Carpinteria Family School

1480 Linden Avenue

School District

Carpinteria Unified
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:21
Type

public

School Map for Carpinteria Unified School District

GreatSchools Rating

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on February 04, 2025

Carpinteria Family School (CFS) provides a remarkable, private school quality education alongside the many benefits of a public school experience. The teachers are deeply invested in supporting the whole child, from top notch academics to thoughtful social and emotional learning. The parental community is warmly embracing and highly engaged; many parents volunteer as they can in and around the classroom to enrich the learning environment, but this is never required. Through a mixed-age classroom approach, children learn with and from their peers—older kids get to be leaders and mentors of their younger classmates, and younger children are nurtured and supported to reach for their “next level” in their growth and development. A public school of choice for all elementary school students in the Carpinteria School District, CFS is fully integrated with and contributes immensely to the broader Canalino Elementary School on whose campus it resides. Your child gets the very best of both worlds: a best-in-class education without having to leave the public school system—a rarity in this day and age, and an educational model that should be celebrated, preserved, and invested in for years to come. Parents—if your child enrolls at Carpinteria Family School, you will have given them gifts that will last them a lifetime and help set them on the course for success with whatever dreams they choose to pursue.
Submitted by parent on January 14, 2025

CFS is a school of choice within the Carpinteria Unified School district which means that anyone in the district can attend by making the request through the district office. It is a wonderful, small, nurturing group of highly involved families that enjoy spending time together for community building. The school has special features including an annual camping trip, potlucks, bingo parties, art receptions, a bi-annual all school play, and Family Friday! On Friday afternoons the parents host special activities for the whole school for the last hour of the day. Art, sports, frisbee, yoga, gardening, science, crafts, karaoke, you name it-your kids will experience it on Fridays! I have had one child graduate from the school (oh, and the graduation is SUPER special-each child makes a speech and is honored by the teacher!), and I have 2 other children in two classes. All 3 have had a wonderful experience and love going to school!
Submitted by parent on January 14, 2025

We’re new this year to CFS. Since before our first day of school (at the beach meet up) the community has been super welcoming to us!CFS is just what we needed moving to a new town! Parents are involved, teachers are amazingly experienced and caring , you just know they love what they do.Classrooms are multi-aged (2nd and 3rd, for example) which I feel it benefits the children as they get to experience being the “older” kid to their peers and the next year, they are the ones that need mentoring. Parent led activities are amazing as well! If you’re looking for a new school for your child, look no more. This is also a school of choice if Canalino is not your assigned school it won’t be a process. Our form to transfer to CFS was accepted on the same day.
Submitted by parent on January 14, 2025

We've had kids at CFS for 6 years. It provides more focus on social emotional learning, has many parent led events to connect the community, and creates a nice little niche of kids and teachers. Because it's a multi grade classroom, the teachers really grow and understand our kids!
Submitted by parent on January 14, 2025

We have a 2nd grader in Family School. We love it! The teachers are amazing and our daughter loves them as well. I feel like family school has been great for my daughter. They really understand her and give her the tools she needs to grow and learn both academically and emotionally. I feel the teachers in family school really care, are passionate, and go the extra mile. The other great thing that came out of our experience is the parent/ community support. We have made many close friends thru family school and really enjoy the community. From camping trips to coming together to put on plays and family Friday activities, it really a is unique and amazing community! We hope to put our youngest daughter in Family School kindergarten next year.
Submitted by parent on January 13, 2025

Our family has been a part of the Carpinteria Family School community for 10 years, as my daughter started there in K, and is now a Sophomore in high school and my son is in his last year there as a 5th grader. We felt warmly welcomed from day one and it has been an amazing experience all the way through. The focus on social-emotional, whole child, multi-age learning is exactly what both my kids needed to thrive. There are so many great memories over the years: All school musicals, campouts, fire pit sing alongs, field trips, Family Friday's, Harvest Festival, garden time, Beach Day and potlucks. There are tons of opportunities for parents to get involved, in and out of the classroom, and that is what really makes this school such a rich and deeply nurturing experience. Whole kid and whole family. We have loved it!
Submitted by parent on February 09, 2024

CFS is part of the Canalino School, it's a school of choice so you just put in a request during school registration time. It has a strong history of experienced teachers who have been win their classrooms for decades. The great thing is, the kids are in multigrade classrooms. They get to a teacher twice and their classmates shift every other year as, say, the 3rd graders go into the 4/5 class and are with the 4th graders again.The teachers put a lot of focus on social-emotional learning, plus the CFS parents put resources and time into a campus garden that the kids like to explore and gnash.The family group drives a few events per year, so we get to make new friends and feel part of the Carp community.
Submitted by parent on February 08, 2024

I have a third grader and a fifth grader at Carpinteria Family School. As a parent, I was looking for an intimate school community, where my kids would be seen and known. My children's individual needs have been met by the dedicated and experienced teachers. I was also for a school that welcomed parent participation. Parents bring in their own skills and interests to offer the students diverse experiences- yoga, ukulele, gardening, STEM, and more. Finally, I was looking for a community for my family. The parents offer a lot of opportunities for social connection between families. There are weekly park meet ups as well as special events.
Submitted by parent on February 07, 2024

We have a kindergartener and 2nd grader in Carpinteria Family School (CFS). We have had an incredible experience with this school. The teachers are wonderful with children and foster a very inclusive and engaging learning environment. We really love the combined classrooms (kindergarten & 1st) and (2nd/3rd). We've found this structure incredibly empowering for the kids to experience being a leader to younger children by example. In addition, both of my children have benefited by being motivated and challenged by exposure to the next grade level. Carpinteria Family School provides so many opportunities for the parents and siblings to get involved. Every Friday is a "family Friday" where parents and younger siblings are welcome to attend and participate in workshops. These parent led workshops are a great way to involve your child in sharing an activity that they love with their peers. Our entire family highly recommends Carpinteria Family School.
Submitted by parent on September 21, 2012

Wonderful parent group, so many people help out! The love of learning is the most important thing, not test scores even though the school does great on the star testing!
Submitted by parent on March 23, 2011

I had a really bad experience with Family School. I was treated poorly and they make me feel for the first time in my life that been part of a minority population was a reason not been accepted at the school. They may be great at teaching, but I prefer a school where leaders are more tolerant and embrace different backgrounds. I am wondering how percentage at Family School are minority population??