Questions, answered

Truition is a national directory of independent schools — roughly 6,900 of them across all 50 states — built so parents can research, compare, and understand the true cost of attending. You can search by state, city, ZIP, price, and radius; see tuition broken out by division (preschool through high school); read admissions, financial aid, and before/after-school care details; and compare schools side by side with an estimated all-in annual cost. On top of that official information sits a community layer where parents report the costs schools don't always advertise up front and share their own experiences — Reddit-style, with upvotes and moderation. Free accounts see everything a school publishes about itself; a membership unlocks the parent-reported cost ledger.

Our school list is built from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Private School Universe Survey, the federal government's official census of private schools in the United States. It's the same dataset researchers and journalists use.

We filtered that census down to nonsectarian independent schools — excluding religiously affiliated and parochial schools — which leaves roughly 6,100 schools across all 50 states and DC. Every school on Truition is a real, federally recorded institution. None are invented, and we don't accept paid listings.

Truition today focuses on nonsectarian independent schools rather than every private school in America. Religious and parochial schools, and eventually colleges and universities, are on the roadmap — so "every independent school in America" is the goal we're building toward, not the current coverage.

From the federal dataset we get the verified basics for every school:

• Name, address, city, state, ZIP, county, phone
• Grade range, enrollment, teacher count, student–teacher ratio
• School level and locale (urban, suburban, rural)

Everything richer than that — head of school, curriculum and special classes, published tuition, application fees, financial aid, admissions timelines, and before- and after-school care — is gathered from each school's own public website and attributed to the page it came from.

Because we haven't been able to enrich them yet. A large share of schools in the federal dataset have no website listed, and some sites don't publish tuition at all. Those profiles show verified federal basics and nothing more. We're steadily working through the list, and parent submissions help us prioritize.

The federal basics reflect the most recent published NCES survey. Website-sourced details — tuition, fees, leadership — reflect what the school published at the time we read it, and each entry links back to its source page so you can confirm. Schools change their fees every year; always verify with the school before making a decision.

Yes, and please tell us. Every profile has a submission panel where you can post a correction or a cost we've missed. Submissions post to the school's page right away and are reviewed by a human shortly after.

Anything a family actually pays that isn't the headline tuition number: enrollment deposits, technology and book fees, uniforms, lunch plans, bus and transportation, athletics and activity fees, class trips, payment-plan surcharges, before- and after-school care, and the annual fund contribution that's technically optional but rarely feels that way.

Two sources, and we label which is which on every entry:

• School website — itemized fees pulled directly from the school's own tuition and fees pages, with a link to the source.
• Parent reports — costs submitted by families who've paid them, with the amount, the school year, and any context they add.

Reports post immediately so the page stays useful, then a moderator reviews them. Other members can upvote entries that match their own experience, so the most widely confirmed numbers rise to the top. Nothing is presented as an official school figure unless it links to the school's own page.

Everything a school publishes about itself is free forever, no login needed: search, filters, radius search, side-by-side comparison, tuition, head of school, curriculum, financial aid, admissions and care details.

A membership unlocks one thing: the parent-reported cost ledger — the real numbers families share after they've gotten the bill.

$4.99 a month or $39 a year, cancel anytime. See membership for details.

No. No sponsored listings, no pay-to-rank, no school pays to change how it appears. Memberships are the only revenue, which is exactly what keeps the cost data honest.

Truition is independently owned and operated. The site — its name, design, written content, and the curated cost database we've assembled — is the property of its owner and protected by copyright. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any school, association, or government agency.

Not lawfully. The underlying federal school census is public data that anyone may use — but the parts that make Truition useful are ours:

• The curated and verified school profiles we've assembled
• The parent-reported cost ledger and its moderation history
• The Truition name, branding, written content, and interface design

Copying those is copyright infringement, and copying the name and look is trademark infringement. Scraping, bulk-copying, or republishing our database is prohibited, and accounts that do it are terminated. If you'd like to use our data, ask — we're reachable and often say yes with attribution.

Absolutely — please do. Linking to any school profile is welcome and encouraged. What isn't allowed is republishing the content wholesale or reselling access to it.