Tuition Support

Financial Aid

We are proud of our diverse school community – with families coming from a wide range of cultural, religious and economic backgrounds.  Approximately half of our families receive some type of financial aid.

Even with multiple sources of tuition assistance or full sponsorship, all families must contribute some amount toward their child’s tuition.  Parents are responsible for the full tuition amount if various scholarship sources outside of the Montessori School at Holy Rosary Scholarship Program fail to fulfill their commitment.

All families requesting financial aid MUST complete the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSSFA) application form. These forms can be picked up in the school office beginning in mid-January each year.

BEFORE requesting financial aid, you must first file an enrollment application or Enrollment Contract for returning students.

Currently, we are able to offer four different sources of tuition support.

1. Holy Rosary Parish Tuition Support:
   

   $1,350 available yearly for registered parishioners of Holy Rosary Parish.

   • Your child must attend Catholic grade school in the area or the Montessori School at Holy Rosary with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
   • Parents must attend meeting with Fr. Philip Racco, & the Education Committee of the Parish Council, prior to May 1st each year to sign contract with the terms of parish tuition support.  Call the Holy Rosary parish office at 216-421-2995 for more information.
2. Cleveland Scholarship & Tutoring (CS&T):

   Cleveland Scholarship & Tutoring Program offers vouchers for residents of Cleveland (living within the Cleveland Municipal School District) for children who are kindergarten age or older and who are within (or up to 200% over) the Federal Poverty indicator guidelines. Applicants above this income may also be eligible for the lower level voucher.

   Voucher amounts are determined by family income per the CS&T office. There is a lottery process for these limited awards. The CS&T voucher program is completely independent of the Montessori School at Holy Rosary. Please call 216-787-5680 or 216-787-5684 for more information.

   If you are awarded a voucher at the highest level, the State of Ohio requires that the parent pays no more than 10% of the voucher amount (approx. $345/year). If you are awarded a voucher at the lower level, there is no State restriction on the parent’s portion and as such your family is responsible for the remaining program tuition cost.

   As with all scholarship sources, the school cannot guarantee the continuance of this money or the amounts available from one year to the next.

3. The Montessori School at Holy Rosary Scholarship Fund:

   The School aggressively raises financial support to create a scholarship fund in order to assist as many families as possible. Our annual Taste of Little Italy benefit is dedicated solely to raising funds for scholarships.

   As stated in all award contracts, the school cannot guarantee that each applicant will receive the same or any assistance each year. All families (new applicants or currently enrolled families) who seek scholarship assistance must complete the application process each year.

   Application Process for the Montessori School at Holy Rosary Scholarship Fund:

   All families who seek tuition support must fill out an SSSFA application form from the National Association of Independent Schools. This applies even though you may not have needed to fill one out in previous years. Families cannot be considered for scholarship, matching voucher sponsorship, or school secured sponsorship without a complete and timely report from SSSFA and supporting documentation.

   The following steps must be followed in order to be eligible for consideration:

   1. Request an application form from the school office – or USE THE ONLINE FORM
   2. Families must complete an application form and submit it to the Montessori School office with supporting documentation no later than mid February. NOTE: if you apply on-line, you must still submit supporting documentation to the school office. Please call the school prior to this date if you need assistance with completing the application form.
   3. Submit copies of all supporting documentation (W2’s, tax returns, et al) to the school along with the SSSFA financial aid application. All packets must be in the Montessori school office by mid February.
   4. Once the school has verified that your supporting documentation matches the information on your SSSFA application, the Montessori School will send the applications as one group to the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSSFA) to ensure that they are processed and returned to the school (which takes a minimum of three weeks) in time for the scholarship review meeting.
   5. The independent agency (SSSFA) will process the family income data that you provide and will return a report to the school’s scholarship committee. If there are errors or if the service requires further information, the processing time is extended. The school can not delay the scholarship committee meeting date for reports that are delayed in New Jersey. Therefore we recommend that you:
      • Make a copy of your completed application before mailing it;
      • Be sure that you have followed the directions in detail so that the form is complete and accurate.
      • Be sure to send a $22.00 check made out to SSSFA and copies of all supporting documentation such as W2’s or tax returns to the school along with your completed application.
      • Call the school to be sure that we have received your report from the SSS FA.
   6. Correct information and timeliness of the request is entirely the parent’s responsibility
   7. The Scholarship Committee will review your report and will notify you in writing to indicate if you were eligible for assistance and what the available scholarship amount is. The awards will be made by the end of April.

   The Montessori School at Holy Rosary does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national nor ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

   PLEASE NOTE: Reports from the School and Student Service for Financial Aid will not be considered by the scholarship committee without valid supporting documentation. Please call or write to the school (Attn: David Hussey, Scholarship Committee, Chair) with any further questions.

4. The Angels Unknown Sponsorships:

   This is a limited source of support that has traditionally been secured by the school from private families or corporations. Interested parents must submit a letter to the school requesting a sponsorship, and will be placed on a waiting list. If a sponsor can be secured, the sponsor commits to completing the child’s three-year cycle at varying levels of commitment. All these sponsorships are partial. Each sponsored family is required to pay some portion of their child’s tuition.