Priscilla Chan’s School to Close After a Decade Following More Than $125 Million in Funding
East Palo Alto, California — Priscilla Chan, physician, educator, and wife of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, founded The Primary School in East Palo Alto, California, in 2016 with the goal of creating a new model of education that combined academics with healthcare and family support.
The school was launched with the idea that children’s educational success is closely connected to their health and overall well-being. Unlike a traditional school, The Primary School aimed to provide students with educational support alongside health services and assistance for their families.
The school began operations in 2016 with 51 four-year-old children and gradually expanded its programs and student enrollment.
Over the years, the school received substantial financial support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Reports published in 2026 said that the school had received more than $125 million in funding from CZI over roughly a decade.
Despite the significant investment, The Primary School announced that it would close after the 2025–26 academic year. The East Palo Alto campus ultimately ended its operations in June 2026, marking the end of a decade-long experiment in combining education, healthcare and family services.
The decision was linked to changes in the school's long-term funding and support structure. School officials said they were working to help students and families transition to other educational opportunities.
The closure does not mean that the ideas behind the project have disappeared. The Primary School's model was designed to explore how schools could address children's educational and health needs together, an approach that has attracted attention from educators and community organizations.
The closure of the school highlights both the scale of private investment in education and the challenges of sustaining ambitious education models over the long term.
The Primary School operated for approximately 10 years, from 2016 to 2026.Priscilla Chan’s Primary School Closes After a Decade After Millions in Funding
East Palo Alto, California — The Primary School, an innovative education project co-founded by physician and educator Priscilla Chan, wife of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has officially ended its operations after a decade of work combining education, healthcare and family support.
The school was founded in 2016 by Priscilla Chan and Meredith Liu. Its first campus opened in East Palo Alto, California, following more than two years of community engagement and planning. The founders wanted to create a different type of school—one where education, healthcare and family services could work together rather than operate separately.
A Different Approach to Education
The Primary School was built around the idea that a child's education cannot always be separated from their health and family circumstances.
The school brought together teachers, parents, healthcare providers and other support professionals to address students' needs more comprehensively.
According to the school's description of its model, a teacher might identify a problem affecting a child's learning, while healthcare professionals could help address health-related challenges. Parents were also treated as important partners in their children's development.
The school provided educational programs alongside health and family-support services. Its approach was particularly focused on young children and families who faced barriers to accessing traditional education and healthcare systems.
From 51 Children to a Full School
The Primary School initially opened its doors in 2016 with 51 four-year-old children.
Over the following years, the East Palo Alto campus expanded its programs to serve toddlers, preschoolers, elementary-school students and eventually middle-school students.
The organization also opened a second site in Alameda County's East Bay in 2020, where it provided early-childhood programming and integrated health and parent-support services.
By the 2021–22 school year, the East Palo Alto school reported 392 students. The school later expanded its educational program toward eighth grade, eventually allowing its first cohort of students to complete middle school.
Support From the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The project received major philanthropic support connected to Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).
The funding helped support the school's educational programs, healthcare services, research and development of its integrated-school model.
The Primary School also worked with outside organizations and partners to develop programs that could potentially be adapted by other schools and community organizations.
One example was a collaboration involving Sesame Workshop, The Primary School and CZI to develop curriculum addressing academic, social-emotional, physical and mental-health needs among young children.
Why Did the School Close?
The Primary School announced in April 2025 that its East Palo Alto and East Bay schools would close at the end of the 2025–26 school year.
The organization described the decision as difficult and said it would work to support students and families during the transition to new schools.
The East Palo Alto campus ultimately operated for 10 years, from fall 2016 until its closure in June 2026. The East Bay site operated for six years.
The school's public announcement did not describe the closure simply as a failure of the educational model. Instead, it emphasized the lessons learned during the decade and the desire to preserve and share those lessons with other organizations.
$50 Million Community Investment
As part of the transition, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced a $50 million investment over five years in communities including East Palo Alto, Belle Haven and the East Bay.
According to The Primary School, the investment includes support for early-childhood education, healthcare services, parent engagement programs and other community initiatives.
The school also said that students would receive support with the transition to new schools, including transition specialists and education savings support.
What Happened to the Students?
The school worked with local partners to help families move into new educational environments.
In East Palo Alto, The Primary School said it would continue working with the Ravenswood City School District during the transition. The organization also highlighted several community organizations that planned to use elements of its programs and lessons.
The school's final updates said that its inaugural class—which entered the school when the project began—graduated from 8th grade in June 2026, completing the journey that began with the school's first cohort in 2016.
The Legacy of The Primary School
Although the school itself has closed, its founders and leadership say the work is intended to continue through other organizations.
The Primary School has published a Learning & Impact Report, resource toolkits and a documentary documenting its experience. The organization hopes educators, healthcare providers and community organizations can use those resources in future programs.
Several organizations have also indicated plans to incorporate elements of The Primary School's approach into their own work, including programs involving children's health, early learning and family support.
A Decade-Long Experiment in Education
The story of The Primary School represents a decade-long effort to rethink how schools can support children.
Rather than treating education, healthcare and family support as separate systems, the school attempted to bring them together under one model.
The school has now closed, but its experience—and the programs, research and resources developed during its operation—are being preserved and shared with other educators and community organizations.
For Priscilla Chan and her education initiative, the end of the school marks the close of one chapter, while the lessons from the project are intended to influence future work in education, healthcare and early-childhood development.
The Primary School operated from 2016 to 2026.
