How public schools are organized in Montecito
Montecito has no unified school district of its own. Public elementary school is split between two one-school districts: Montecito Union Elementary School District, which runs Montecito Union School on San Ysidro Road, and Cold Spring Elementary School District, which runs Cold Spring School on Sycamore Canyon Road. Both serve kindergarten through sixth grade. For grades 7 to 12, students go to Santa Barbara Unified School District, normally Santa Barbara Junior High and then Santa Barbara High School.
The county's Montecito Community Plan also lists two Carpinteria Unified elementary schools, Summerland and Canalino, as serving parts of the wider planning area. So the school a home feeds depends on the exact parcel, not on the 93108 ZIP code. The district line also shows up on the tax bill: the 2026-27 rate is 1.02872% in the Montecito Union tax rate area (078-001) and 1.03952% in the Cold Spring area (061-001), which carries two Cold Spring school bonds.
Montecito school results on the California School Dashboard
California does not grade schools A to F. The California School Dashboard reports results on several indicators, and the 2025 Dashboard is the latest. The figures below come from the California Department of Education's 2025 Dashboard data files, for all students at each school.
- English and math are the average distance from the grade-level standard on state tests, in points. Zero means students scored at the standard on average; positive numbers are above it.
- Chronic absenteeism is the share of students who missed 10% or more of school days.
- Graduation rate is the share of a high school's four-year group that graduated.
| School (district) | Grades | English (points vs standard) | Math (points vs standard) | Chronic absenteeism |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montecito Union (Montecito Union Elementary) | K-6 | +106.7 | +94.9 | 7.4% |
| Cold Spring (Cold Spring Elementary) | K-6 | +128.6 | +100.2 | 7.1% |
| Santa Barbara Junior High (Santa Barbara Unified) | 7-8 | -59.6 | -72.5 | 28.1% |
| Santa Barbara High (Santa Barbara Unified) | 9-12 | -25.5 | -95.4 | n/a |
| Santa Barbara Unified, whole district | TK-12 | -2.5 | -27.2 | 17.9% |
| California, all schools | K-12 | -8.1 | -42.4 | 17.1% |
Santa Barbara High's 2025 graduation rate was 96.8%, against 94.7% for the district and 87.8% statewide. Small schools move a lot from year to year: Cold Spring tested 105 students in English and Montecito Union 185. Use these figures as one input, then visit.
Elementary schools serving Montecito
Montecito Union School, 385 San Ysidro Road
Montecito Union is the only school in its district and serves transitional kindergarten through sixth grade. The school reports an average class size of 17 and lists recognition as a National Blue Ribbon School (2020) and a California Distinguished School. On the 2025 Dashboard its students scored 106.7 points above the English standard, up 11.2 points, and 94.9 points above the math standard, both in the top (blue) performance level. The district's boundary runs from the mountains to the ocean, with Ortega Ridge Road on the east and Butterfly, Para Grande, Riven Rock and Hot Springs roads on the west. The school notes that the edges vary.
Cold Spring School, 2243 Sycamore Canyon Road
Cold Spring is also a one-school district, serving kindergarten through sixth grade from a campus on Sycamore Canyon Road, part of State Route 192. It had the highest English result of any public school in the area on the 2025 Dashboard, 128.6 points above standard and up 10.5 points. Math was 100.2 points above standard, down 7.8 points from 2024. With about 200 students counted for attendance, a handful of results can shift its figures.
Summerland and Canalino schools (Carpinteria Unified)
Parcels at the eastern edge of the planning area, toward Summerland, may fall in Carpinteria Unified School District. Summerland Elementary is a small school: it tested 21 students in 2025, too few for a Dashboard color, with English 63.0 points above standard. Canalino Elementary in Carpinteria was 13.5 points below the English standard. If a listing is east of Ortega Ridge Road, check which district it is in before you assume Montecito Union.
Middle and high schools for Montecito students
Santa Barbara Junior High School
Santa Barbara Junior High is the Santa Barbara Unified school that the Community Plan names for grades 7 and 8. On the 2025 Dashboard its students were 59.6 points below the English standard and 72.5 points below in math, and 28.1% were chronically absent, up from 21.5%. Parents whose children move from a K-6 school with results 100 points above standard should visit and ask about honors placement, which the district runs as a separate program.
Santa Barbara High School
Santa Barbara High is the district high school for Montecito addresses. Its four-year graduation rate was 96.8% in 2025, above the district's 94.7%. Test results were 25.5 points below the English standard and 95.4 below in math, both improved on 2024. Ask the school about its programs and Advanced Placement offerings, and read the course catalog the district publishes.
Other Santa Barbara Unified high schools by transfer
Santa Barbara Unified takes intradistrict transfer requests for a school other than your resident school. For 2027-28 the window runs from December 1, 2026 to January 15, 2027 at 5:00 p.m., and later requests depend on space. Dos Pueblos High posted the district's strongest high school English result, 50.2 points above standard, and San Marcos High was 3.5 above. A transfer is never guaranteed.
Charter, private and college options near Montecito
Charter schools in Santa Barbara Unified
Peabody Charter, a Santa Barbara Unified charter school, was 48.1 points above the English standard and 32.1 above in math in 2025. Santa Barbara Charter was 11.4 points above in English. Charter schools have their own application and lottery rules, so check each school's dates.
Crane Country Day School
Crane Country Day School is a private kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school founded in 1928, at 1795 San Leandro Lane with a Santa Barbara 93108 address. It splits into a lower school (K-5) and an upper school (6-8) and publishes its own admission process and tuition assistance. Private schools do not report to the Dashboard, so ask the school for its own outcomes.
Westmont College in Montecito
Westmont College, a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1937, moved in 1945 to El Tejado, the former 125-acre Dwight Murphy estate in the Montecito foothills. It does not affect K-12 assignment. The campus sits in a high fire area reached by narrow, winding roads, and buildings burned in fires in 1964, 1977 and 2008, which matters if you are looking at homes nearby.
How to check which school serves a Montecito address
Never rely on a listing's school line. Montecito's district lines follow roads and creeks that do not match ZIP or neighborhood names. Use these checks before you make an offer.
Step 1: Confirm the elementary district
Montecito Union's residency page says its boundary map is only a guide, and that for any property near the edges you should contact the Santa Barbara County Assessor's office at (805) 568-2550 to confirm the elementary district. The tax rate area on the property's bill (078-001 for Montecito Union, 061-001 for Cold Spring) is another clue, but ask the district to confirm.
Step 2: Look up the Santa Barbara Unified attendance area
Santa Barbara Unified's School and District Boundary Maps page has an attendance-area lookup by street address. Printed maps are available from the Student Services office at 720 Santa Barbara Street.
Step 3: Read the Dashboard and visit
Search each school on the California School Dashboard, read the school accountability report card, and visit. For prices and areas, see our Montecito guide and Montecito neighborhoods guide.