytime during the year"), so there is no January panic here, though mid-year entry obviously depends on space.

Financial aid is real and procedural. FCA runs a bursary program open to new and current families, assessed by a third party (Apple Financial Services, the same firm Rothesay Netherwood uses) for a non-refundable $137.50 administration fee. The priority deadline is May 31, the committee meets in June and families hear by mid-June. Two conditions worth knowing before you apply: you must already have been accepted, and the previous year's fees must be paid in full. The school asks families to keep award amounts confidential.

Day to day: Kindergarten runs Monday to Thursday 8:30 to 3:00 with a noon dismissal on Fridays; Grades 6 to 12 run 8:30 to 3:00 five days. There is a dress code rather than a uniform, spelled out in the school handbook. Parents provide all transportation; there is no bus. Athletics are surprisingly broad for a school this size (basketball, volleyball, badminton, soccer, cross-country, track, golf, skiing and snowboarding through a Crabbe Mountain affiliation), plus band, drama, chess and a hockey link through Champions Hockey. FCA is also an official testing centre for AP, SAT, TOEFL and IELTS and has a dual-enrolment arrangement with UNB and St. Thomas it calls University Now. For younger siblings, the school runs a licensed Early Childhood Learning Centre at the MacLaren campus with a Junior Kindergarten for four-year-olds and after-school care; fees for that are by request to the director (506-458-9379 ext. 300). The unavoidable question is fit: this is a Christian school with chapel and a faith-integrated curriculum, and families who want the small-school feel without the theology should ask directly how the faith component works in practice before enrolling.

Fredericton Montessori Academy: The Newer One With the January Deadline

Fredericton Montessori Academy opened in 2017 with 11 students, had 80 by 2021, and now runs from a Casa program for three-year-olds through a Grade 7 and 8 adolescent program, all at 131 Duncan Lane on the south side. It was founded by Wanda Poniatowski, who came from 17 years in Montessori schools, and Laura McDonald, who came from 15 years in public classrooms and is now head of school. The structure is textbook Montessori: three-year mixed-age classrooms (Casa ages 3 to 6 including the Kindergarten year, Lower Elementary for Grades 1 to 3, Upper Elementary for Grades 4 to 6, then the adolescent program), long uninterrupted work periods, and a curriculum the school describes as the international Montessori one rather than the provincial one, with mathematics, language, history, geography, French, physical education and art. French runs four days a week through the AIM gesture-based program. When we checked, the school was still working toward formal Montessori accreditation and noted there were no accredited Montessori schools in Atlantic Canada, so ask where that stands.

Tuition, from the school's own 2025-26 family handbooks, is $10,500 a year for Casa and Lower Elementary and $11,000 for Upper Elementary, paid over ten months. One caution: the fee table inside the 2025-26 handbooks is still labelled 2024-25, and the 2026-27 sheet was not posted when we checked, so treat those as the floor and confirm. On top of tuition: a $50 application fee, a $150 administration or registration fee ($155 for returning students), a catered hot-lunch program at extra cost, and a $10-a-day late-payment penalty. Monthly payment runs through Tuio by direct withdrawal or credit card. A third-party directory lists the school's range as $9,500 to $14,500, which is consistent with the adolescent program costing more, but we could not confirm that figure from the school.

The admissions process is the most structured in the city and it has a hard calendar. Applications for the following September close January 31. Before acceptance a family must attend two information sessions (one on Montessori generally, one on the specific class), held at least six months before the start date, and tour the school with the child. Acceptance letters go out in spring (the Casa handbook says starting May 1, the elementary handbook says March 1), you get one week to decide, and you hold the spot with the $150 registration fee plus half of the first month's tuition. Returning families must re-register by April 30. New applicants sit in a "wait pool" rather than a numbered waitlist, and current students get priority moving up. Casa children must be toilet trained.

The fine print parents most often miss is the withdrawal policy: 30 days' written notice, students leaving after December owe the full year unless the spot fills immediately, and after January 31 you owe the balance regardless. Hours are civilized: elementary arrival 7:45 to 8:20, work cycles 8:25 to 11:30 and 1:00 to 3:30, after-school care to 5:15 with a $20 late fee after 5:15 and $50 after 5:30; Casa ends at 3:00 with the same after-care. There is no uniform, just practical clothes, indoor shoes and full winter gear. No busing. The Casa is licensed by the province for 20 preschool and 16 school-age children and is not a designated centre, so no provincial fee cap applies. A useful tax note from the handbook: the school treats a prescribed portion (it cites $450 a month) as childcare for receipt purposes, which matters at the Casa level.

The Rest of the List: Catholic, Forest, Faith and Boarding

Three more local names belong on the list, each serving a narrow slice of families and each harder to research than the big two because their websites are thin or, in one case, mostly unreachable. Then there is the boarding school, which is not local at all.

Our Lady of Grace Private Catholic School sits at 875 Route 101 in Nasonworth, south of New Maryland. It began in 2002 as a homeschool co-op and became a recognized school in 2007, and it is explicit that it "is not subsidized by the government of New Brunswick, the diocese of Saint John or any parish," meaning tuition and fundraising carry it entirely. Its mission language is unambiguous: "ethical Christian leaders," a "faith centered academic community." Most of the site returned errors when we checked, and we could not verify current grades, tuition or enrolment, so this is a call-and-visit school rather than a research-online one. Expect a very small student body, mixed-grade rooms, heavy parent involvement, and a drive.

Cedar Brook Forest School, at 3532 Woodstock Road on the south bank west of downtown, is the closest thing Fredericton has to the forest and nature schools that have spread across the rest of Canada. It is a provincially licensed full-time centre (24 preschool and 30 school-age spaces, designated), open 7:30 to 5:00, and it stacks programs by age: Little Seedlings for 15 months to two years, a Forest Preschool for three- and four-year-olds, after-school care, summer camps, and a Kindergarten to Grade 3 Forest School with "small class size" and "forest based learning at the heart." The centre says its programs follow the NB emergent curriculum, and the director is Kari Sprague. What the site does not say, and you must ask: whether a child in the K to 3 program is enrolled as a private-school student or registered with the province as homeschooled with Cedar Brook delivering the days, who the teachers are and what they hold, how many days a week it runs, and what it costs. Fees for every program were unposted when we checked; the phone is 506-260-6256.

The FIA Islamic School is a weekend school, not a day school: Sundays 11:00 to 3:30, Kindergarten to Level 6 for ages roughly 6 to 13, teaching Quran, Islamic studies and optional Arabic, with placement by assessment and a stated policy that "financial limitations should not prevent any student." Registration for 2025-26 ran until September 18; the association's contact address is 130 Lincoln Road and the class location is announced each year. It is the right answer for families who want faith education alongside a public school day, and there is no full-time Islamic school in the city. We looked for a Waldorf school, a Jewish day school and a secular independent school and found none in the capital region.

Boarding: Rothesay Netherwood School. When a Fredericton family says "we're looking at boarding school," nine times out of ten they mean Rothesay Netherwood School, and the tenth time they mean somewhere in Ontario or Nova Scotia that costs more. RNS, founded in 1877 at 40 College Hill Road in Rothesay just outside Saint John, is New Brunswick's one traditional boarding and day school: Grades 6 to 12, about 300 students, roughly half of them living in residence, a 125-acre campus, uniforms, Round Square membership, and, the thing that actually pulls Fredericton teenagers there, a full IB Diploma Programme in Grades 11 and 12 (the school says it offers 31 IB courses). We found no IB program at Fredericton High or Leo Hayes, so if the diploma itself is the goal, RNS is the in-province route.

The 2026-27 fee sheet: day tuition is $29,100 for Grades 6 to 8, $31,040 for Grades 9 and 10 and $32,000 for Grades 11 and 12; Canadian boarding is $52,150 for Grades 6 to 10 and $53,140 for Grades 11 and 12. Day fees include the academic program, textbooks, yearbook, recreational facilities and lunch every school day; boarding adds room, laundry and all meals. Add a one-time $2,500 registration fee for new Canadian students, a tuition refund plan premium of $525 for day and $785 for Canadian boarding, and a $100 application fee. Siblings get 10 percent off the second child and 20 percent off each additional one. Returning-family deposits are due February 13. In practice, a Fredericton family choosing RNS is choosing boarding, because a daily commute from the capital is not a plan; the day rate matters if you are relocating to the Kennebecasis Valley.

Admissions for September 2027 has two rounds: a priority deadline of December 15 with rolling decisions to February 1, and a standard deadline of March 15 with decisions to May 1, then rolling until full. The file needs the online application, at least one teacher recommendation, two years of final reports plus the current one, a birth certificate or passport, and a student interview (in person or online). Scholarships go to new applicants with an 85 percent average or better and are renewable but never offered to returning students; bursaries are needs-based through Apple Financial Services on the same December 15 and March 15 rounds. The school says it gives out $1.5 million a year in scholarships and bursaries and that 32 percent of students receive a bursary, which is the single most useful number on the site: a third of the school is not paying rack rate, so apply. Tours run during the school week, and the admission office is at 506-847-8224.

Homeschooling in New Brunswick: One Form, No Tests, No Diploma

New Brunswick is one of the lightest-touch homeschooling provinces in Canada, and Fredericton, with two universities and a lot of flexible-schedule households, has a bigger homeschool community than newcomers expect. The legal basis is the same section 16(2) exemption that covers private schools: the Minister exempts your child from attending school on being "satisfied that the child is under effective instruction elsewhere," and "elsewhere" can be your kitchen table.

The process, start to finish. Each year you complete the province's Annual Home Schooling Application Form and send all four pages to your district. For Fredericton anglophone families that is ASD-W, by email or by mail to 20 Knowledge Park Drive; the district forwards it to the department's Policy and Planning Branch, and you receive a formal letter of approval or denial. ASD-W says you "can begin home schooling as soon as the district receives the application form," so the letter is not a gate. Home Educators of New Brunswick recommends filing by September 15, and if your child is currently enrolled you also withdraw them from their school. On the form you accept full responsibility for effective instruction and declare a well-rounded program; the province's guidance lists language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, health and physical education, French, technology, art and music, and career development, and expects you to keep regular records of progress. A portfolio of dated work samples is the suggested method.

What is not required: any standardized test, any annual report, any meeting, any curriculum purchase. HENB's legal page states it flatly ("there are no reporting or annual testing requirements in NB") and notes that anglophone districts "generally request meetings only in the event of an investigation, if they receive a report" that a child is not being educated; francophone districts are more hands-on. There is also no funding. The province gives homeschooling families nothing, schools may lend textbooks at a principal's discretion but need not, and districts are "under no obligation to provide home schoolers with part-time attendance." Access to a school sports team or a single class is a favour to negotiate with the principal, not a right. The provincial curriculum portal is public, and using its grade-level outcomes as a spine makes re-entry painless.

The catch, and it is a large one, is credentials. The province is explicit that "students who complete their entire education through home schooling are not eligible for a New Brunswick High School Diploma." A homeschooler who re-enters public high school is assessed for course equivalencies; a younger child returning is placed with age peers and monitored. Families who homeschool through to graduation typically finish through an accredited online school from another province, a US or Canadian distance program, or by entering FHS or Leo Hayes in Grade 10 or 11 to bank the 100 credit hours the diploma requires. Universities in the region admit homeschool graduates on portfolios and testing, but you should ask the admissions office at UNB or STU early rather than assuming.

Community is where Fredericton punches above its weight. Home Educators of New Brunswick, formed in 1996, is the provincial umbrella (Christian in orientation, a volunteer non-profit) that runs an annual conference, a professional development day and a fall leadership breakfast for local group leaders. Locally, Greater Fredericton Home Educators describes itself as a group of parents who "approach home education from a Christian perspective but welcome and wish to support all home educators in the Greater Fredericton Area," organizing support, resources and activities; it lives mostly on Facebook. Secular families do exist here and tend to find each other through the same channels, plus the library, the Fredericton Region Museum and Science East daytime programs, and the daytime slots of the activities in our kids activities guide. Ask GFHE directly about co-op days; we could not verify a current schedule.

Choices Inside the Public System That Parents Treat as Private-School Substitutes

Most Fredericton families who want something "different" get it without leaving ASD-W, and the two biggest levers are language and placement.

French immersion is the city's mass-market alternative stream. Every child starts in English Prime at Kindergarten; then there are two doors into immersion, Grade 1 (early FI) and Grade 6 (late FI), and children who stay in English Prime get French through the pre-intensive, intensive and post-intensive sequence instead. Registration is a district-wide online form with a date: for 2026-27 it opened January 22, 2026, with two half-hour online information sessions on January 21 and 26. Expect the same late-January pattern for 2027-28 and put it on the calendar in the fall. Two rules surprise people. Policy says the superintendent "shall not admit a French-speaking or bilingual student to the French Immersion Program," so a francophone household cannot use immersion as a lighter-French option. And the province says outright that "parents and guardians do not need proficiency in French for their child to enroll," so the folk belief that immersion is for families who can help with homework is wrong. Outcome data the province publishes: in 2022-23, 99 percent of NB immersion learners reached at least intermediate (B1) oral proficiency. In high school, immersion students must do half of the Grade 9 curriculum and 40 credit hours in Grades 10 to 12 in French to earn the Certificate of Immersion alongside the diploma.

The francophone system is a separate district, not a program. The District scolaire francophone Sud runs four schools in the capital region: École des Bâtisseurs (Kindergarten to Grade 5) and École Les Éclaireurs (Kindergarten to Grade 8) in Fredericton, École Sainte-Anne (now Grades 6 to 12, inside the Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne), and École Arc-en-ciel (Kindergarten to Grade 8) in Oromocto. Admission is by section 23 of the Charter: a parent whose first language learned and still understood is French, or who was educated in French at the primary level in Canada, or who has a child who was educated in French in Canada. The district's own page adds two doors that anglophone parents miss: the Education Act allows a child with sufficient French competence to be admitted, and francophone schools "encourage families newly arrived in New Brunswick" who speak neither official language to apply. Kindergarten registration starts in October for the following September, with the same turn-five-by-December-31 rule as the anglophone side; the district contact is [email protected]. For a mixed-language family, this is the closest thing Fredericton has to a free immersion-plus option, and it comes with busing.

Out-of-catchment placement is the quiet third lever. ASD-W's intra-district school placement form lets you request a school other than your catchment one. It is granted if there is space, the move does not seriously affect the receiving class, it serves "a justifiably defined need or purpose," and, the condition that decides most cases, "the parents/guardians provide their own transportation." Permission is annual and must be renewed. Parents use it to keep siblings together, to reach a specific program, or frankly because they prefer a school; it is not a lottery and there is no public scoreboard, so a polite, specific request to the education centre is the whole game. Regular busing, for reference, is only for students more than 2.4 km from their zone school.

High School Programs Worth Choosing a School For: AP, Trades, Dual Credit, ESAP and Online

Fredericton High School (2,136 students in 2022-23, the largest school in the province) and Leo Hayes High School (1,805 students in 2024-25, opened 1999) are big enough to carry program menus that a private school of 150 cannot, and that is the strongest argument for staying public through Grade 12. Both list English and French Immersion as programs of study. The detail lives in the course selection guides, and FHS's 2026-27 guide is the one to read even if your teen is bound for Leo Hayes, because the provincial course codes are shared and it shows you what to ask for.

Advanced Placement. FHS offers seven AP courses for 2026-27: Biology, Calculus and Pre-Calculus AB, English Language and Composition, Environmental Science, Psychology, Statistics and World History, all at the 120 level. That is the free answer to "where do the academically ambitious kids go," and it is why the IB question comes up less here than in bigger cities. Dual credit. FHS runs NBCC Skilled Trades and Work-Ready Math 120 as a dual credit with NBCC (MATH 1208), so a Grade 12 student banks college credit inside the school day. Skilled trades. Trades courses are on the menu, and a mark above 70 percent in one credits the student 80 hours toward trade certification, a head start that no private school in the region offers. Co-op. Career Pathway Mentorship 120 is the placement course, with recent placements in early childhood, long-term care, trades and on-site IT. Certificates. The Certificate of Immersion and an oral proficiency certificate for FI students, and a Focus on Information Technology (FIT) certificate. EAL. Newcomer students are placed by the WIDA MODEL test into EAL classes, a capacity FHS built the hard way after the 2016 Syrian arrivals. Leo Hayes's public pages are lighter on program detail; its guidance office will walk you through the equivalent list, and its course selection guide is the document to request.

ESAP, the Essential Skills Achievement Pathway, is the province's alternative diploma route for students who are not thriving in the standard academic stream: small supportive settings, project-based credit, and either a post-secondary pathway with a capstone project or a workplace pathway with a 400-hour placement. It is a real NB High School Diploma, entered through the school's guidance office, and it is what parents asking about "alternative education" for a struggling teenager usually need. Ask the school directly what alternative-setting or learning-centre options exist for a student who cannot manage a 2,000-student building; those programs change year to year and are not advertised online.

Online. The New Brunswick Virtual Learning Centre lets high school students "complete all courses required for graduation, along with a wide range of electives" online, taught by online teachers with a local facilitator in the home school. It is how a rural student takes AP Statistics and how a Leo Hayes student takes a course only FHS timetables. It runs through your school's guidance office, not by direct sign-up, and the province does not say whether homeschooled or private-school students can use it; assume not without a school sponsor. Our after-school guide covers the 3:00 to 5:30 problem that none of these programs solve.

Preschool-to-Kindergarten Bridges: Montessori, Forest, Reggio and the University

The real Fredericton private-school decision happens at age three, not at Grade 1, because the city's alternative pedagogies mostly live in licensed early-learning centres. Here the rule from the regulation section bites: check the Designated flag on the province's Parent Portal before you fall in love with a philosophy, because it decides whether provincial fee rules and subsidy apply.

Montessori. Fredericton Montessori Academy's Casa is the only Montessori program in the city that continues into elementary, which is its pitch: a three-year-old who starts in Casa can stay in one building and one method to Grade 8. It is non-designated and $10,500 a year on the latest posted sheet, runs 8:30 to 3:00 with after-care to 5:15, requires toilet training, and admits only through the January 31 application cycle. If you want Montessori as a preschool only, with public Kindergarten after, ask the school how it handles the Kindergarten year, since the Casa program includes it and moving at age five means leaving mid-cycle.

Forest and nature. Cedar Brook is the nature-based option: a designated, licensed centre whose Forest Preschool for three- and four-year-olds spends its days outdoors on the Woodstock Road property, with a Little Seedlings room from 15 months, and a Kindergarten to Grade 3 forest school for families who want to keep going. Designated status means the provincial fee structure applies, which makes it the most affordable alternative-pedagogy door in the city, but capacity is 24 preschool spaces and the waitlist form is on the site. Reggio Emilia. Fredericton has no school that brands itself Reggio; the language shows up in individual centres' program descriptions. Read the Parent Portal listing and the centre's own page, and ask what "emergent curriculum" means in that room, because the province's own early learning framework is emergent by design and every licensed centre claims it.

Faith-based preschool. FCA's Early Childhood Learning Centre at 778 MacLaren Avenue runs a Junior Kindergarten for four-year-olds and daycare and after-school programming, and it is the natural on-ramp if you intend to stay at FCA; fees are by request. University-linked. UNB operates a licensed early childhood centre on the Fredericton campus with ties to its Faculty of Education, and university-affiliated families and staff use it heavily; we were unable to load its current age ranges, fees or waitlist details when we checked, so look it up on the Parent Portal and call rather than trusting an older figure. For the full licensed-care landscape, including subsidy math, the childcare guide is the companion to this section.

What It Costs: The Comparison Table and Where Help Exists

Put the numbers side by side and the shape of the market is obvious: one affordable private school, one premium-preschool-priced Montessori, one boarding school in a different league, and a public system that is free and, for the programs most families want, better stocked. All figures are per child per year, from the schools' own pages, with the year noted.

Where the money comes from. There is no provincial tuition credit, voucher or special-needs grant for private school in New Brunswick, and there will not be one soon. The schools themselves are the aid: FCA's bursary program (Apple Financial Services, $137.50 to apply, May 31 priority deadline, decisions mid-June) and RNS's scholarships and bursaries ($1.5 million a year, 32 percent of students on bursary, December 15 and March 15 rounds). FCA's sibling pricing knocks $732 off the second child and $1,092 off the third; RNS takes 10 and 20 percent. Fredericton Montessori Academy publishes no sibling discount or bursary; ask anyway. At the preschool level the provincial childcare subsidy and designated-centre fee rules apply to Cedar Brook and other designated centres, not to the Montessori Casa. Tuition receipts matter at tax time: preschool and after-care portions of a fee can qualify as childcare expenses (FMA cites a prescribed monthly portion), while tuition for Grade 1 and up generally does not, so ask each school what it issues. For sports and activities that a small school cannot field, the same KidSport New Brunswick and Canadian Tire Jumpstart grants described in our hockey guide apply regardless of where your child goes to school.

The Admissions Calendar, September to September

Every option on this page has a date attached, and the ones that catch families are the winter ones: Montessori closes in January, French immersion opens in January, and boarding wants you in December. Here is the year for a September 2027 start, built from the dates each organization posted for its most recent cycle.

• September: Homeschool applications should be in by September 15 (HENB's recommendation; ASD-W accepts them any time and you may start as soon as the district has the form). FIA Islamic School registration closes mid-September (September 18 in 2025). FCA accepts applications year-round; a fall visit is the ideal time to see it running.
• October: ASD-W Kindergarten registration runs October 1 to 31, 2026 for children who turn five by December 31, 2027, through the EECD Parent Portal; DSFS kindergarten registration also opens in October. Book RNS and FCA tours now while there is still school to watch.
• November to December: Fredericton Montessori Academy requires two information sessions at least six months before a start date, so fall sessions are the ones that feed a September entry. RNS priority applications and bursary requests are due December 15 (decisions rolling to February 1).
• January: FMA applications close January 31 for the following September, no exceptions posted. ASD-W French immersion registration for Grade 1 and Grade 6 entry opens in the third week of January (January 22 in 2026) with online information sessions the same week.
• February: RNS returning-family deposits due February 13. Intra-district placement requests for next year are best filed now, before staffing is set.
• March: RNS standard application deadline March 15 (decisions to May 1). FMA's elementary handbook says acceptances begin March 1.
• April: FMA returning families must re-register by April 30.
• May: FMA Casa acceptance letters from May 1, one week to accept, $150 plus half a month's tuition to hold the spot. FCA financial aid priority deadline May 31.
• June: FCA bursary decisions by mid-June. RNS rolling admission continues until classes fill.
• July: FCA's twelve-month payment plan starts its July-to-June cycle.
• August: ASD-W in-person registration day for newly registered Grade 1 to 12 students (late August; the district posts the date each summer). Homeschool families finalize the year's plan and file if they have not.

Cross-reference the sports registration calendar, because the FI decision and the hockey decision land in the same month and both involve a child who is five.

How to Decide, the Trade-Offs, and the Questions to Ask on a Tour

Start from the reason, not the school. Families who choose private in Fredericton do it for one of four reasons, and the honest answer to which one you are tells you where to look. A specifically religious education: FCA (Protestant, ACSI) or Our Lady of Grace (Catholic), and the Sunday school for Islamic education alongside public school. A specific pedagogy: Montessori at FMA or nature-based at Cedar Brook, both of which are strongest in the early years. An IB diploma or a residential experience: RNS. A child for whom a 2,000-student building is the problem: look first at ESAP, the alternative settings your high school can describe, out-of-catchment placement to a smaller school, and homeschooling, before assuming a $7,000 or $11,000 school is the fix.

The trade-offs are concrete. Cost is the obvious one, and the table above is the budget. Transport is the sleeper: no private school buses, so a north-side family at FMA or a south-side family at FCA is committing to two bridge crossings a day for years, and the public bus network will not help a Kindergartener. Sports and arts thin out fast below about 300 students; FCA fields a lot of teams for its size, but a competitive teenage athlete or musician will find deeper benches, and provincial-championship pathways, at FHS and Leo Hayes. French is the one that parents underweight: a child who leaves the public system at Grade 1 leaves early immersion behind, and late immersion at Grade 6 requires being in ASD-W then. FMA teaches French four days a week and FCA offers it as a subject, but neither is immersion, and the francophone district is off the table unless you qualify. Credentials round it out: confirm the diploma, confirm who accepts it, and for homeschooling accept that the NB diploma is not on offer.

Questions that get real answers on a tour. How many students are in this exact class, and what is the largest class in the school? Which teachers hold New Brunswick certificates? What credential do graduates receive and which universities admitted last year's class? What is the total cost for one year for my child, including every fee on the admissions page and the ones that are not (trips, hot lunch, after-care late fees, uniform or dress-code purchases)? What is the withdrawal policy if this is not working by Christmas, and what do I owe? Is there a bursary, who assesses it, and what did the average award look like? How does the faith or pedagogy show up on a normal Tuesday, not on the brochure? How is French taught, by whom, and for how many minutes a week? What happens to a child who needs resource support or has a learning plan, and is there an extra charge? Who supervises before 8:30 and after 3:00, and until when? And the one that sorts schools quickly: may I speak to two families who left?

The last word from the local consensus is the one the schools guide already gives: in Fredericton, public is the mainstream choice made by families with options, the private tier serves specific needs well, and the biggest mistakes are missing a January deadline and paying for smallness you could have requested for free. If you have a school question this guide does not answer, ask Freddy; if a fee or date here has moved, tell us, because these files move.