Which school district serves an address is one of the first questions buyers ask here, and it is one of the easiest to get wrong. District lines and city lines are not the same thing in most of the South Bay. One city is served by four districts. One district ends at eighth grade and sends its students to two different high schools in two different cities. An address with a San Pedro mailing address may sit in a different city entirely.
This section documents what serves where. It names schools and districts and it does not rank them, rate them, or characterize their quality, which is both our policy and a fair housing requirement. What we can do is tell you accurately which district you are in, what it runs, and where to verify it before you write an offer.
Which districts serve the South Bay?
Nine districts cover the area we work in.
| Area | District | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan Beach | Manhattan Beach Unified | TK-12. Five elementary, one middle, Mira Costa High |
| Hermosa Beach | Hermosa Beach City School District | TK-8 only. See below, this one surprises people |
| Redondo Beach | Redondo Beach Unified | TK-12. Eight elementary, two middle, Redondo Union High |
| El Segundo | El Segundo Unified | K-12. Two elementary, one middle, El Segundo High |
| Torrance | Torrance Unified | K-12. The one district whose boundary matches its city limits |
| Palos Verdes Peninsula, all four cities | Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified | K-12 across 17 schools serving the whole Peninsula |
| San Pedro, Harbor City, Westchester, Playa Vista, Playa del Rey, Mar Vista | Los Angeles Unified | K-12, and the largest district in the state by a wide margin |
| Culver City | Culver City Unified | K-12 |
| Gardena, Carson, Lomita | Varies by address | District lines do not follow city lines here. Verify per property |
Why does Hermosa Beach send students to two different high schools?
This is the single most misunderstood fact about South Bay schools, and getting it wrong in either direction misleads a buyer.
Hermosa Beach City School District ends at eighth grade. It operates no high school. After eighth grade promotion, Hermosa students may attend either Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach or Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach. It is a choice between two schools in two districts, not an automatic assignment to one.
The arrangement traces to November 1992, when voters in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach approved Proposition V, dissolving the former South Bay Union High School District. Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach each unified. Hermosa Beach remained an elementary district, and state legislation, AB 325, permits students living inside the Hermosa Beach district boundary to attend either of the two neighboring unified districts.
So the common shorthand that Hermosa students “go to Mira Costa” is not accurate. Some do, some go to Redondo Union, and families choose. If a listing or an agent tells you a Hermosa Beach address comes with a specific high school, that is worth questioning.
Verify the current mechanics with Hermosa Beach City School District directly before relying on it, because the operational detail is not published in full on either district’s site.
How is Hermosa Beach organized if there is one school per grade band?
By grade level rather than geography, which is unusual and worth understanding.
- Hermosa View School, TK and first grade, 1800 Prospect Avenue
- Hermosa Vista School, second through fourth grade, 417 25th Street
- Hermosa Valley School, fifth through eighth grade, 1645 Valley Drive
- Hermosa Beach Preschool at the View campus, ages three and four
Every child in the city attends the same school as every other child in their grade. There is no attendance boundary to research and no school locator tool, because there is nothing to look up. The current configuration is recent: Hermosa Valley moved to fifth through eighth in fall 2022, and View and Vista were rebanded in fall 2023. The district enrolls roughly 1,500 students. The district was established in 1904.
What does Manhattan Beach Unified run?
Five elementary schools serving TK through fifth grade: Grand View, Meadows, Pacific, Pennekamp and Robinson. One middle school, Manhattan Beach Middle School, sixth through eighth. One high school, Mira Costa High School, ninth through twelfth, at 1401 Artesia Boulevard. The district also runs a preschool on 15th Street.
District enrollment is approximately 5,900. Mira Costa alone enrolled 2,502 students in 2025-26. Mira Costa serves students from Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, plus students attending by permit from surrounding communities.
MBUSD was created in 1992 in the same Proposition V split that left Hermosa as an elementary district. It runs transitional kindergarten, a GATE program in grades four through eight, visual and performing arts pathways from first grade through twelfth, an extended day program, and at Mira Costa a biotechnology pathway plus career technical education through SoCal ROC. Voters approved the Measure MB parcel tax in June 2018.
The district publishes a boundary map rather than an address lookup tool, so for a specific property, confirm with the district office at 325 South Peck Avenue.
What does Redondo Beach Unified run?
Eight elementary schools: Alta Vista, Beryl Heights, Birney, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Tulita and Washington. Two middle schools, Adams and Parras. Redondo Union High School at One Sea Hawk Way, plus Patricia Dreizler Continuation High School, an RBUSD Learning Academy, a virtual learning program, child development centers, and South Bay Adult School.
Redondo Beach publishes the most precise enrollment figure of any local district because it reports an actual Census Day count: 9,484 students in 2025-26, down from a peak of 10,123 in 2019-20.
Two things set RBUSD apart practically. It runs dual language immersion, Spanish at Washington Elementary since 2013 and Mandarin at Tulita beginning in 2026-27. And it is the only local district with a working address based school locator, which means you can check a specific property rather than squinting at a map.
RBUSD also defines an Area of Choice: two specific street bounded sections of Redondo Beach whose residents in grades nine through twelve may request a permit release to attend Mira Costa High School instead. If you are buying in north Redondo near the Manhattan Beach line, ask about it.
What does El Segundo Unified run?
Two elementary schools, Center Street and Richmond Street, both K-5. El Segundo Middle School, sixth through eighth. El Segundo High School, ninth through twelfth, at 640 Main Street. Plus Arena Virtual High School and Eagles’ Nest Preschool. Roughly 3,500 students district wide. The district dates to 1912.
El Segundo Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School running the IB Middle Years Programme, which is the distinguishing program among the beach city districts. The district also runs Project Lead The Way as a continuum from TK through twelfth grade, AVID, GATE as a cluster model inside general education classrooms, and a district AI literacy initiative with its own board policy.
One caution that matters when buying: El Segundo does not guarantee placement at a particular elementary school. The district states it does its best to enroll students at the nearer of Center Street or Richmond Street, but placement depends on classroom availability and there are no guarantees. Do not assume an El Segundo address comes with a specific elementary.
What does Torrance Unified run?
Torrance is the exception that makes the rest of the region legible: district boundaries match the city limits, which is unusual here and is why Torrance buyers get a straightforward answer while Peninsula and Westside buyers often do not.
Five high schools: North, South, Torrance, West and Shery. Eight middle schools: Calle Mayor, Casimir, J.H. Hull, Jefferson, Lynn, Madrona, Magruder and Richardson. Seventeen elementary schools: Adams, Anza, Arlington, Arnold, Carr, Edison, Fern, Hickory, Lincoln, Riviera, Seaside, Torrance, Towers, Victor, Walteria, Wood and Yukon.
Which district serves the Palos Verdes Peninsula?
One district covers all four Peninsula cities: Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified, across 17 schools. Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and Rolling Hills are all served by it.
The complication on the Peninsula is not the district, it is the address. Eastview is part of Rancho Palos Verdes but carries San Pedro postal addressing, and three unincorporated pockets sit in no city at all. Mailing address is not a reliable guide to jurisdiction or to schools anywhere on the Peninsula. Check the property, not the envelope.
What private and independent schools are in the South Bay?
A significant share of South Bay families choose independent or parochial schools, and the options are not all where people assume they are. Three geography corrections first, because they come up constantly.
- Rolling Hills Preparatory School is in San Pedro, not on the Peninsula, despite the name.
- Nativity Catholic School is in Torrance, at 2371 West Carson Street.
- St. James School’s campus is in Torrance at 4625 Garnet Street, although the parish is in Redondo Beach. Families search it as a Redondo school.
Independent schools
| School | City | Grades | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chadwick School | Palos Verdes Peninsula | K-12, co-ed | 1935 |
| Vistamar School | El Segundo | 9-12, co-ed | Independent |
| Rolling Hills Preparatory School | San Pedro | Middle and high school, co-ed | 1981 |
| Peninsula Heritage School | Rolling Hills Estates | K-8, co-ed | circa 1961 |
| South Bay Christian School | Torrance | TK-8, co-ed | Serving since 1964 |
Chadwick sits on a 45 acre campus on the Peninsula and runs an outdoor education program from kindergarten through twelfth grade, plus a sister campus in Songdo, South Korea. Its 2026 to 2027 tuition is published at $45,880 for grades K through 5 and $53,760 for grades 6 through 12. Primary entry points are kindergarten, sixth, seventh and ninth grade.
Vistamar in El Segundo is a high school only, and publishes an average class size of 14 with students coming from 60 zip codes, which tells you it functions as a regional rather than a neighborhood school.
Rolling Hills Prep publishes 2026 to 2027 tuition at $28,500 for middle school and $39,500 for high school. One note: the Renaissance School, which operated alongside it for years, no longer appears as a separately branded institution and the name now describes a learning support track on the same campus. Confirm with the school how they want it named.
Montessori and early elementary
Peninsula Montessori has campuses in Rancho Palos Verdes and Redondo Beach and has operated here since 1978. Rolling Hills Montessori, South Bay Montessori in Torrance, Redondo Beach Montessori and Beach Cities Montessori in El Segundo cover roughly ages eighteen months through six, with several extending into elementary grades.
What Catholic and parochial schools serve the area?
| School | City | Grades | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop Montgomery High School | Torrance | 9-12, co-ed | Founded 1957. Draws from more than 70 parishes |
| Mary Star of the Sea High School | San Pedro | 9-12, co-ed | Parish affiliated |
| Mary Star of the Sea Elementary | San Pedro | PreK-8, co-ed | Sliding tuition scale published |
| American Martyrs School | Manhattan Beach | TK-8, co-ed | Parish school |
| St. James School | Torrance campus, Redondo Beach parish | TK-8, co-ed | Serving the South Bay since 1918 |
| Nativity Catholic School | Torrance | TK-8, co-ed | Founded 1948 |
| St. Margaret Mary School | Lomita | TK-8, co-ed | Founded circa 1951. Roughly 200 students |
| Riviera Hall Lutheran School | Redondo Beach | TK-8 plus preschool, co-ed | Opened 1952. Lutheran, not Catholic |
Three further Archdiocese schools serve the area and are confirmed through the Archdiocese of Los Angeles school locator, but none currently maintains a working website, so we cannot verify their grade spans from a primary source: St. Lawrence Martyr in Redondo Beach, St. Catherine Laboure in Torrance, and St. John Fisher in Rancho Palos Verdes. Call the parish directly rather than relying on a third party listing.
Which schools do South Bay families commute to?
A meaningful number of local students travel out of the area daily, and single sex schools are most of the reason. This is the list families actually consider.
| School | City | Type | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loyola High School | Los Angeles | All boys, Jesuit Catholic, 9-12 | 1865 |
| St. John Bosco High School | Bellflower | All boys, Salesian Catholic, 9-12 | 1940 |
| Junipero Serra High School | Gardena | Catholic, Archdiocese of Los Angeles | Verify directly |
| Marymount High School | Los Angeles | All girls, Catholic, 9-12 | 1923 |
| Notre Dame Academy | Los Angeles | All girls high school, co-ed TK-8, Catholic | 1946 |
| St. Mary’s Academy | Inglewood | All girls, Catholic, 9-12 | 1889 |
| Orange County School of the Arts | Santa Ana | Public charter, 7-12, co-ed | 1987 |
Orange County School of the Arts is worth understanding properly, because South Bay families do send students there and it is widely misdescribed as a private school. It is a tuition free public charter enrolling roughly 2,300 students from more than 100 California cities, across conservatories in applied arts, dance, fine and media arts, music and theatre alongside a college preparatory academic program. Admission is by a conservatory placement audition plus a public random lottery where oversubscribed. Applicants may apply to up to two conservatories. The academic program is state funded; conservatory programs run on private fundraising and the school asks families for an annual donation, while stating that no student is admitted or denied on financial capacity.
Loyola publishes 2026 to 2027 tuition between $32,732 and $32,917 depending on grade level and states that admissions are need blind. St. John Bosco publishes $18,325 for grades nine through eleven. Marymount publishes $45,750 for grades nine through eleven with tuition including bus transportation, daily lunch and a laptop. St. Mary’s Academy publishes $11,840 to $12,668 and runs an Onward Scholars program covering 75 percent of tuition for four years for up to twelve students.
All of these require the HSPT or a comparable entrance assessment, and the application calendar runs from October through mid January with decisions in early March. If you are moving here with a child entering eighth grade, that calendar starts sooner than most families expect.
What about preschools?
Three of the local districts run their own.
- Hermosa Beach Preschool at the View campus, opened in the 2023 to 2024 school year, with classes for children from two years nine months and for four year olds.
- Redondo Beach Unified Child Development Centers, with a three year old class at Alta Vista Elementary plus before and after school care. Eligibility requires the child to turn three by 1 September, and the application window runs in January with a February lottery if oversubscribed.
- Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified runs two early learning academies, Miraleste in Rancho Palos Verdes and Valmonte in Palos Verdes Estates, with programs for two, three and four year olds.
Independent options include the Montessori schools listed above and Riviera Hall Lutheran Preschool in Redondo Beach, which runs ages two and a half to five with three and four and five day options.
One honest gap: the South Bay has a long cooperative and parent participation preschool tradition, historically connected to the El Camino College parent education program. We were unable to verify which co-ops are currently operating from primary sources, so we are not listing names we cannot stand behind. If you are looking for a co-op, start with El Camino College directly.
What cultural and language schools are here?
This is one of the genuinely distinctive things about South Bay education and it rarely appears in any guide.
Japanese. The Gardena Buddhist Church Japanese Language School has run since June 1928, closed during the wartime incarceration period and reopened in February 1949. It teaches hiragana, katakana, kanji, reading, writing and conversation on Saturday mornings to students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, in four divisions. Torrance carries additional Japanese programs including Asahi Gakuen and Nishiyamato Academy of California, which we could not verify from their own sites and recommend contacting directly.
Chinese. The South Bay Chinese School in Rolling Hills Estates has operated since 1971 and teaches Mandarin in both simplified and traditional characters, alongside Cantonese and Taiwanese Hokkien, on Saturday mornings from kindergarten level through AP preparation. It also runs community cultural classes in guzheng, mahjong, tai chi, wing chun and calligraphy.
Hebrew. Temple Menorah in Redondo Beach runs Hebrew instruction within its Jewish Learning and Living program, from TK through twelfth grade. The congregation was founded in 1946 as the South Bay Jewish Community Center.
Spanish dual immersion runs inside the public districts rather than as a supplementary school. Washington Elementary in Redondo Beach has offered it since 2013, open only to incoming kindergartners, and Lunada Bay Elementary runs a Spanish dual immersion program on the Peninsula. Redondo Beach adds Mandarin dual immersion at Tulita beginning in 2026 to 2027.
Korean supplementary schools operate in Torrance and Gardena through local churches, but we could not confirm any from a primary source and are not listing names we have not verified.
What public magnet and specialty options exist?
Two are worth knowing about specifically, and both are tuition free.
California Academy of Mathematics and Science, on the CSU Dominguez Hills campus in Carson, opened in 1990 as a joint venture of the CSU Chancellor’s Office, CSU Dominguez Hills and Long Beach Unified. Its consortium attendance area explicitly includes Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified, Torrance and Wiseburn, which means Peninsula and Torrance families are eligible. Published requirements include completion of Algebra 1 or higher and a minimum 3.0 grade point average. Non Long Beach applicants apply directly to the school and need an interdistrict permit from their home district.
Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington sits on the Los Angeles Harbor College campus and is an LAUSD early college program where students can concurrently earn an Associate of Arts degree. Applications run through the LAUSD Choices system with an assessment administered in December.
Across the Harbor area, LAUSD runs magnets at San Pedro High School including marine science, police academy, visual and performing arts and STEAM, at Narbonne in Harbor City including a software and gaming academy, at Banning in Wilmington including firefighter and EMS, and at Carson and Gardena high schools. Applications go through LAUSD Choices, which uses a priority point system rather than first come first served: points accrue for matriculation, time on a waitlist, and schools designated as overcrowded or PHBAO. Those points are the whole game, and families who understand them early do meaningfully better in the process.
How do you verify the school for a specific address?
Attendance areas are set by districts and they change. Never rely on a listing, a map pin, a school rating site, or this page for a decision that matters.
- Use the district’s own locator or call the district office. Redondo Beach has an address lookup tool. Manhattan Beach and El Segundo publish boundary maps. Hermosa Beach needs none.
- Ask about permits and transfers. Every local district runs intra-district and inter-district permit processes with their own windows, lotteries and priorities. Redondo’s School of Choice window runs in February with a March lottery. El Segundo’s inter-district window for 2026-27 ran January through July 2026. These dates move.
- Confirm before you remove contingencies, not after.
If you tell us the address, we will make the call with you and get it in writing from the district.
Who funds the extras?
California funds public schools at a level that leaves a gap, and in the South Bay the education foundations close it. They are also the reason the largest social events on the local calendar are fundraisers. Every district here has one, several have two, and between them they move millions of dollars a year into classrooms.
That is a story in its own right, and we have given it its own page: South Bay Education Foundations.
Continue exploring
District rosters, enrollment figures and program details verified against each district’s own published materials in September 2026. Districts change boundaries, programs and configurations. Confirm with the district before relying on any of it.