Location: South Austin
8601 S. 1st St.
Austin, Texas 78748
Students served: Ages 3–5
Current enrollment: ongoing enrollment; max class size of 12 children with 2 teachers
Model/philosophy: Tigerlily believes that children are capable and confident problem solvers, curious about challenges, and take great delight in expanding their knowledge of the world around them. As we connect to our bodies through daily exploration of the natural world, our indoor and outdoor learning spaces will allow children time and space to explore these wonderful learning adventures of childhood.
Special features: Art: creative expression is central to a vibrant childhood; each child has the opportunity to draw, paint, collage, build, and sculpt with clay often; with this daily access, art mediums become powerful languages for the child to express their thoughts, ideas, questions, worries, and wonder. Documenting children’s learning: teachers share daily with the parent community, thinking together to support continued work together. Social emotional learning: every day in a preschool classroom is a day to make things better with each other; children learn language and social skills to support interactions that recognize and value each other and people in the world around them. We affirm and welcome all family structures and gender identities and seek to support children as change makers.
Schedule: Monday–Thursday 9:30am–2:30pm August–May; summer session
Tuition: $1,000 per month; $125 supply fee due August and January
Contact: info@tigerlilypreschool.com
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.
