How to Find the Best Schools in San Antonio

You want your children to have a bright future, and that means finding schools where your children will learn, be challenged, feel safe, and have a sense of belonging. How do you find the best schools in San Antonio for your children? Is there such a thing an an overall “best school?”

This is a different world than the one we grew up in, when most students went to their neighborhood public school or, if their family could afford it, to a private school. Now, we cover over 170 schools of choice on our guide that are open to children from across the San Antonio area, regardless of neighborhood residency or zip code. What tools are available to help you decide among those schools? We have put together a guide to school research tools, including our own tools as well as other local, regional, and national information sources. We hope these tools help your family find schools where you feel confident that your children are in the right place to grow and become the amazing people they are meant to be.

San Antonio Charter Moms School Search Resources

San Antonio Charter Moms is a nonprofit organization founded by moms (but we welcome dads, abuelos, uncles, and guardians, too) to provide families with fair information about education. Our team works to help families with school research via our website, our online community, and our events.

best schools in san antonio | san antonio charter moms school choice guide

Guide to Charter Schools in San Antonio

Our Guide to Charter Schools in San Antonio is an alphabetical list of the schools of choice in the San Antonio area. All of these schools are tuition free and are open to students living anywhere in the metro area. Most of the schools are open enrollment public charter schools, while some are in-district charter schools or magnet schools; learn more in our guide to school models. At last count, the guide includes over 170 campuses. Click through to the enrollment guide blog posts to go more in depth about a particular school network or campus.

San Antonio Charter Moms Discussion Group

The San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook is an online community where parents and caregivers can freely ask questions about schools. We welcome questions about all types of school models, including charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, magnet schools, and traditional public schools. Parents share their experiences with different learning models, including child-centered learning, classical education, STEM, functional needs, culturally responsive, and college and career readiness. The discussion expands into broader topics like special education services, after-school programs, summer camps, museums, festivals, enrichment activities, transportation, parenting, and children’s health. We welcome posts and comments in Spanish as well as English.

Our team works hard to keep the conversation civil: members are encouraged to share their own experiences, but not to criticize or harass other members who post or comment. We talk about advocacy—how to speak up as a parent to make our education system better—but we don’t get into political debates or endorse candidates. Learn more in our guide to group rules.

The discussion group is our liveliest forum, but San Antonio Charter Moms is also on social media at our public Facebook page, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok.

San Antonio Charter Moms team School Discovery Day Hemisfair

School Discovery Days

During enrollment season—roughly October through March—the San Antonio Charter Moms team hosts School Discovery Day events. At our welcome table, our staff are ready to answer questions about school research and show you how to use our online resources. We also invite schools—often 40 or more—to set up tables and meet with parents. In one day, a family can talk with representatives from many different schools without driving all over town. School Discovery Days happen at fun, family-friendly locations and have extras like scavenger hunts, raffles, face painting, DJs, and food trucks.

More Tools to Research the Best Schools in San Antonio

In addition to the tools we have created at San Antonio Charter Moms, there are more websites and apps that have useful information for your school search.

Alamo City Moms

The team at Alamo City Moms makes annual updates to their Greater San Antonio Area School Guide, an advertising-supported resource with categories for early childhood education, private schools, public charter schools, and traditional public school districts.

City Education Partners

The annual San Antonio STAAR Data Report from local nonprofit City Education Partners (CEP) sheds light on how few students in San Antonio have reached their grade level proficiency in reading and writing or math, as measured by state-mandated standardized testing. By breaking out the data by San Antonio City Council districts, the report also draws attention to persistent inequity across the city. CEP updates its STAAR Data Report every year in the fall.

In the interest of full disclosure, we should note that CEP is a financial supporter of San Antonio Charter Moms.

Children at Risk

Children at Risk, a Houston-based nonprofit, creates annual school rankings for Texas regions. In San Antonio, the top ranked high schools include IDEA Carver, Memorial Early College High School (Comal ISD magnet school), Health Careers High School (Northside ISD magnet school), Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Travis Early College High School (SAISD Choice Schools), International School of the Americas (NEISD magnet school), Judson Early College Academy (Judson ISD magnet school), and School of Science and Technology—San Antonio College Prep High School. C@R also reported top ranked elementary schools and middle schools for the San Antonio region.

Families Empowered

Apply San Antonio, created by Houston-based nonprofit Families Empowered, is a website with links to applications for a set of participating schools, including charter schools, private schools, and traditional public schools. This site is available in English and Spanish.

Fun4AlamoKids

Fun4AlamoKids is a resource for San Antonio families that offers listings of education and childcare, among other things that parents need. The resource guides cover a variety of topics from charter schools to functional needs schools and more.

Go Public

Go Public is a San Antonio-based nonprofit that promotes traditional public schools. The site doesn’t offer quantitative information about school quality, but does have a map of traditional public school districts in the San Antonio region.

Greatschools.org

Greatschools.org, a nonprofit based in Oakland, California, has a methodology for rating public schools, and also allows users to post reviews. In San Antonio, top rated schools include BASIS San Antonio—Shavano Campus, IDEA Hidden Meadow and IDEA Carver (IDEA Public Schools), Travis Early College High School and Young Women’s Leadership Academy (SAISD Choice Schools), International School of the Americas (NEISD Magnet Schools), and Health Careers High School (Northside ISD). This site is available in English and Spanish.

IDRA

IDRA, a San Antonio-based nonprofit (the acronym stands for “Intercultural Development Research Association”), has a school district finder for traditional public schools that also shows district boundaries for Texas legislators.

Jay Mathews Challenge Index

The Jay Mathews Challenge Index is a national ranking of high schools that launched in Newsweek and the Washington Post in 1998. The 2024 list focuses on charter schools, and highly ranked high schools in San Antonio include BASIS San Antonio—Shavano Campus, KIPP Somos and KIPP University Prep (KIPP Texas Public Schools), and multiple IDEA Public Schools campuses (including Carver, Eastside, Judson, Mays, Monterrey Park, South Flores, and Walzem).

KidsOutAndAbout.com

KidsOutAndAbout.com is business that creates useful lists for families. Their San Antonio page includes listings for private schools and charter schools, preschools and day care, and functional needs resources.

Niche

Niche is a for-profit site that offers school rankings and presents data about schools. For the San Antonio area, they offer lists such as best schools, standout schools, and most diverse schools. Users can filter by grade level for pre–K, elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Highly ranked high schools on Niche include Keystone (private), Saint Mary’s Hall (private), TMI Episcopal (private), BASIS San Antonio—Shavano Campus, International School of the Americas (NEISD magnet school), and Health Careers High School (Northside ISD magnet school). Standout schools on Niche include Lighthouse Public Schools, Somerset Academy Oaks, and Heritage Academy. Niche also allows users to write reviews.

San Antonio Private School Guide

San Antonio Private School Guide, although not updates since 2019, is still a useful starting point for researching independent, religious, and parochial schools. Now that San Antonio Magazine is under new ownership, the private school guide may be due for a refresh with new sponsors.

San Antonio Private Schools

San Antonio Private Schools is an advertising-supported site maintained by PixelWorks Media, the publishers of San Antonio Woman magazine. Users can focus in by grade level and specialty, such as single-sex schools and faith-based schools.

Schola

ScholaMatch is a free school matching tool offered by Schola that helps parents filter for schools in multiple dimensions, including transportation, learning models, and extracurricular activities. The listings are nationwide and cover many types of schools, including charter schools, private schools, traditional public schools, online schools—helpful for families who are considering changing schools.

SchoolDigger

SchoolDigger offers rankings and user reviews of schools. Among local high schools, top picks include Health Careers High School (Northside ISD magnet school), BASIS San Antonio—Shavano Campus, International School of the Americas (NEISD magnet school), Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Travis Early College High School (SAISD Choice Schools), IDEA Carver and IDEA Monterrey Park (IDEA Public Schools), School of Science and Technology—San Antonio College Prep High School, and Great Hearts Northern Oaks.

TXschools.gov

TXschools.gov is a site maintained by the Texas Education Agency to make state accountability data—including A–F letter grade ratings and report cards for districts and campuses—more accessible to families. The site covers all public schools in Texas, including traditional public schools and public charter schools. You can search by district or school name or use a map. The TEA also maintains a School District Locator and a Charter Locator Map.

The site currently shows 2022 data; the 2023 and 2024 ratings are tied up in litigation. It’s hard to predict when or if the missing ratings will become available; as of this writing, trial is set for February 2025. In the meantime, there is a workaround using the Texas Assessment Research Portal, and we have a guide on how to find objective information about school quality in spite of the ongoing litigation.

U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools is a national ranking of traditional public schools, magnet schools, and charter schools. Top ranked high schools in the San Antonio area include BASIS San Antonio—Shavano Campus, Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Travis Early College High School (SAISD Choice Schools), IDEA Carver (and several other IDEA Public Schools campuses), Health Careers High School (Northside ISD magnet school), and International School of the Americas (NEISD magnet school).

In addition to these education-focused sites, you can find user reviews on many general social media platforms, including Facebook, Google, and Yelp.

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This is a lot of information to take in. If it starts to feel overwhelming, we recommend that you use the filters on the schools guide to narrow down your list. Also, join the conversation at San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group to ask questions in a caring and welcoming environment. All of us parents and caregivers are doing our best to get our kids a good education and help them have bright futures filled with exciting choices. There may not be one “best school” overall, but if we share our resources then we can work together so families find the schools that are the best fit for their children.