Tuition
for 2007-2008 School Year
Tuition Assistance
Programs
| How Your Company Can Help
St. Bernard School with “Free” Money!
|
Parishioner
and Verified
Non-Parishioner* |
Prices per Student 2 Children (K-8)…………….. 3 Children (K-8)……………... 4 Children (K-8)……………... 5 Children (K-8)……………... 3 Year Nursery………………. 4 Year Nursery………………. |
$4,015.00 $4,900.00 $5,795.00 $6,740.00 $ 900.00 $ 975.00 $1,375.00 |
|
Non-Parishioner and Non-Catholic |
Prices
per Student 1/2 day Kindergarten………… Grades K-8…………………… 3 Year Nursery………………. 4 Year Nursery………………. |
$2,065.00 |
|
Quarterly
Payments |
Monthly
( 9 Payments Aug - April) |
|
|
August 24, 2007
October 22, 2007
January 21, 2008
April 21, 2008 |
August 24, 2007
September 21, 2007
October 22, 2007
November 21, 2007
December 21, 2007 |
January 21, 2008
February 21, 2008
March 25, 2008
April 21, 2008
|
*Verified
non-parishioner are students who are members of a nearby parish that attend St.
Bernard School because their parish school has closed.
Tuition Assistance Programs
Deus
providebit… God will provide
There is no question that the cost of education – both public and
private – is increasing throughout the United States. For those families who want their children to
enjoy the extraordinary, life-long value of a Catholic education but who find
it difficult to meet the additional financial burden, please take a moment to
review the following Tuition Assistance Programs that may be available to
you!
Be sure to act quickly, though, as the application process
(outlined below) has a deadline of March 15, 2007!
Is it worth taking the time to learn about?
Yes!! More than 2,100
elementary and high school grants were made for ‘06-‘07 school year through the
Bishop’s Education Fund, with more than
6,000 additional grants being made from the
Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship (S.O.S.) program.
Some students were, in fact, eligible for aid
from both programs. Last year, a very
high percentage of applicants received some type of assistance! Read below to
learn more!
1. Bishop’s Education Fund
The Bishop's Education Fund, which was founded over a decade
ago and which has awarded millions of dollars in grants to Catholic school
students in our Diocese, is awarded on the basis of financial need.
To be
eligible, applicants must (1) be practicing Catholics registered in a parish in
the Diocese of Pittsburgh, (2) attend one of the diocesan, parish, or regional
schools and (3) have demonstrated financial need. In general, grants from the Bishop’s Education Fund have ranged from $150 to $250
for elementary students and from $250 to $350 for high school students, with
the largest grants going to the most needy.
How
do I apply? To
be considered for the Bishop's
Education Fund,
simply fill out and submit the Private School Aid Service (PSAS) form by March 15, 2007, as described below!
2. Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship (S.O.S.
Fund)
The Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship (S.O.S.) Tuition
Assistance Program
was developed when the Pennsylvania legislature established Act 4 in May of
2001. This law established the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) to be
administered by the PA Department of Community and Economic Development
(DCED). Act 4 authorized the award of
tax credits to businesses that make contributions to certain scholarship
organizations. (To learn more about how you can help the EITC program, please
click here!) EITC
As a
result of the EITC program, the Diocese of Pittsburgh formed the Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship (S.O.S.) Program to receive and distribute tax
credit gifts. The funds available through the S.O.S. Program are
awarded to families based solely on economic eligibility requirements. Students who are PA residents enrolled in any
Catholic school in the Diocese of Pittsburgh are eligible. Applicants can be Catholic or non-
Catholic. The funds are sent in the
student’s name to the school where the child is enrolled. In general, families with one dependent are
eligible if the family income is $60,000; those with two dependents are
eligible with an income of $70,000 and so on.
In general, grants from the S.O.S.
Program have ranged
from $100 to $1,800 per student.
How
do I apply? To
be considered for the Scholastic
Opportunity Scholarship (S.O.S.) Tuition Assistance Program, simply fill out and submit the Private
School Aid Service (PSAS) form by March 15, 2007, as described below!
3. The St. Bernard Angel Fund
Thanks
to the continued generosity of parishioners and friends of St. Bernard School,
for many years now the St. Bernard’s Pastor has administered the St. Bernard Angel Fund, which has been designed as an additional safety-net
to assist qualifying school families who may be in financial need. To be eligible for tuition assistance from
the St. Bernard Angel Fund, you must first submit the Private School Aid Service (PSAS) form (see below), which will
then provide a confidential “needs assessment” to St. Bernard’s Pastor. In general, if funds are available, the St. Bernard Angel Fund will serve to supplement grants from the S.O.S. Program and/or the Bishop's
Education Fund to
help qualifying families with their financial needs.
(To
learn how to contribute to the St.
Bernard Angel Fund,
please contact the St. Bernard Rectory at 412-561-3300. Thank you!)
How
do I apply? To
be considered for the St. Bernard Angel
Fund, simply fill out and submit the Private
School Aid Service (PSAS) form by March 15, 2007, as described below!
Apply for Tuition Assistance by March 15,
2007 to Private School Aid Service (PSAS)
All parents applying for
assistance from (1) the Bishop's Education Fund, (2) the Scholastic
Opportunity Scholarship (S.O.S.) Fund and/or (3) the St. Bernard’s Angel
Fund must first have their needs assessed by Private School Aid Service
(PSAS), a company from Rocky River, Ohio, which specializes in evaluating
need for families attending private elementary or secondary schools.
To apply, families simply
submit:
(1)
a copy of their federal tax return (and state
tax return if applying for Scholastic Opportunity Scholarship (SOS) Program);
(2)
a completed 2007 - 2008 "Student Aid Form"
(The Pastor's signature is required if you are applying to the Bishop's
Education Fund). NOTE:
The “Student Aid Forms” are due to PSAS no later than March 15, 2007. Incomplete forms will be returned. The signed
"Student Aid Form" must be sent directly to PSAS as indicated in the
instructions on the form itself. Photocopied forms will not be accepted by
PSAS. Just contact Mrs. Dillon in
the St. Bernard School office at (412) 341-5444 for a PSAS Student Aid Form;
and
(3)
a $20 administrative fee.
Do I need to be
concerned about sharing my family’s financial information? No. Please read the message below regarding the
limited disclosure of financial information.
(!) An Important Privacy Note About Financial
Information
Please note that while the
PSAS Student Aid Forms request financial information and also require
a signature from the St. Bernard Pastor, please know that the Pastor will sign
the PSAS
Student Aid Forms without
reviewing the detailed financial information requested by the form.
Only the first page of the
PSAS Student Aid Form needs to be completed by the applicant before
the Pastor will sign it! Thank you! (Remember to plan ahead so that the Pastor
has enough time to sign the form so you can complete the application and submit
it to PSAS before the deadline of March 15, 2007!)
***********
Other Possible Sources of Financial Assistance
If you are interested in pursuing other potential sources of tuition
assistance, below is a listing of some organizations that have helped Catholic
and non-Catholic families in the past with tuition assistance:
Mary Anderson Goddard,
Executive Director
1100 Fifth Avenue South,
Suite 411
Naples, Florida 34102
Phone: 239-261-2367
Fax: 239-261-1494
Children's Scholarship Fund
8 W. 38th Street, 9th floor
New York, NY 10018
Phone: (212) 515-7100
Fax: (212) 515-7111
How Your Company Can Help
St. Bernard’s with “Free” Money!
Yes, it sounds too good to be true, but it is!
In short, on May 7, 2001, by an overwhelming
bi-partisan majority, Pennsylvania’s legislature made history by becoming the
first state to pass an education tax credit aimed at PA corporations. In
essence, the Educational Improvement
Tax Credit (EITC) allows qualifying
corporations in Pennsylvania to redirect their Pennsylvania tax dollars to
qualifying educational institutions, including St. Bernard School.
To learn more about the EITC program and how you can help to put your
company’s tax dollars to work for St. Bernard School, please click on the links
below, or contact St. Bernard Parishioner Ed Grefenstette at ed@commonwealthcg.com (or cell
412-327-0377):
1)
EITC PowerPoint Presentation
2)
http://www.paschoolchoice.org/reach/site/default.asp
** EITC Applications are accepted on June 30, 2007
for the ’07-’08 year.
Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC)