The West Coast or Pacific Coast includes California, Oregon, and Washington, though Arizona and Nevada are sometimes included. West Coast boarding schools are schools with boarding programs in these states. This article summarizes the offerings available.
The West Coast Boarding Schools
Finding a definitive list of West Coast boarding schools is challenging. The Federal government site, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), has a listing of private schools, but they cannot be filtered by a boarding option. Another accrediting commission, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is similar in not providing a filter to separate boarding schools. So, by combining data from the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP), the Western Boarding School Association (WBSA), and the BoardingSchoolReview.com listings, we tried to come up with a reasonable list. Here are the results.
Arizona:
NATSAP—9
WBSA—3
BoardingReviews.com—5 (3 same as WBSA)
Total: 14
California:
NATSAP—6
WBSA—19
BoardingReviews.com—24 (18 same as WBSA)
Total: 31
Nevada:
NATSAP—0
WBSA—0
BoardingReviews.com—0
Total: 0
Oregon:
NATSAP—9
WBSA—2
BoardingReviews.com—3 (1 same as WBSA)
Total: 13
Washington:
NATSAP—5
WBSA—1
BoardingReviews.com—1 (same as WBSA)
Total: 6
Therapeutic West Coast Boarding Schools
These schools include a wide range of types. The therapeutic boarding schools and programs include outdoor behavioral healthcare, residential treatment, therapeutic boarding schools, inpatient treatment, transitional independent living facilities, specialized boarding schools, emotional growth boarding schools, wilderness programs, and serve young people, teens, and young adults in facilities that may be boys only, girls only boarding schools or coeducational.
Military West Coast Boarding Schools
Army and Navy Academy and St. Catherine’s Academy, both in California, are both schools with a military tradition. St. Catherine’s is also Catholic. St. Catherine’s offers day school to grades K–8 and boarding to students in grades 4–8. It is considered a junior boarding school, and it only accepts boys. Army and Navy Academy offers grades 7–12, and ninety percent of students board. It, too, is an all-boys school. Both schools offer summer programs and support for students with ADD/ADHD, and Army and Navy Academy offers support for students with learning differences. Both of these types of support are by no means standard in military-focused boarding schools.
Special Academic Focus West Coast Boarding Schools
Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, a coeducational, nondenominational school, provides specialized pre-professional training in arts along with a college preparatory program to students in grades 9–12, and sends a number of students to Juilliard, Curtis Institute, Eastman School of Music, and the Rhode Island School of Design, among other top art programs. Students can choose to major in creative writing, dance, interdisciplinary arts, moving pictures, theatre, or visual arts.
At Think GLOBAL school, based in San Francisco, is a coeducational, nondenominational high school started in 2008 with the goal of holding each trimester in a different international city, giving students an opportunity to live in 12 different countries by the time they graduate. As of December, 2010, school was operating in Stockholm.
Sources
acswasc.org
natsap.org
nces.ed.gov
wbsa.net
boardingschoolreview.com
thinkglobalschool.org
