Mill Valley Private School Most Expensive In Bay Area: SF Chronicle

MILL VALLEY, CA — Mill Valley’s Helix School is the most expensive private school in the Bay Area with an annual tuition of $55,000, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.

Helix, which provides K-12 education to students with autism and autism-like developmental challenges, charges an annual tuition that is just $453 less than a year at Stanford University. By contrast, San Francisco State charges $7,484, while UC Berkeley charges $14,245 for in-state students, according to The Chronicle.

According to the Education Data Initiative, the average private school in the United States in 2021 costs $12,350 a year: almost five times lower than Helix.

However, Helix's annual tuition is comparable to several other Bay Area schools that all charge more than $50,000 a year. Number two on the list is the Crystal Springs Uplands School, a 6-12 prep school in Burlingame that charges $54,445 a year. Despite being one of the priciest counties in the state and nation, Marin County is not well-represented on The Chronicle’s list - nearly all the schools are located in either San Francisco or Silicon Valley. The next most expensive Marin County school was number 25 on The Chronicle’s Top 25 list: the Marin School in San Rafael, which charges $45,840 a year.

See here for the full list.