Pace Academy: Three Published Entry Years, Wide Opportunity, and a Commute Families Must Test

Identity and structure

One nonprofit school, three divisions, and a distinctive history

Pace is an independent, coeducational Pre-First-through-Grade-12 school. It reports about 1,150 students across Lower, Middle, and Upper School and holds accreditation through SAIS and Cognia.↗↗

Pace Academy Inc. is a tax-exempt nonprofit with EIN 58-0706812. Its trustees and school leadership govern Pace; Atlanta Public Schools does not place students or deliver public-school entitlements there.↗↗

Pace's own history says its 1958 founding arose amid Brown, white flight, and segregationist origins. It says the school remained all white until admitting its first Black applicant in 1967.↗

That candor matters, but history is not present-day climate evidence. Ask for current enrollment, discipline, belonging, retention, and leadership data rather than treating a statement or tour as proof.

Kindergarten entry

The local label is Pre-First, not Kindergarten

Pace describes Pre-First as its academic Kindergarten year. Children must turn five by September 1, while the school says starting ages can extend from five years to six years and three months.↗

Pace may issue a “Wait-A-Year” decision for a child it considers developmentally young. The public page does not provide a rubric, appeal route, later priority, or outcome data for summer birthdays.↗

The file requires Ravenna materials, a family statement, teacher evaluation, JATP assessment, and a Pace observation. A report card is not listed for Pre-First, unlike applications to Grades 1 through 5.↗

JATP describes its one-to-one assessment as one component, not a decision by itself. The public JATP site gives a 35-to-90-minute range, but not a current fee or Pace-specific scoring weight.↗

Grade 6 entry

Grade 6 adds about 30 newcomers and a real shadow morning

Pace's published grade sizes rise from roughly 60 in Lower School to 90 in Middle School. Its typical 30-newcomer statement therefore aligns with a structural Grade 6 expansion, not ordinary turnover alone.↗

Grade 6 applicants submit an SSAT, report card, math and English evaluations, a principal or counselor evaluation, family statement, and student interview. Pace does not list a student essay or required parent interview for Middle School.↗

Applicants are invited to a morning shadow that includes assembly, classes, lunch, and student interaction. Pace does not publish the interview length, prompts, evaluation rubric, accommodations, or shadow-day scoring role.↗↗

Grade 9 entry

Grade 9 expands to about 125 students, with 30 to 35 newcomers

Pace reports approximately 90 students per Middle School grade and 125 per Upper School grade. Its typical Grade 9 newcomer count again matches planned expansion rather than relying solely on eighth-grade departures.↗

The Upper School file mirrors Grade 6: SSAT, report card, math and English evaluations, principal or counselor evaluation, student interview, student essay, and family statement. The morning shadow is also offered.↗↗

Pace accepts the last standard SSAT administration on January 30, 2027 and permits multiple results. It says repeated testing is neither required nor expected, but publishes no minimum, admitted range, or test weight.↗

Academics and assessment

Acceleration is explicit, while workload evidence is thin

Pace calls its Lower School environment accelerated. Classes average 20 students with two full-time teachers, while specialist work includes STEAM, science, technology, Spanish, arts, library, strings, music, and physical education.↗

Lower students also receive daily unstructured play or recess. Pace does not publish homework minutes, reading benchmarks, assessment frequency, progress-report samples, intervention thresholds, or how acceleration differs by grade.↗

Middle School combines English, math, history, science, world language, physical education, arts, STEAM, and rotating Discovery offerings. Regular and honors math exist in every Middle grade.↗

Google Classroom carries homework, tests, and projects, while students maintain handwritten agendas. Public pages omit nightly workload, grading scales, retakes, late-work rules, test coordination, honors placement criteria, and consequences for missed work.↗

Upper School offers College Preparatory, Honors, and Advanced Placement courses. Honors access considers testing, prior subject performance, and faculty, department, and division recommendations; all AP students must take the corresponding exam.↗↗

Graduation requires 46 units, including 42 academic units, four electives, physical education, and 40 community-service hours. A normal Upper schedule contains six courses each semester.↗

The 2025–26 profile explains transcript weighting and no class rank. It is prior-cycle evidence, and Pace has not posted a 2026–27 profile or a Fall 2027 assessment handbook.↗

Learning support and wellness

Support is available, but families need the service details

The Academic Resource Center describes Lower specialists supporting reading, writing, executive functioning, and math in small groups during school, without extra cost. Referral rules and dosage are not posted.↗

Pace lists three Middle learning specialists. Students may receive content, strategy, executive-function, and assessment support through teacher referral, parent request, or self-advocacy, during the day or after school.↗

The Middle Backpack Club runs each afternoon. Upper supports include individual or small-group tutoring, note-taking, test preparation, time management, language strategies, peer tutoring, writing workshops, and after-school help.↗

Counseling pages describe preventive programs, individual and group support, family consultation, and liaison with outside providers. Pace does not publish counselor ratios, caseloads, wait times, confidentiality rules, or crisis coverage.↗↗↗

The public site does not define diagnostic exclusions, accommodation approval, service capacity, assistive technology, outside-provider requirements, or specialized remediation. Private-school support should not be assumed equivalent to public IEP or Section 504 services.

Culture, belonging, and faith

Judeo-Christian language sits beside an explicit belonging agenda

Pace says it has no church affiliation and follows Judeo-Christian values. Its founding group was interfaith, and current public pages do not identify required worship, chapel, religion courses, or faith-based admission criteria.↗↗

Lower School's Light One Candle tradition presents Hanukkah and Christmas stories. Families should ask how belief, nonbelief, other faiths, observance, and participation are handled in classes, assemblies, holidays, service, and counseling.↗

Pace reports 39% students of color, students from 79 ZIP codes, and 16 affinity groups. Its 2026–27 theme is “Anchor in Belonging,” with student groups including Black, Asian, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ communities.↗

A 2020 racial-equity plan remains public and addresses anti-Black racism, bias reporting, affinity spaces, and discipline equity. Pace does not post current climate results, complaint totals, discipline patterns, or progress measures.↗

Niche displayed 138 reviews and a 4.8 rating when accessed. Reviewers often praised challenge, teachers, breadth, community, and newcomer transitions, but the sample is self-selected and identities are unverified.↗

Treat those reviews as prompts, not representative evidence. Ask current families from your child's grade, identity, commute, activity level, and support profile about recurring assignments, activity conflicts, and pickup—not only peak experiences.

Arts, athletics, and global learning

Breadth is central, and participation can complicate the week

Arts span all divisions, including music, ensembles, theater, visual art, photography, ceramics, drawing, painting, and sculpture. The Fine Arts Center includes a 600-seat theater and dedicated studios.↗↗

Pace reports that 84% of Middle and Upper students participate in school sports. Its teams page shows broad offerings, while the sports-performance program describes strength, conditioning, training, and coordination with nurses.↗↗↗

The Isdell Center reports 41 partners, 21 study tours, and 358 Middle and Upper travelers in 2024–25. Pace does not publish grade-level eligibility, applicant counts, selection, capacity, or trip completion rates.↗

Study travel begins after Grade 5 and uses faculty leaders with outside partners. Pace provides one airfare grant in Middle School and one in Upper School, while families still contribute toward other trip costs.↗↗

Campus, commute, and aftercare

The absence of daily transportation changes the fit calculus

Pace's main campus covers 34 acres in Buckhead. The 24-acre Riverview athletic complex sits about six miles away in Mableton; school transport serves athletic travel, not daily home-to-school commuting.↗↗↗

Pace says families come from 79 ZIP codes and admission staff try to facilitate carpools. A carpool is not a bus route, service guarantee, accessibility plan, or solution for every after-school dismissal.↗↗

Lower School starts at 7:55 a.m. Pre-First dismisses at 2:15 p.m., while Grades 1 through 5 dismiss at 3. Families should drive both peak directions and test late activity pickup.↗

Middle School timing conflicts across live pages. The FAQ says 7:55 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the division page places extra help at 7:45 and classes from 8:15 to 3.↗↗

Upper School runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by extra help until 3:30. Pace does not publish general Middle or Upper aftercare, delayed-pickup supervision, late buses, or emergency closure transport.↗

Knight Crew covers Pre-First dismissal through 3:30 and Grades 1 through 5 until 6. Annual and drop-in options exist, but the page does not state capacity, holidays, late fees, or closure rules.↗

The public campus page says visitors sign in and describes accessibility. A 2024 plan proposed more security, parking, accessibility, and fields, but its present construction status and daily effects are unknown.↗

Safety and safeguarding

Visible infrastructure is not a complete safeguarding system

Pace publicly requires visitor sign-in and describes athletic trainers, strength staff, nurses, and sports-performance systems. Those are useful pieces, but they do not answer every child-protection or emergency question.↗↗

We found no public current handbook detailing background checks, adult boundaries, mandatory reporting, abuse allegations, bullying, harassment, investigations, appeals, emergency reunification, weather closures, trip response, or incident statistics.

A Pace sophomore suffered a traumatic brain injury during a September 2020 football game. His family sued Pace and medical providers, alleging delayed oxygen and other failures; defendants disputed liability.↗↗

Pace told WSB-TV that it was deeply saddened, supported the student's recovery, and could not discuss active litigation. School counsel later argued that Pace could not micromanage event medical personnel.↗↗

On January 15, 2026, the Georgia Court of Appeals granted Pace permission for an interlocutory appeal. That procedural order is not a finding on negligence, causation, or damages.↗

We found no final public resolution by September 1, 2026. Families should ask what changed after 2020, who controls emergency care, and how Pace audits execution across campuses and vendors.

Current, prior, conflicting, unknown

What is solid, and what still requires direct confirmation

Fall 2027 dates, required file components, tour and shadow structure, typical newcomer counts, 2026–27 tuition, aid deadlines, program pages, leadership, and the AAAIS notification calendar are live.

Prior-cycle: the 2025–26 school profile, 2025 AP reporting, 2024–25 global participation, Class of 2026 destinations, fiscal 2025 tax data, the 2020 equity plan, and historical litigation facts.

Conflicting: Middle School start times differ across live pages, and 2025 AP success is reported as both 91% and 92%. The aftercare price language is also ambiguous for Pre-First after 3:30.

Families still need answers about actual Fall 2027 seats, offer and enrollment meaning, applications, odds, wait-pool movement, tuition, contracts, workload, support capacity, climate, discipline, safeguarding detail, construction status, and outcome denominators.

Tuition, complete cost, and aid

Pace publishes useful ranges, but not the Fall 2027 price

Published 2026–27 tuition is $37,360 for Pre-First through Grade 5 and $43,020 for Grades 6 through 12. Those are current benchmarks, not contracted Fall 2027 prices.↗

Pace estimates required non-tuition essentials at $100 to $500 in Lower, $1,300 to $2,000 in Middle, and $1,600 to $2,500 in Upper. Books are included only through Grade 5.↗

That produces published required-cost benchmarks of $37,460 to $37,860 for Pre-First, $44,320 to $45,020 for Grade 6, and $44,620 to $45,520 for Grade 9.↗

Those totals exclude aftercare and optional global contributions. Pace lists $100 monthly or $25 per session for Pre-First through 3:30, and $250 monthly or $35 per session through 6.↗

The page is unclear whether a Pre-First child staying after 3:30 pays the later rate instead or cumulatively. Paid enrichment prices are also absent, so request a complete family ledger.

Middle global contributions range from $2,000 to $3,500; Upper contributions range from $1,800 to $3,500. Airfare grants reduce, but do not necessarily eliminate, travel-related family spending.↗

Pace says it awards more than $5.5 million yearly, is need-blind, and meets 100% of demonstrated need. Aid covers required books, technology, global tours, arts, and athletics, with annual reapplication.↗

Aid is need-based, not merit-based, and has no published income ceiling. Separate household adults file through Clarity; Pace does not publish recipient counts, average awards, income bands, grade distribution, or unmet need.↗

The Pace Access Fund may offer about 50% assistance to selected Pre-First families within an unpublished middle-income range. Eligibility, selection, renewal risk, and the number served remain unknown.↗

Expansion versus attrition

Pre-First, Grade 6, and Grade 9 are genuine intake years

Pace calls Pre-First, Grade 6, and Grade 9 its primary entry points. It says the school typically admits 60 new Pre-First students, 30 new sixth graders, and 30 to 35 new ninth graders.↗

Pace accepts applications to other grades only when openings arise from attrition. Eligibility therefore does not establish availability, and an expansion label does not guarantee a particular Fall 2027 seat count.↗

The word “admits” is undefined publicly. Pace does not say whether those figures are offers or enrolled newcomers, nor publish applications, yield, aid demand, wait-pool movement, or returning-student retention.

Fall 2027 process

The calendar is live; the decision method remains private

The application opens October 1, 2026 and is due February 1, 2027. Supplemental records and prospective-family financial-aid materials are due February 15.↗↗

The shared Atlanta calendar sets electronic decisions for April 3, 2027 and the parent response deadline for April 13. Its mailed-notification date is April 2.↗

Campus tours begin with a division presentation and grouped visit. Lower applicants see the Lower School and key campus spaces; Middle tours include Upper School, while Upper visits center there.↗

The November 21, 2026 open house separates Lower School parents from Middle and Upper families. Public pages do not promise an individual parent meeting, applicant feedback, appeal, or remote-equivalent visit.↗

Pace asks relocating families to contact admission staff for arrangements. The application fee, fee amount, waiver workflow, late-file policy, interview accommodations, selection criteria, and wait-pool method are not fully published.↗↗