Location: North Central Austin
5701 Cameron Road
Austin, TX 78723
Students served: Ages 12–15; grades 7th–9th
Current enrollment: Contact for availability details for the 2024–2025 school year.
Model/philosophy: Peak is a container to clarify one's dreams and pursue them through adventures, projects, mentorships, and rites of passage, with a spiritually grounded foundation. It is a learner-driven community for those courageous enough to discover their own unique genius by being radically curious, compassionately responsible, and striving to explore themselves and the world around us. At the end of Peak, graduates emerge as clear, confident, and well-spoken learners with deep individual and community awareness. They have built muscles of rigor and accountability and are ready to dive into their next challenge.
Special features: Peak is a space to recognize that, at this age, this is the most capable these young people have ever been! This is the first time in their lives they've been this strong, this sharp, this aware, and the first time they’re able to be on their own. Peak is a time to capture this moment and capitalize on this new energy and dramatic growth, and propel them forward. Learners will leave with a Blueprint, co-created by the learner and family, to support their post-Peak adventure, with a community of support to continue guiding them through their next years.
Schedule: 8am–3:15pm Monday–Friday, year-round with week-long breaks every 5–6 weeks
Tuition: $19,000 per year. Limited scholarships available.
Contact: info@peakcollective.org
Each listing in this alphabetical directory gives you a snapshot of a small, independent, alternative school in the Austin area.
This frequently updated list spans several pages, with navigation buttons at the bottom. Clicking on the name of a school will take you to its own website. To easily find schools by geographical area, see our Alt Ed Maps page. If you know of a school that’s missing from this directory, please drop a note here, and see Alt Ed Austin’s criteria for “alternative” and “school.” You may also be interested in our directories of other recommended schools (which are mostly larger or more specialized or religiously oriented), as well as special programs for children and adults.
Full disclosure: Alt Ed Austin founder Teri Sperry has ties with several of the schools listed on this site. Her child, now in graduate school, attended two of them years ago. She has friends who direct, teach at, or are otherwise involved in others. Some programs choose to advertise from time to time on Alt Ed Austin as Sponsoring Partners. She firmly believes that all of the schools featured on this site (including the ones to which she has no personal connection and those from which she receives no advertising fees) are good choices for some kids, each for different reasons.
