Tuition

Please make an appointment to tour the school or attend a weekend Open House (January, February & March) have your child attend a morning class and return a completed application during Open Enrollment in March/April of the year you would like to enroll. 

Upon review of the application, your child(ren) will be accepted provisionally to the "Waiting Pool" Once it is determined that Sunrise will have space for your child, you will be contacted to confirm your interest in Enrolling. If no, please let us know quickly so we can approach the next person in the Waiting Pool. If yes, You will then receive the Enrollment Package to complete and return with the Tuition Deposit as soon as possible.

Once the enrollment package has been reviewed and approved, your child’s admission will be formally accepted and you will receive a letter of acceptance. This guarantees their place at Sunrise.

Please schedule a tour, have your child attend a morning class and return a completed application as soon as possible.  Upon review of the application, your child(ren) will be provisionally accepted and placed in the waiting pool, with placement pending availability.  

Once a placement has opened, you will need to complete the enrollment package and provide the deposit. After the enrollment package has been reviewed and approved, your child’s admission will be formally accepted and you will receive a letter or phone call of acceptance. This guarantees their place at Sunrise.

We request that all applicants schedule a classroom visit as part of the enrollment process. Typically a classroom visit is about 20-30 minutes long and involves the child participating in classroom activities with current students while the parent observes. 

Please contact the office to schedule a tour. Most tours take about 20 minutes and include an overview of the program, a visit to each of the classrooms, an explanation of purpose for some of the works the children use and a tour of the playgrounds and lunch area.  We do not offer walk-in tours; all tours must be scheduled in advance.Sunrise Montessori hosts three Open House events each Spring. Please RSVP by contacting the office, either by phone or email to attend an Open House.

If you are relocating from out of town and need to request a special time or day for your tour, we will do our best to accommodate your travel schedule.  

Parents are welcome to set up a time to observe a classroom, however we request that you make other child care provisions for your child(ren) during this visit. 

No, we do not accept applications more than 8 months from anticipated enrollment.  

For example, if you wish to enroll your child at the start of the school year in September, we suggest you attend one of the three weekend Open House events during the Spring prior to your preferred enrollment date, or schedule a personal tour.

Open enrollment begins in April and the available spaces fill up quickly.  In order to ensure your preferred attendance schedule, we suggest that you have attended an Open House or taken a tour and have the application paperwork returned at the beginning of April.  Once you have turned in your application and it has been reviewed, you will receive the enrollment paperwork.  Your child will not be enrolled until the enrollment paperwork, deposit and registration fee are received – this completes the process.

Part of the application process is meeting your child and seeing how they interact in a school environment. If your child is under the admissions age of 2 years old, the admissions process would be pending an age appropriate classroom visit at 18-24 months.

Your child does not need to be toilet trained in order to attend Sunrise.  

 We are happy to assist with toilet training as long as primary toilet training occurs at home.  We ask that families commit to the toilet training process and do not use diapers or pull-ups, except during sleep, once the toilet training process has begun. 

 However your child will need to be toilet trained to advance from the Stars Group to the Suns Group.

Sunrise provides a morning (around 10:00am) and afternoon snack (between 3:45pm-4:00pm) that generally consists of a grain, a fruit or vegetable and a protein. 

We request that you do not send junk food (potato chips, cookies, candy, yogurt in a tube, soda, etc) and that lunches include something from each food group – a protein, a grain, and a fruit or vegetable.  

Yes, just complete the application and enrollment forms and designate which days you would like which schedule.  We will do our best to accommodate your needs.  

However, you should understand that by adjusting your child’s schedule into a mix of half-day and full or extended day options, it also maximizes the tuition impact, it does not lessen it.

We do not accept dual enrollment.

Young children have a lot to learn, it’s a very exciting time and it can be a very confusing time.  Everything they do is new, they are figuring out how the world works and where they fit in it.  Young children come with a lot of expectations and rules – at home, at their grandparent’s homes, at their friend’s homes, and at school.  It’s simply too much to ask a child to adapt into two learning environments and expect them to learn the rules and be successful. 

We are located at 1201 E Yanonali, one block from the Salinas roundabout and across the street from the Eastside Park. Franklin Elementary School, one of the oldest and largest elementary schools in Santa Barbara, is one short block away, as is the Eastside Library and the Eastside Community Center.  The Santa Barbara Police Department has a substation at the Eastside Community Center.

Because of our proximity to Franklin Elementary, Sunrise Montessori is within the School Safety Zone.  This means that any unlawful activities, ranging from loitering to felonies, are subjected to increased penalties under California law. 

California takes school safety seriously, and will not tolerate crime in or around schools. Schools and their surrounding neighborhoods must be safe havens for our children.  Due to the location of the Santa Barbara Police Eastside substation, should we ever need police assistance, they are less than a minute away. 

Fortunately, in over 20 years at this location, we have never had an issue at our safe, secure campus.

From the front gate that takes two hands to open – one latch on the inside and one latch on the outside, to the child safety gate in front of the STARS Group classroom, Sunrise Montessori considers safety and security at each turn. 

When students are playing outdoors, the staff is always alert to what is happening on the playground and in the neighborhood.  When students are in the classroom, the staff is alert to the sound of the front gate and they will check to see who is arriving each time they hear it.  

When the older students are in the park or garden across the street, the student:staff ratio is never greater than 9:1, even though California law allows for a 12:1 ratio. 

Sunrise Montessori takes the safety and security of your children very seriously, and in over 20 years at this location we have never had an issue with unwanted visitors or children leaving the property without attention.