Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lafayette's eight parishes

Lafayette Parish: big elementary schools, two high schools

Inside Lafayette Parish the Catholic sector is built on 9 parish schools that stop at grade 8, several of them with 400 to 800 K-12 students on the state list. Their 8th graders then choose between St. Thomas More Catholic High School, which reported 1,063 students in grades 9-12, and Teurlings Catholic High School, which reported 886. John Paul the Great Academy is the exception: it runs pre-K through 12 and the state lists it as non-accredited approved.

Outside the city: one campus through graduation

7 Catholic schools in the outer parishes take students from the early grades to grade 12 on one campus: Academy of the Sacred Heart (Grand Coteau), Central Catholic School (Morgan City), John Paul the Great Academy (Lafayette), Opelousas Catholic School (Opelousas), Sacred Heart School (Ville Platte), St. Edmund Catholic School (Eunice), Vermilion Catholic (Abbeville). For a family in those towns there is no 8th-grade transfer to plan, and the account renews at the same school every spring.

STO participation is uneven

19 of the 31 Catholic schools here were on the 2024-25 Tuition Donation Credit list. Those that were not include several of the largest Lafayette Parish campuses, such as St. Thomas More Catholic High School, Our Lady of Fatima School, Cathedral Carmel School, Sacred Heart School. That matters for a family at or under 250% of the poverty line, because an STO award can only stack on top of LA GATOR at a participating school. Ask about 2026-27, since schools decide each year. Our STO guide lists every participating school by parish.

Parishioner rates and the account

Diocesan parish schools commonly set one rate for registered, contributing parishioners and a higher rate for everyone else. Get both rates in writing, ask what the parish requires before you qualify for the lower one, and ask the business office how it posts the four Odyssey deposits against its own billing calendar.