About
Day Prep offers 1:1 tutoring, report card rescue, hands-on science work, and hands-on science experiments. Students write and publish scientific journals with elements included in professional journals and embedded QR codes, and they also create their own books. The program includes excursions to further their studies.
• Ages: 4–18 years old
• Schedule: Custom day lengths of 3–6 hours per day, 2–5 days per week, within a 140–175 day school year calendar
Day Prep is a private, independent, non-religious, college preparatory, experiential learning, project-based Junior Kindergarten through 12th grade private school. It provides accredited private education and is WASC-accredited, meeting and exceeding the standards of the accrediting agency. The program can be in person, remote, or a combination, and can be primarily in person without geographic restriction, with fully remote or hybrid remote programs that can be designed. Day Prep offers tutoring to focus on a single subject, report card rescue, or advancement with top scholar skills, and also offers educational services for all ages. In-home learning with a Day Prep teacher can take place in a home or commercial space, with the option to create a class for a single-age or multi-age group.
Day Prep describes its mission as empowering students to identify and use their signature skills to create a life marked by integrity, self-awareness, flow, meaning, service, and purpose. The program includes an Integrity Curriculum with six key constructs: emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, communication skills, mindfulness, and executive functioning skills. The curriculum is described as replacing a content-based curriculum relic designed in 1860, freeing students from memorizing and multiple choice tests. Technology literacy is interwoven across the curricula. The program states that it is built on the practices and habits of global innovators with 21st-century skills as guideposts, and that it offers learning without a ceiling so each child gets what they need when they need it, with teachers placing scaffold at specific moments, places, and lengths of time. Day Prep states that it removes political agenda, medical restrictions, and non-school related education from the schooling experience and that it offers “education, your way.” It also states that the program relieves parents of the societal pressure to rush out the door and head in separate directions.
Day Prep reports a low teacher-to-student ratio and a small student to teacher ratio that it states ensures individualized education, with autonomy for students to co-create learning. The school uses standardized, school-created, custom curriculum with fidelity by all teachers, which is described as creating a common language and vocabulary used school wide. Teachers are described as using the same methodologies and tools, and as feeling well-trained, respected as educators, and supported by administration, according to Dr. Wendy Parcel of the WASC Accreditation Visiting Committee. The program is described as transformative K–12 private education and transformative JK through 12th-grade private education, and as a private schooling option offering experiential learning, in person, K–12, college preparatory WASC-accredited programming.
Day Prep is led by Cara Day. The program notes that research has proven, multiple times since 1965, that the most important element in the classroom is the teacher. Day Prep lists Oases Tutoring Management Software as a partner.
Testimonials describe Day Prep as having a curriculum and education style that is “revolutionary,” and refer to an educational leader and community that “would not only preserve the magic of education in uncertain times” (parents with two enrolled children, La Jolla, CA). One parent, Megan from San Diego, reports that after a review of her daughter’s natural skills and knowledge, a tailored program was created and delivered, and that she watched her child become more confident and less anxious, with her daughter now at the top of her class and with social and emotional acumen “soaring.” A member of the San Diego Unified School Board describes Cara Day as “a practical genius at teaching not only parents, but students and her fellow practitioners,” and describes her methods as “revolutionary, yet proven” and “a breath of fresh air.” Dr. Wendy Parcel of the WASC Accreditation Visiting Committee reports that students describe a love of learning, say “the teachers care about me and help me learn,” and note hands-on activities such as creating their own books, excursions, and hands-on science experiments, and that discussions with students revealed students who are excited about their own learning. Additional comments include “This is how teaching should be” (Ms. Duce, Head of School), “Mamma, at Day Prep I never feel left out, my feelings aren’t hurt and I have not cried once when you pick me up because someone was mean to me” (primary grades student), “We are so happy with our child’s teachers. Very grateful for everything!!” (middle school parent), “Day Prep School is the best!” (unattributed), “My kids are SO happy with Day Prep. My daughter is really coming alive. I am grateful for Miss Keefer and the social/emotional component of Day Prep. I also really enjoyed the Power Parenting session and follow-up resources. I’m also looking forward to some Level Up extracurricular options for the kids!” (unattributed), “Happy Child – Happy Heart” (unattributed), and “Sienna loves Day Prep. She only has positive things to say about her teachers, the environment, and the work she completes” (unattributed).
Last updated April 8, 2026.
• Ages: 4–18 years old
• Schedule: Custom day lengths of 3–6 hours per day, 2–5 days per week, within a 140–175 day school year calendar
Day Prep is a private, independent, non-religious, college preparatory, experiential learning, project-based Junior Kindergarten through 12th grade private school. It provides accredited private education and is WASC-accredited, meeting and exceeding the standards of the accrediting agency. The program can be in person, remote, or a combination, and can be primarily in person without geographic restriction, with fully remote or hybrid remote programs that can be designed. Day Prep offers tutoring to focus on a single subject, report card rescue, or advancement with top scholar skills, and also offers educational services for all ages. In-home learning with a Day Prep teacher can take place in a home or commercial space, with the option to create a class for a single-age or multi-age group.
Day Prep describes its mission as empowering students to identify and use their signature skills to create a life marked by integrity, self-awareness, flow, meaning, service, and purpose. The program includes an Integrity Curriculum with six key constructs: emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, communication skills, mindfulness, and executive functioning skills. The curriculum is described as replacing a content-based curriculum relic designed in 1860, freeing students from memorizing and multiple choice tests. Technology literacy is interwoven across the curricula. The program states that it is built on the practices and habits of global innovators with 21st-century skills as guideposts, and that it offers learning without a ceiling so each child gets what they need when they need it, with teachers placing scaffold at specific moments, places, and lengths of time. Day Prep states that it removes political agenda, medical restrictions, and non-school related education from the schooling experience and that it offers “education, your way.” It also states that the program relieves parents of the societal pressure to rush out the door and head in separate directions.
Day Prep reports a low teacher-to-student ratio and a small student to teacher ratio that it states ensures individualized education, with autonomy for students to co-create learning. The school uses standardized, school-created, custom curriculum with fidelity by all teachers, which is described as creating a common language and vocabulary used school wide. Teachers are described as using the same methodologies and tools, and as feeling well-trained, respected as educators, and supported by administration, according to Dr. Wendy Parcel of the WASC Accreditation Visiting Committee. The program is described as transformative K–12 private education and transformative JK through 12th-grade private education, and as a private schooling option offering experiential learning, in person, K–12, college preparatory WASC-accredited programming.
Day Prep is led by Cara Day. The program notes that research has proven, multiple times since 1965, that the most important element in the classroom is the teacher. Day Prep lists Oases Tutoring Management Software as a partner.
Testimonials describe Day Prep as having a curriculum and education style that is “revolutionary,” and refer to an educational leader and community that “would not only preserve the magic of education in uncertain times” (parents with two enrolled children, La Jolla, CA). One parent, Megan from San Diego, reports that after a review of her daughter’s natural skills and knowledge, a tailored program was created and delivered, and that she watched her child become more confident and less anxious, with her daughter now at the top of her class and with social and emotional acumen “soaring.” A member of the San Diego Unified School Board describes Cara Day as “a practical genius at teaching not only parents, but students and her fellow practitioners,” and describes her methods as “revolutionary, yet proven” and “a breath of fresh air.” Dr. Wendy Parcel of the WASC Accreditation Visiting Committee reports that students describe a love of learning, say “the teachers care about me and help me learn,” and note hands-on activities such as creating their own books, excursions, and hands-on science experiments, and that discussions with students revealed students who are excited about their own learning. Additional comments include “This is how teaching should be” (Ms. Duce, Head of School), “Mamma, at Day Prep I never feel left out, my feelings aren’t hurt and I have not cried once when you pick me up because someone was mean to me” (primary grades student), “We are so happy with our child’s teachers. Very grateful for everything!!” (middle school parent), “Day Prep School is the best!” (unattributed), “My kids are SO happy with Day Prep. My daughter is really coming alive. I am grateful for Miss Keefer and the social/emotional component of Day Prep. I also really enjoyed the Power Parenting session and follow-up resources. I’m also looking forward to some Level Up extracurricular options for the kids!” (unattributed), “Happy Child – Happy Heart” (unattributed), and “Sienna loves Day Prep. She only has positive things to say about her teachers, the environment, and the work she completes” (unattributed).
Last updated April 8, 2026.
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