Click here to Discover Catholic Schools of the Mid-Atlantic region!

Catholic schools have served the Mid-Atlantic region longer than the United States has been a country. Catholic schools date back more than 365 years, to 1640, when it is believed that the Jesuits founded a school in St. Mary’s City, Maryland. Almost 170 years later, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her dedicated followers opened St. Joseph’s Free School in Emmitsburg, becoming the first free Catholic school for girls staffed by religious women in the United States. Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange made history in 1828, when she opened St. Frances Academy and educated black children when it was illegal to do so. Today Catholic schools continue to serve children and families in the Mid-Atlantic region with high-quality, values-based education.

More than 120,000 students attend 360 schools in the dioceses of the Mid-Atlantic Catholic Schools Consortium. The schools reach from Maryland’s border with Pennsylvania to Virginia’s border with North Carolina and from the Atlantic seaboard in Delaware to the hills of West Virginia. Students’ spiritual and moral development are a focus of the schools, and each year students dedicated thousands of service hours to their communities.

The dioceses provide millions of dollars in scholarships each year so that Catholic schools are accessible and affordable for all families. Academic excellence abounds – 99% of Catholic high school students receive diplomas and 97% of Catholic school graduates go on to post-secondary education. The Catholic schools serve a diverse student body: In the Archdiocese of Washington, 48% of students are racial or ethnic minorities and in the Diocese of Richmond, 26% of students are not Catholic.

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