Public School Options

There are plenty of options for great K-12 education in Columbus, and as many ways to evaluate a district as there are learning styles. To help you begin a school system search, we’ve collected two different rankings for public schools in the area: the State Report Card and U.S. News & World Report “Best High Schools”.

State Report Card 2023

According to the Ohio Department of Education, these are the local school districts that scored 3 stars or better on the 2023 State Report Card.

District City Performance Rating
Grandview Heights Grandview 5
Granville Exempted Village Granville 5
New Albany—Plain Local New Albany
5
Olentangy Local Lewis Center 5
Bexley City
Bexley 5
Big Walnut Local
Sunbury
4
Buckeye Valley Local Delaware 4.5
Dublin City Dublin 4.5
Gahanna Jefferson Gahanna 4
Hilliard City Hilliard
4.5
Marysville Exempted Village Marysville 4
Upper Arlington City Upper Arlington 5
Pickerington Local Pickerington 4.5
Reynoldsburg City Reynoldsburg 3
Worthington City Worthington 4.5
Westerville City Westerville 4

U.S. News & World Report "Best High Schools"

In rank order, these are the top 24 Columbus area high schools, according to the U.S. News & World Report 2023 “Best High Schools":

  • Bexley
  • Olentangy Liberty
  • Dublin Jerome
  • Olentangy
  • Granville
  • Olentangy Berlin
  • Orange
  • New Albany
  • Columbus Alternative
  • Upper Arlington
  • Dublin Coffman
  • Grandview Heights
                      
  • Jonathan Alder
  • Pickerington North
  • Reynoldsburg Estem
  • Fairbanks
  • Pickerington Central
  • Westerville Central
  • Worthington Kilbourne
  • Dublin Scioto
  • Lincoln High School
  • Big Walnut
  • Hilliard Davidson
  • Thomas Worthington

Private School Options

Families in Columbus also have a deep resource of private schools to consider for their children’s pre-K through high school education. A selection of well-known schools is listed below, with each welcoming parent visits throughout the year.

School Website
Wellington wellington.org
Columbus Academy columbusacademy.org
Columbus School for Girls columbusschoolforgirls.org
St. Charles Preparatory stcharlesprep.org
Bishop Hartley High School bishop-hartley.org
Bishop Watterson High School bishopwatterson.com
Tree of Life Christian Schools tolcs.org
Worthington Christian Schools worthingtonchristian.com
Bishop Ready High School brhs.org

Child Care Options

Childcare

The Ohio State University Child Care Program

The university supports families with The Ohio State University Child Care Program, which is fully licensed and a department of the Office of Human Resources. Our program is one of fewer than 10% of early childhood programs nationwide accredited by the prestigious National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 

For more information visit:
https://hr.osu.edu/child-care-program/

Please be aware that the popularity of this program often results in long wait lists.

Programs Around Columbus

Of course, there are also many other quality child care programs within minutes of Ohio State. To begin your search, you may want to visit Care.com to review thousands of choices for in-home care, preschool, after-school transportation, vacation care and even foreign language child care.
Ready to move here?

Explore neighborhoods

Subscribe. Get just the right amount of health and wellness in your inbox.