6 Practical Tips to Lift Private School Retention Rates and Parent Satisfaction

Attracting private school students is no small task. But enrollment is just the beginning—the real challenge is keeping students engaged and ensuring they return year after year.

The average private school retention rate for K–12 institutions is around 90%, and in smaller schools with 200 or fewer students, it generally hovers around 86–88%.

Private schools face various challenges regarding student retention, including competing institutions, fewer children overall, rising operational expenses affecting tuition costs, or families simply feeling like they aren’t the right fit. However, there are several effective ways to keep students (and their families) engaged and coming back. 

From increasing parental communication to offering unique programs, consider these six strategies to strengthen retention and build lasting connections.

1. Increase communication with parents 

Private education is an expensive investment—and parents want to know their money is well-spent. In other words, they need reassurance that their children receive a transformative lesson whenever they enter your classrooms.

Maintaining open and consistent communication with parents is one of the best ways to ease their concerns and build trust. Since communication goes both ways, it also gives parents a straightforward way to voice any questions or feedback, strengthening their connection to your school and community.

You can maintain open lines of communication by arranging the following:

• Daily status reports
• Weekly email updates
• Frequent parent-teacher conferences

However, consistent communication takes time and can pull teachers away from lessons, grading, or preparation. To make their jobs easier, search for apps and services that can help facilitate quick, clear communication with engaged parents.

2. Make tuition as affordable as possible 

One of the most significant hurdles to private school enrollment is tuition. On average, a single year of private K–12 education costs $12,790 per child, or more than $160,000 for all 13 years of schooling.

For many parents, that’s a substantial amount of money. Oftentimes, private education’s high cost of entry can drive interested families to choose public schools, charter schools, or homeschooling instead. 

To make private school tuition more affordable and keep these families in your school, you can:

Make financial aid available

Many private schools offer diverse financial aid options, like grants and scholarships to high-performing or disadvantaged youth, which cover some—or all—of their tuition costs.

Offer multi-child discounts

Parents with two or more kids may be even more wary of private school’s entry fees, but they also bring you the opportunity to double down on enrollment.

Provide incentives for these parents—such as sibling discounts or bundled payment plans—to make your education services more accessible to large families. 

Facilitate tuition assistance programs

Programs like RaiseRight allow you to assist families with tuition payments—and it doesn’t cost a thing. By enrolling your private school in a free RaiseRight program, you can help parents offset tuition with everyday expenditures.

Families earn money back by buying gift cards or shopping online at their favorite stores or restaurants—think Walmart, CVS, Starbucks, Home Depot, Gap, Instacart, Chipotle, and more. Your school keeps 100% of the earnings, and you can allocate the funds however you like, whether for tuition, school upkeep, activities—you name it.

3. Conduct surveys and collect feedback 

Here’s another easy but essential tip on how to retain students in private schools: Ask them what they need.

We recommend sending students routine surveys to determine what’s working and what needs improvement.

Try asking open-ended questions, like:

• What do you think of your teachers?
• Which class do you like the best and why?
• Which class do you like the least?
• How could we improve your experience?

Your students aren’t the only ones with valuable opinions. To get a more robust understanding of what your community thinks, send surveys to parents as well. After all, parents make the key decisions about choosing a school and whether their child stays or leaves.

4. Retain well-liked faculty and staff 

Part of what makes private schools special are the incredible teachers, administrators, and other staff. Students develop bonds with faculty—so much so that a favorite teacher leaving could convince a child to do the same.

To mitigate this possibility, retaining staff is a key part of retaining students.

While staff turnover is natural, faculty members would feel more encouraged to stay with:

• Competitive salaries
• Above-average benefits packages
• Accessible professional development opportunities
• Manageable work-life balance

5. Maintain high academic excellence 

For students hoping to study at top colleges, attending a prestigious private school is one of the best paths to their dream. Putting a private institution on their college application, however, is only beneficial if your school has a strong academic reputation.

With that in mind, private schools should strive for excellence in all areas. High test scores and elevated graduation rates are the key signs of successful schooling that you should aim to optimize year after year.

A few critical ways private educators can improve outcomes include:

• Embracing emerging classroom technologies
• Providing individualized support
• Offering regular feedback to students
• Creating engaging classrooms

6. Present unique offerings 

Finally, to retain students, you must set your school apart. You can achieve this by offering:

Special courses

From woodworking and website-building to drama and dance, special skills classes keep kids engaged and interested in their education.

Exciting extracurriculars

Sports are the classic after-school choice, but you can also run unconventional clubs like astronomy, orienteering, and skiing.

Counseling

School can be stressful—and that’s before you add in family dynamics and outside pressures. By offering free counseling, you can mitigate dropouts due to mental health-related issues.

College prep

Many families use private schools as a springboard to prestigious colleges and universities. Aside from running college-level courses for high schoolers, you can provide support with applications, offer information on accessing financial aid, and facilitate introductions to successful alumni.

Improve affordability, enrollment, and retention with RaiseRight 

All these tips can help your private school improve retention rates. However, if you can only take one action, commit to making tuition more affordable.

Cost is the most significant barrier for families interested in private schooling. With programs like RaiseRight, you can help students stay enrolled in your school for their entire journey. 

More than 10,000 private schools have already partnered with RaiseRight to make tuition more accessible for students and families. Will you join them?