Southwest Louisiana's private schools, and what LA GATOR will actually pay toward them.
From the lakefront to Jennings and DeRidder, 13 nonpublic schools in the Diocese of Lake Charles's five parishes hold the state approval that lets a LA GATOR account pay tuition. Six of them are Catholic, and between them they teach 2,015 of the 3,291 K-12 students on that list. Here is every one of them, what the account covers, and the honest picture on seats.
LA GATOR, school year 2026-27
Paid in quarterly deposits to an Odyssey account. Statewide, 17,848 students applied for 2026-27 and 16,993 were found eligible, but the Legislature held funding to about $43.5 million, so new families outside the priority groups mostly wait. How the line is ordered →
13 approved schools, and 10 of them are in Calcasieu
This is a compact market. Calcasieu Parish holds 10 approved schools; Jefferson Davis, Beauregard and Allen have one each, and Cameron, along the Gulf, has none. Compared with Louisiana's bigger metros, families here are choosing among a short list, which makes it practical to know every school on it.
| Largest approved schools | Where | Grades | K-12 students (state list) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our Lady Queen of Heaven School | Lake Charles | PK-8 | 577 |
| St. Louis Catholic High School | Lake Charles | 9-12 | 486 |
| Bishop Noland Episcopal Day School | Lake Charles | PK-12 | 376 |
| Immaculate Conception Cathedral School | Lake Charles | PK-8 | 335 |
| Hamilton Christian Academy | Calcasieu Parish | PK-12 | 300 |
| St. Margaret Catholic School | Lake Charles | PK-8 | 247 |
| Life Christian Academy | Calcasieu Parish | PK-10 | 243 |
Enrollment as reported on the LDOE 2025-26 approval list. 2 more schools in the directory appear in the federal survey but not on the state list, which means LA GATOR cannot pay their tuition.
Five K-8 schools, one high school on Bank Street
The Diocese of Lake Charles, established as its own diocese in 1980, runs a system shaped like a funnel. Five parish schools teach pre-K or kindergarten through grade 8, and one coed high school, St. Louis Catholic High School, takes them at grade 9. All six are BESE-approved and all six took STO scholarships in 2024-25.
Lake Charles
Lake Charles
Lake Charles
Sulphur
Jennings
That shape decides how a Catholic family here budgets. The account covers a K-8 year at parish rates far more completely than it covers a high school year, and every family in the system faces the same transfer at fourteen. The ninth-grade question, worked through →
An Episcopal day school, the church academies and a Montessori start
Bishop Noland Episcopal Day School is the only approved school in the five parishes that runs from age three through graduation on one campus with a full federal record behind it. First Baptist Christian Academy is the largest Baptist school. Hamilton Christian Academy and Life Christian Academy are big enough to matter, with 300 and 243 K-12 students on the state list, but they have no federal survey record, so we list them without the details a profile needs.
In all, 7 approved schools sit outside the Catholic system here. Cornerstone in DeRidder, Indian Bible Academy near Elton and the Little Learners Montessori school in Sulphur round out the list.
Christian, Episcopal & Montessori →McNeese and SOWELA sit inside the account's reach
LA GATOR's marketplace can pay for dual-enrollment coursework, and Lake Charles has two public colleges that teach high schoolers: McNeese State University and SOWELA Technical Community College. SOWELA has said publicly that its dual-enrollment classes are open to public, private and homeschool students, online and in person, including a full-time senior-year option it calls STEPS.
College credit early
General education courses such as English, algebra and history that transfer to a four-year degree.
A craft before graduation
SOWELA's industrial, instrumentation and culinary programs, the kind of training the region's plants and terminals hire from.
Billed through Odyssey
Only when the course is bought through the marketplace from a registered provider. Nothing paid out of pocket is refunded.
A Sulphur 3rd grader at a parish school
Say a Catholic elementary school in Calcasieu charges $6,900 in tuition and $550 in required fees to a registered parishioner, and the household is at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.
These are made-up round numbers, not any school's price: the state does not collect tuition, and we will not print a figure we have not seen. Change the tuition to the number the office gives you. A family at the $5,243 level would owe $2,207 in this example, which is where an STO scholarship is meant to come in. Order of the layers →
What Lake Charles parents ask first
Can every Catholic school in the Lake Charles diocese take LA GATOR?
All six appear on the 2025-26 BESE-approved list, which is the requirement. The state does not publish which approved schools registered in Odyssey for a given year, so ask the business office whether it is set up for 2026-27 before you count on it.
Is there a non-Catholic high school that can take the account?
Yes. Bishop Noland Episcopal Day School runs through grade 12, and Hamilton Christian Academy is listed for grades through 12 as well. Life Christian Academy is approved through grade 10. Covenant Grace Academy appears in the federal survey with high school grades but is not on the state list, so the account cannot pay its tuition.
We live in Cameron Parish. Where would we use it?
No school in Cameron Parish is on the 2025-26 approval list, so a Cameron family using the account full time is choosing a Calcasieu school and the drive that goes with it, or using the marketplace for a home-based year with an online program, tutoring and dual enrollment.
We moved here for a plant or terminal job and missed the window.
The 2026-27 window was March 1 to March 16, 2026. New applicants who are not funded hold a waitlist position and can be awarded later in the year. In the meantime, ask schools about their own aid and apply to an STO; plenty of families start the year that way and add the account when it arrives.
Does the account pay for pre-K?
No. LA GATOR starts at age five. That matters here because the approved schools in these parishes reported 533 pre-K children on the state list, and every one of those families pays the pre-K years some other way. Our blog walks through the bridge year.
Five parishes, 13 approved schools, and room for more
Jefferson Davis, Beauregard and Allen each have exactly one approved school, and Cameron has none. A church with classrooms in Kinder, Oberlin, Hackberry or Cameron would face little or no competition, and families holding an award need somewhere to spend it. If you already run a school here, the most useful thing you can publish is your tuition, your fees and the grades where you have space.
How to work with usFind out what your child's account would pay for here
A few quick questions. An advisor phones back with your likely award, which Southwest Louisiana schools can take it, and how to cover any balance.