Good to know
Good to Know
- Oʻahu's 'international' school options are almost entirely IB-based rather than British, French, German, or other national-curriculum schools — Le Jardin Academy in Kailua is the only school authorized for the full IB continuum (PYP, MYP, and Diploma Programme).
- Mid-Pacific Institute and the public Henry J. Kaiser High School both offer the IB Diploma Programme only in the final two years (grades 11-12), layered on top of an otherwise standard American curriculum — not a full-continuum IB school.
- Boarding programs at Mid-Pacific, APIS, and Damien Memorial are aimed mainly at international or out-of-state teenagers rather than younger children of relocating nomad families, and boarding fees (which bundle room, board, and tuition) are not directly comparable to day-student tuition.
- We could not confirm current day-student tuition figures directly from several schools' own fee schedules at the time of research — always request the latest fee schedule directly from the school before budgeting, as private-school tuition in Hawaiʻi changes annually.
- Dedicated bilingual-immersion international schools (e.g., Japanese-, Korean-, or Mandarin-immersion programs) could not be independently verified with current tuition data at the time of research and are not included here to avoid presenting unconfirmed information.
- Oahu doesn't have a dedicated 'international school' sector the way many nomad hubs abroad do — most foreign families end up choosing between the island's elite English-medium private/prep schools (several offer IB) or homeschooling, rather than a purpose-built bilingual international campus.
- If a top private school (Punahou, 'Iolani, etc.) is the goal, plan a full year ahead: open houses in fall, applications due between October and February depending on the school, and a shared reply deadline of around April 15 across most member schools — after which unfilled seats go to waitlists.
- Kamehameha Schools is a major private K-12 option but gives admissions preference to students of Hawaiian ancestry, so it isn't a realistic 'international school' route for most relocating foreign families.
- Homeschooling in Hawaii is genuinely simple to start: filing a Notice of Intent (Form 4140) with the local public school is enough, there's no approval process, and no minimum qualification for the parent-teacher — but you do need to test your child at grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 and submit an annual progress report.
- Several active Oahu-specific and military-family homeschool groups exist (e.g., MCHO for military families, HERO), useful for finding co-ops and field trips, though we could not verify current membership size or activity levels for each.
Schools And Curricula
Le Jardin Academy
- Grades
- PK-12
- Location
- Kailua, Oʻahu
- Curriculum
- International Baccalaureate (IB) — full continuum
- Curriculum Detail
- Le Jardin Academy is a PK-12 private IB World School in Kailua, O‘ahu, founded in 1961, and is Hawai‘i's only school authorized for the full IB continuum -- PYP, MYP, and Diploma Programme -- and is fully accredited by WASC.
Tuition
- Status
- not confirmed at the time of research
- Note
- Current day-student tuition figures were not available directly from the school's own current fee schedule at the time of research; families should request the current fee schedule directly from the school.
Mid-Pacific Institute
- Grades
- PK-12 (IB Diploma Programme available grades 11-12)
- Location
- Mānoa, Honolulu, Oʻahu
- Curriculum
- American college-preparatory, with International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme as an option in the final two years
- Curriculum Detail
- At Mid-Pacific, IB courses are available to students in grades 11 and 12, with participation in the full Diploma Programme strongly encouraged but not mandatory, and 87% of Mid-Pacific students score at the satisfactory level or higher on their IB exams.
Tuition
- Boarding
- $57,000
Boarding tuition is approximately $57,000 per year, inclusive of room, board, and tuition; boarding is aimed primarily at international/older students.
Day Student
- Status
- not confirmed at the time of research
Henry J. Kaiser High School (IB Diploma Programme)
- Grades
- IB Diploma Programme offered in grades 11-12 (public high school)
- Location
- Hawaiʻi Kai, Oʻahu
- Curriculum
- Public American curriculum with an IB Diploma Programme track
- Curriculum Detail
- The IB Diploma Programme at Henry J. Kaiser High School in Honolulu, Hawaii is an academically challenging and balanced program of education that prepares students in grades 11 and 12 for success in college and life beyond.
Tuition
- Status
- free
- Note
- Public Hawaiʻi Department of Education school — no tuition for residents meeting enrollment/residency requirements; not generally an option for short-term nomad families without established Hawaiʻi residency.
Academy for International Studies (APIS), Hawaiʻi Campus
- Grades
- 6-12 (boarding)
- Location
- North Shore, Oʻahu
- Curriculum
- Global/project-based curriculum, sister-campus model with Seoul, South Korea
- Curriculum Detail
- APIS is a global-focused school with campuses in both Hawaii and Seoul, South Korea, located on Oahu's North Shore, and the school offers boarding for grades 6–12, with a strong emphasis on project-based learning and global citizenship.
- Proximity Note
- North Shore location is well outside Honolulu's nomad-relevant center — noted honestly rather than omitted since it is a genuine named international/boarding option on the island.
Tuition
- Boarding
- $33,000
Reported boarding tuition range is roughly $30,000 to $36,000 per year; figure shown is the approximate midpoint.
Damien Memorial School
- Grades
- 6-12 (boarding available for high school)
- Location
- Kalihi, Honolulu, Oʻahu
- Curriculum
- American Catholic college-preparatory curriculum
- Curriculum Detail
- Damien Memorial School is a Catholic coeducational institution serving grades 6–12, and the school offers boarding for high school students, including international learners.
Tuition
- Boarding
- $46,000
Reported boarding tuition range is roughly $42,000 to $50,000 per year; figure shown is the approximate midpoint. Day-student tuition is substantially lower but was not confirmed at the time of research.
Homeschooling
- Legality
- Fully legal and regulated
- Legal Basis
- Homeschooling is a fully legal option in Hawaii under a compulsory-attendance exception in state law (Hawaii Revised Statutes §302A-1132(a)(5) / Hawaii Administrative Rules Title 8, Chapter 12), and has been recognized since the 1970s-80s.
- Who It Applies To
- Hawaii requires families homeschooling children ages 6 to 18 to complete and submit an intent-to-homeschool form to the local neighborhood (public) school; a child must be enrolled in school or have an intent-to-homeschool notice on file once they turn 5 by July 31 of the school year, and compulsory attendance ends once the child turns 18 before January 1 of that school year.
- Participation Scale
- Roughly 4-6% of Hawaii's K-12 students were reported as homeschooled in recent years (2.7% in 2021-22, with estimates around 4-6% in 2022-24), a much smaller share than the roughly 17-19% attending private school statewide.
- Public School Access
- Homeschooled students in Hawaii do not have access to courses, extracurricular activities, or sports at local public schools, though special-education services remain available to homeschooled children who have been evaluated and have an IEP.
- Qualifications Needed To Teach
- There is no minimum education requirement for the parent-educator — any parent/guardian can serve as the instructor regardless of educational background.
Process
- File a Notice of Intent (Form 4140) or an equivalent letter of intent with the principal of the public school the child would otherwise attend, before starting or shortly after beginning homeschooling.
- The notice requires basic details (child's name, birth date, grade level, address) and does not require a birth certificate, proof of residency, or health records.
- The principal signs/stamps the form as acknowledgment and returns a copy; no approval process or curriculum pre-approval is required — filing the notice itself satisfies the legal requirement.
- A new/updated notice is needed when a child moves between school levels (e.g., middle to high school) or changes address/school zone.
Ongoing Requirements
- Curriculum
- No specific subjects are mandated by the state, but the curriculum must be structured, based on educational objectives, cumulative and sequential, and suited to the child's needs; parents are not required to submit the curriculum unless there is cause to suspect educational neglect.
- Recordkeeping
- Parents must keep records of the planned curriculum (dates, hours per week, subjects, teaching/assessment methods, materials used).
- Standardized Testing
- Testing is specifically required at grades 3, 5, 8, and 10, using a nationally-normed assessment (families can use the state's free Smarter Balanced Assessment or pay for an alternative standardized test).
- Annual Progress Report
- An annual progress report is required, using one of: a standardized achievement test score, standardized-test progress equivalent to one grade level per year, a written evaluation by a Hawaii-certified teacher, or a written parent evaluation with work samples.
Local Oahu Homeschool Community
- Exists
- Yes
- Note On Sourcing
- The following groups are documented via their own live websites/Facebook groups (linked from a homeschool-curriculum resource page), not independently verified by this research as active/current in membership.
Groups
- Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii
- Oahu Homeschool Mom
- Military Christian Homeschoolers of Oahu (MCHO) — geared toward military families stationed on Oahu
- Homeschool Ohana
- Hawaii Homeschool Community (Facebook group)
- Home Educators Residing on Oahu (HERO)
- Homeschoolers of Older Children, Oahu (Facebook group)
Private Prep School Enrollment
- Overall Timeline
- The realistic cycle runs roughly a full year ahead of the intended start date, with most major schools finishing first-round admissions by winter/early spring for the following August start.
- Waitlist Reality
- Waitlists are real and can be significant at the most sought-after schools: application-to-seat ratios can run as high as roughly 17:1 at some schools/grades depending on campus and grade level. Families who miss a hard deadline should still contact the admissions office directly, since schools with rolling admissions continue to accept applications, but available spots thin out quickly.
- Note On Kamehameha
- Kamehameha Schools operates on its own separate timeline and uses its own admissions test rather than the SSAT, with entry points limited to grades K, 6, and 9, and preference given to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry — this makes it a poor fit for most foreign/nomad families seeking an 'international' option.
Key Milestones
Fall (Sept-Oct)
- Detail
- Open houses and campus tours are held; most schools run their main info nights in September and October.
Fall
- Detail
- Teacher reference forms open; families are advised to give teachers at least a month's notice, and one school makes its reference form available from October 15.
Oct-Feb
- Detail
- Application deadlines cluster here; deadlines commonly range from October to late February depending on school and grade, and financial-aid deadlines are often the same as or earlier than admissions deadlines.
Grade 5+
- Detail
- Applicants for grade five and above will likely need to take the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT), which covers math, verbal skills, reading comprehension and writing.
Feb-Mar
- Detail
- Decision letters are issued in a staggered fashion through this window depending on the school.
~April 15
- Detail
- Hawaii's private-school association has adopted a common admissions reply date of April 15 for member K-12 schools to give families a consistent decision deadline across the island.
After the reply deadline
- Detail
- A deposit (around $500 at some schools) is required to hold the seat, and remaining/declined spots go to a waitlist; some schools also run genuinely rolling admissions with space-available enrollment right up to the start of school.
Documents Typically Required
- Application form (often via a shared platform used by multiple Oahu private schools, so one form/profile can cover several schools on the same system)
- Teacher reference forms
- Standardized testing (SSAT for grade 5+, or school-administered testing for lower grades)
- Student interview and/or classroom observation/activity session
- Official transcripts
- For financial aid: most recent tax return, W-2s/1099s, and information about assets, debts and expenses
Another Supplementary Example
- Type
- After-school supplementary program, Kindergarten through 5th grade
- Example
- Manoa Japanese Language School
- Enrollment Timing
- Enrollment for the 2026-2027 school year opens May 1, 2026, with limited availability for all grades.
Heritage Language Bilingual Schools Example
- Type
- Saturday/supplementary Japanese-language school, not a full-time day school
- Example
- The Hawaii Japanese School (Rainbow Gakuen)
- Enrollment Timing
- Enrollment date is the first Saturday of April, or right after admission procedures are completed.
- Documents Required
- Application submitted with a birth certificate or passport copy plus documentation of legal residency status for the child and parents/guardians (visa or Green Card); Hawaii driver's license/ID accepted for parents.
- Language Prerequisite
- Students must already be able to speak Japanese at the level required for the grade they wish to enter.
- Residency Requirement
- Parent or legal guardian must reside in the State of Hawai'i (a child whose parent lives on a neighbor island must have a guardian residing on Oahu), and the child must be able to attend for at least six months of the school year.
Oahu does not have a cluster of purpose-built 'international schools' in the Bangkok/Dubai sense. Foreign families typically choose among (a) elite English-medium private/prep schools (some offering IB), (b) a small number of heritage-language supplementary schools (notably Japanese), or (c) homeschooling. Kamehameha Schools, while a major K-12 private option, gives admissions preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry and is not realistically an 'international school' option for most foreign families.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.