Private schools
Shalom School is the only Jewish day school in Sacramento.
Al Arqam Islamic School is the only full-time Islamic School in Sacramento. Founded in September 1998 by 7 board members, & volunteers from 7 Islamic centers in the surrounding area, the school originated from a part-time school at the Muslim Mosque in Downtown Sacramento. Interestingly, this was the first Mosque built West of the Mississippi River in 1948. The school’s academic program offers all core subjects (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies), also Arabic as a 2nd Language. Current the school serves K-9 with approximately 300 students. [source: http://www.alarqamislamicschool.org/] The Muslim community in Sacramento is estimated at around 35,000 according to mosque registers and Imams (leaders).
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento operates 1 diocesan high school within the city and surrounding suburbs, St. Francis High School. Various Roman Catholic religious congregations operate four additional Catholic "private" (i.e., non-diocesan) high schools in the city and suburbs: Loretto High School (sponsored by the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary), Christian Brothers High School (sponsored by the Brothers of Christian Schools), Jesuit High School (the Society of Jesus, or "Jesuits"), and, as of the Fall of 2006, Cristo Rey High School Sacramento (co-sponsored by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Jesuits). Sacramento is one of 12 cities in the United States with a Cristo Rey Network High School, the first of which was founded by the Jesuits in Chicago in 1996 on a reduced tuition model designed to be accessible to those otherwise unable to afford conventionally-priced private education.
Additionally within the city and surrounding suburbs are 30 "parochial" schools - i.e., schools attached to a parish. These range from the oldest still operating, St. Francis of Assisi Grammar School (1895), to the newest, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (2000), to the recently consolidated, John Paul II School (2005), combining All Hallows (1948) and St. Peter (1955) Schools at the All Hallows Parish site.
In 1857, almost immediately upon their arrival from Ireland, the Sisters of Mercy opened the first school of any kind in Sacramento. Open to all regardless of religious denomination, St. Joseph Academy continued operation through the late 1960s. The final school site is now a city of Sacramento parking garage. The "St. Joseph Garage" honors the name of the school that marked the arrival of formal education in Sacramento.
While Catholic institutions still dominate the independent school scene in the Sacramento area, in 1964, Sacramento Country Day School opened and offered Sacramentans a truly independent school that is affiliated with the California Association of Independent Schools. SCDS has grown to its present day status as a learning community for students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
