Establishing a Scholarship Fund

Student Financial Aid Policy Ideas Suggested by ACSI Member Schools

Christian schools have the goal of providing Christian education for every Christian family that desires it. However, the barrier to enrollment for many families is financial. In order to assist these families, schools have developed several types of programs of financial assistance. For instance, tuition discounts for staff children can be provided through qualified tuition reduction plans. (See Legal/Legislative Update, December 1995, for information on how to establish such a tax-free program.) Many schools establish scholarship and financial aid programs for their general constituency. This article will make suggestions regarding such programs based on ideas provided by more than eighty member schools that shared samples of their financial aid policies and forms with ACSI.

What Do You Call It?

Is it a student scholarship, a work-study program, or financial aid? It is helpful to distinguish between the various types of programs.

• Student Scholarships: Scholarships may be given for student proficiency in academics, sports, or other disciplines. Other types of scholarships include memorial scholarships, scholarships for children of a particular company’s employees, or scholarships sponsored by a cooperating church for children of members. Many schools also give “scholarships” for children of families needing financial aid. Scholarships may be set up so that they are tax-free income for a family.
• Work-Study Programs: Schools negotiate work-study programs whereby a secondary student and/or his or her parents work in exchange for part or all of the yearly tuition. Schools that require “volunteer” work in exchange for granting scholarships or financial aid have in fact created employee relationships and work-study programs. This is not a genuine “volunteer” work relationship in the eyes of the IRS, your state labor department, or your workers’ compensation insurance carrier. A conservative approach to work-study programs is to hire the parent or secondary student as a part-time employee and treat the person as an employee. For more information, please see the sidebar.

Volunteer, Employee, or Independent Contractor?

The IRS is cracking down on employers who misclassify individuals as volunteers or independent contractors when in fact the individuals have an employee relationship. This is a serious issue for Christian schools. Many schools could face liability if audited by the IRS or a state agency.

A person isn’t a “volunteer” if he/she is in fact working in exchange for tuition. If scholarship or financial aid is predicated upon parents working a certain number of hours for a certain amount of funding, you have a work-study program and an “employee” relationship. A quid pro quo relationship is not a “volunteer” relationship. Schools frequently use the term “volunteers” to avoid tax withholding, paying Social Security taxes, etc., on work done on the school campus. If audited, schools could be liable for the back taxes, interest, and penalties for the work of their volunteers. It is better and safer for schools to acknowledge the employment relationship.

Question: O.K., so I don’t have “volunteers” unless they are genuinely volunteering without financial consequences. Could these parents qualify as “independent contractors” so that the school doesn’t have to withhold taxes and pay Social Security taxes? Answer: In most cases, the answer is probably no. It is most likely that you have parents and secondary students working in your school in job descriptions that fit an “employee” status instead of an “independent contractor” status.

The IRS uses a 20-point checklist to determine an individual’s work status. Here are just a few items from the list. If the individual is (1) told where, when, and how to work, (2) the organization sets the hours the individual must work, (3) the organization supplies the individual with most of his/her tools and materials, (4) the individual works on the organization’s premises, and (5) the individual has no outside office or place of business related to the work he/she does at the school facility, you likely have an employee working for you, not an independent contractor. On the other hand, if the individual has his own tools and place of business (e.g., a parent who is a plumber who has been asked to do a plumbing remodeling job at the school), or the person does the work away from the school’s premises (e.g., a parent who is a lawyer doing a legal audit or other legal work for the school while working at home), you might have an “independent contractor.” Most schools do not regularly employ full-time plumbers or lawyers. They do employ custodians, office clerks, and office secretaries. It would be hard for any school to legally classify custodians, office clerks, office secretaries, cafeteria workers, and grounds maintenance workers as independent contractors since these are routinely employees of schools. Because many different factors can affect your final classification decision, be sure to talk with your school’s attorney and/or your school’s accountant.

Employees are issued W-2 forms; independent contractors are issued 1099 forms for the work they do during the calendar year. Employees are covered by workers’ compensation insurance; independent contractors usually are required to carry their own coverage. This insurance issue alone can create great liability for a school that misclassifies workers. If “volunteers” who actually have an employment relationship with the school are hurt on the job, the school could easily be liable for all their medical bills.

Bottomline: ACSI urges schools to take the conservative approach. Create work-study programs and pay parents/students that work at your school. Make sure they are covered with workers’ compensation insurance. Issue them W-2 forms at the end of the calendar year. Ask or encourage these workers to sign over their school employment checks as a payment on their school accounts.

• Finanancial Aid: A lot of schools call their financial aid assistance “scholarships.” While this is certainly legal, it may be advisable to rethink the terminology for at least two reasons: (1) There exists a mentality that everyone should try to qualify for “scholarships.” Probably a smaller group of individuals would apply for need-based “financial aid” or “tuition assistance.” The term “financial aid” tends to serve as a self-filtering device. (2) If your school participates in a statewide athletic association, it may prohibit giving “scholarships” to students who participate in interscholastic sports. Please check on your athletic association’s rules and procedures regarding the use of scholarships and financial aid.

If set up properly, financial aid is a tax-free benefit to a family. For the purposes of this article, need-based scholarships will simply be referred to as financial aid. Tuition assistance could be used as an alternate term in the paragraphs and forms below.

Making Scholarships or Financial Aid Tax-Free

Financial aid may be offered on a tax-free basis if a school has adopted a Qualified Scholarship Program (QSP). A formal board resolution needs to be adopted and reflected in the minutes when a school establishes such a program. Information about QSPs is found in the Internal Revenue code section 117(a) and (b).

A tax-free QSP may cover only the following qualifying expenses: tuition, fees required for classes, books, supplies, and equipment. Room and board expenses do not qualify and any money given for such expenses is taxable to the recipient family. If work, research, teaching, or other terms of employment are attached to the scholarship, these generally will cause the scholarship to be taxable as part of a person’s gross income. This covers past, present, or future services.

QSPs must not discriminate in terms of race or other common non-discrimination categories. It is wise for a school board to appoint a scholarship or Financial Aid Committee to help with the selection process. The committee should document the general requirements that the school sets for the program as well as all decisions related to the selection process for aid recipients.

Financial Aid Committees tend to have three to five members. Large schools that need to process a greater volume of applications may have larger committees. The administrator and/or business manager are usually included in the membership along with several school board members. It is helpful if at least one member of the school board’s Finance Committee also serve on the Financial Aid Committee. The Committee should be chaired by a school board member and should be answerable to the school board.

The Committee should monitor family and student reaction and response to the financial aid program. Effort should be taken, in concert with the Committee’s confidentiality status, to keep the school constituency informed as to what God is doing in the lives of present and former aid recipients.

Members of the Financial Aid Committee, school administration, and business office staff must clearly recognize the confidential nature of their work. School leadership must affirmatively raise the confidentiality issue among these team members on a regular basis. A school’s teachers and support workers should not know which families are receiving financial aid. Failure to maintain confidences during and after the financial aid process can severely compromise a school’s financial aid program. Your school could also face legal liability for revealing confidential information since the parents may have an expectation of privacy.

Who Processes the Initial Financial Aid Information?

Schools awarding financial aid face a major decision early in the process. Your school needs to determine whether it will be the primary assessor of a family’s financial need or will delegate that responsibility to an outside organization. Using an outside company is the approach taken by virtually all colleges and universities today. It is also considered a progressive way for K–12 schools to operate their financial aid programs.

If an outside organization is given this role (see sidebar for a list of companies), it will have its own financial information forms that parents must fill out and send in along with copies of their most recent IRS 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ form. Under this scenario, the school contracts with the outside company and pays a yearly “school fee” ranging from $35 to $110. When a contract is filled out between the outside company and the school, the company will ask the school for criteria that it should follow when ranking the families’ ability to pay. In this way the school can help customize the program to meet its unique needs.

Even when using an outside company, schools still need to provide parents a packet of information and a personalized letter describing their aid programs and processes. An outside company frequently will make suggestions regarding the format of that parent letter and what information it should contain. The school may ask the company for suggestions.

Parents send their aid application and a check for an amount that typically ranges from $10 to 20 per family directly to the outside company. This practice helps ensure confidentiality of the family’s financial information since only the company, which is in another city and is pledged to confidentiality, will be scrutinizing the tax forms and other submitted financial information. The Financial Aid Committee will not see most of this information. Note that some schools also charge an in-house non-refundable fee of $10 to 15 per family for the processing of the financial aid application.

The outside company then sends the ranking information directly to the Financial Aid Committee. It is at this point the Committee plugs in “local” information such as pastoral or administrator recommendations, the degree to which the requesting families supported the school the previous year through volunteering, the family’s commitment to a local church, and the Committee’s knowledge of any unusual family circumstances that should be considered, etc. The Committee then uses the family ranking information along with this local information in making the final decision about whether or not to grant aid and for what amount. The Committee can look for ministry opportunities when it uses the “local” information in the final decisions about aid.

Throughout this process, the Financial Aid Committee is in control. It simply uses an outside consultant to do the number crunching, to increase the perception of the aid program’s objectivity, and to encourage a higher level of confidentiality by all parties in the financial aid process. Using a consultant also gives someone else to “blame” when your school might have to say no to a family’s request for aid. With such reasonable fees even small schools with limited amounts of aid to dispense can take advantage of the services.

Note: Using an outside assessment company may be particularly important if your school participates in a statewide athletic association. Some associations require that a third party be used to assess a family’s need if their son or daughter will be awarded financial aid and then will attempt to compete in interscholastic sports. Failure to follow this procedure could cause significant problems for the school and/or the student. This is true for the Florida High School Activities Association, for example, and for associations in some other states.

What Documents are Required in Addition to the Financial Aid Application?

All of the outside consulting companies profiled in the sidebar require a copy of a family’s IRS 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ form for the most recent tax year. Most companies also require submission of a copy of schedules attached to the IRS forms and copies of the W-2s. The requirement that an applicant attach a copy of these forms should not be considered unusual. IRS tax forms are usually required in the application process for most types of aid at the college level. Your families with children in college are already familiar with this requirement.

Some schools require additional information to be submitted directly to the Financial Aid Committee separate from the financial information that is sent to the outside company. This can include a copy of a student’s most recent report card, a recommendation from the administrator if the student was enrolled the previous year, or a pastoral evaluation form. It is also helpful to ask parents whether any unusual event has occurred since the IRS form was submitted to the IRS. If the administrator is a member of the Financial Aid Committee, administrative input can be solicited directly from him/her on an informal basis.

If a school uses a Pastor Evaluation Form, it is included in the application packet initially given to parents. Pastors are requested to mail the completed form directly to the school. Here is how one school stressed the importance of this requirement:

If no communication (on official church letterhead) is received by the [Financial Aid Committee] from the local church on behalf of the family, or if the family does not regularly attend the church, the family will not be eligible for financial aid. Although this requirement may seem strict, it does provide for the goal of helping those families that are sincere in their efforts to serve God.

Application Deadlines

There was quite a bit of variation in the application deadline dates set by schools for the return of their financial aid forms. A few had deadlines as early as March 1 for the following school year. A larger number had deadlines in May and June. This tends to show that the majority of the financial aid was being distributed to returning families. Indeed, some schools indicated in their parent materials that returning families had a higher priority than new families when it came to dispensing aid. Other schools designated a certain percentage of financial aid money for new family applicants. Here’s how one school worded its policy:

Re-enrolling families shall receive priority consideration through (deadline date) __________, after which all financial aid applications shall be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

An administrator commented to ACSI that:

As a rule, we do not offer aid to new incoming families. We have found that there is a significant percentage of families who desire the benefits of private, Christian education, but have little appreciation for the costs and sacrifices required. If they need help coming in, it seems they never get beyond that. We learned this the hard way.

Here’s how some schools worded their deadlines: “Financial Aid applications received by a deadline will be treated on an equal basis. Thereafter, aid requests will be prioritized by the date received.” Another school put it this way: “In the case of extenuating circumstances, late applications may be considered at the discretion of the Financial Aid Committee, but those applications submitted by the deadline will have first consideration.”

It is good practice to have well-publicized financial aid deadlines that the school sticks to so that the Financial Aid Committee may consider all the applications and rank the needs of families at one time. Consider holding back a portion of your financial aid funds for emergencies that happen to families during the school year. One school wrote, “We try to reserve some money for month-by-month aid for emergency needs.” Another school worded its policy this way:

The Financial Aid Committee shall retain 10% of all funds granted by the board for possible assistance to families who are accepted for admission after the financial aid deadline or who encounter troubles during the school year.

Typically, financial aid is granted only after a family has applied to the school for admission or re-enrollment and has paid the appropriate fees. For this reason it is important to stipulate in the financial aid materials that families that do not receive aid or do not receive enough aid to follow through with enrollment, may request that their registration and other fees be refunded. Schools should honor such requests for refunds. The refunds would not include the school’s per family financial aid processing fee if such a fee is charged.

Establish Policy for Your Financial Aid Committee to Follow When Making Awards

These stipulations will help you establish a good financial aid program. Guidelines should be made available in some type of printed form to both the school administration and the parents seeking aid. The fact that objective, written standards must be followed by the Committee when awarding aid will validate your program for your school families. It will also encourage people to donate to your program.

• No requests for financial assistance shall be entertained or determined by persons other than the school’s Financial Aid Committee.
• Parents must demonstrate an understanding of and desire for Christian education.
• Eligibility for financial aid shall be based upon genuine, demonstrated need and space available in the classroom.
• Financial assistance is not given to preschool or kindergarten children unless there are other children in the family also attending the school. [This approach is taken by some schools in states that do not require children to attend kindergarten.]
• Any school balances owed by the applicant from a prior school year must be paid up in order for a new application to be considered.
• Once financial aid is granted, it is only continued as the family receiving aid keeps up with its monthly payments.
• Continuing good behavior by the student both in and out of school is required, or the remainder of the aid award may be withdrawn upon written notice.
• Students are frequently required to maintain a least a minimum GPA of 2.0 to 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, and to maintain reasonably good attendance records for continuation of the financial aid from one semester to the next. One school requires students receiving financial assistance to maintain the same grades necessary for sports eligibility.
• Parents receiving financial aid are expected to be actively involved in fundraisers and volunteerism that promotes the school.
• Parents must demonstrate on a continuing basis a cooperative attitude toward the school administration and staff, or the remainder of the aid award may be withdrawn from their children upon written notice.
• In cases where the applicant is divorced, normally the assets of both parents will be considered in the Committee’s review if parents have joint custody. If the custodial parent has remarried, normally the assets of the stepparent will be included in the Committee’s review. If someone else is financially responsible for the student, that person should complete the aid form and explain his/her relationship to the student.
• Parents are expected to try to pay more toward their children’s tuition if their financial situation improves during the year so that additional needy families may be helped. Virtually all schools in the survey required parents to notify the school when financial conditions change during the year.
• Some schools stipulate that although the aid was granted for a school year, the continuation of the grant award may be reviewed by the Financial Aid Committee at its discretion on a semester-by-semester basis. One school uses this guideline:

All financial aid recipients are to be contacted by December 31 of a given school year to verify, in writing, that their financial status has not changed from the original application. Based on this confirmation, financial aid will be extended for the second semester.

• If the student withdraws from the school during the year, or is expelled, all unused portions of the aid shall be retained by the Financial Aid Fund.
• Financial aid is not automatically renewable for a new school year. Families must reapply for aid for each school year.
• Some schools choose to lower the amount or percentage of the aid granted to a family in each of the following years to encourage families to assume full financial responsibilities over time. Such determinations are usually made on a case-by-case basis.
• Several schools requested or required that families applying for financial aid receive financial counseling through viewing a video seminar series or meeting with financial aid counselors as a condition for receiving the aid.

Factors to Consider When Awarding Financial Aid

Financial Aid Committees usually consider several factors when making final decisions regarding which families receive financial aid and the award amounts. Here are some of the factors that our survey schools consider. Some of this is “local” information that is factored into the final decision after the Committee receives the family rankings from the outside company. Individual schools did not use all those listed, and they are not necessarily listed in priority order.

• Financial need based on income, family size, and family assets
• Unusual financial burdens
• Christian testimony/serving in local church
• Faithfulness in church tithing or giving
• Current school account status
• Number of children in Christian school
• Evidence of commitment to Christian education
• Administrator referral and recommendation
• Recommendations and/or comments from the family pastor
• Returning students and siblings of returning students given higher priority
• Prior money management by the family
• Availability/willingness to contribute time and talents to the school
• Evidence of a monthly family budget
• Parents attending college, Bible school, or seminary
• Death of a parent during the school year

Regarding this last item, one school had a policy that stipulated that the Financial Aid Committee would initiate a tuition abatement program in a case where a parent’s death during the school year would cause a financial hardship if student(s) continued to attend school. The Committee could credit the family with up to two full semesters payment. The program, using standard financial aid criteria, was subject to review at the end of the two semesters.

As was noted above, schools cannot legally require recipients of financial aid to donate their services or work a certain number of hours unless the traded tuition is reported as income to the IRS. However, parents can genuinely volunteer their services and should be encouraged to do so. In many cases, savings to the school from donated services helps ensure continuation of the financial aid program. A school can use the rate of true parent “volunteerism” in the preceding school year as one of the factors that the Financial Aid Committee considers when returning families request aid for a new school year.

Here’s a point to ponder regarding the awarding of financial aid. A financial aid officer of a member school interviewed for this article stated that he believes a case could be made that there is a correlation between his school’s commitment to providing opportunities for students of lower-income families and God’s wonderful financial blessing of the school.

Amount of Aid Awarded

In order to meet the needs for the greatest number of families, schools generally limit their awards to 10–40% of the year’s tuition bill. A number of the schools stipulated that 50% of the tuition bill was the maximum amount that they would consider awarding. All the schools required the families to pay all the other regular school fees for registration, books, etc.

Here’s how one school worded its policy:

In order for the school to be as helpful as possible to the largest number of families, financial aid grants will generally not exceed 50% of total tuition. However, the Financial Aid Committee may exceed this standard in exceptional cases.

Be Sure to Make Awards on a Nondiscriminatory Basis

Your school’s tax exemption is predicated upon the fact that your school does not discriminate in its programs or activities. This nondiscrimination stance is also required for a scholarship and/or financial aid program to be set up so that it is tax-free to the recipient families. A school’s Financial Aid Committee should be very careful to ensure that all applicants are treated in a nondiscriminatory manner.

This statement, approved by the IRS, should be reproduced on all financial aid brochures and/or the initial letter to parents in the financial aid packet:

__________ Christian School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policy, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Practical Procedures to Follow

The administrator’s office (or Financial Aid Committee) should be responsible for, or should delegate responsibility for, the following items:

• Communicate by letter to the applicant the decision of the Financial Aid Committee. It is wise to include a sentence in your letter that states: “Financial aid approval is granted for the _______ school year by ___________ Christian school subject to the terms and conditions of the school board and Financial Aid Committee.” The letter should contain a statement of the amount of the financial aid, the amount the parents are to pay, and the total charges. The letter should list the key guidelines that must be followed for the aid to continue during the school year. Some schools provide the letter in duplicate and then require parents receiving it to sign and return a copy indicating their understanding of the amount awarded, the school’s financial aid policy and guidelines. The signed copy must be returned by a deadline stated on the letter for the aid to be actually granted. The school files the signed duplicate copy.
• Notify the school’s business office of the financial awards by providing it a copy of the parent letter.
• The Financial Aid Committee should supply an annual report of financial aid data to the board during the fall of each year. Such a report will protect the confidentiality of all financial aid recipients and shall contain the following information: (a) total amount budgeted/funded for financial aid and scholarships in the current and next school year, (b) number of applications received, (c) number of families awarded assistance and number denied, (d) aggregate amount of assistance made to the date of the report, and (e) the amount of unawarded funds remaining for the current and next school year.
• Reminder: If your school competes in a statewide interscholastic sports association with public schools, be sure to check whether offering financial aid to a student affects his/her ability to play interscholastic sports. If it does, that information should be made available as part of the packet of materials provided to parents requesting aid.
• Schools that do not use an outside company to assess a family’s needs sometimes contact credit bureaus for a family’s credit information. If your school adopts such a procedure, you must provide a release form that the parents sign before you seek such information. If you use any information you learn from the credit bureau to make an adverse financial aid decision, the family must be informed that such took place. If you use credit bureau information, check with the credit bureau regarding what should be included on the release form and what your school’s obligations are under federal law as it uses credit information.
• According to legal counsel, schools should hold financial aid and scholarship applications and any paperwork that shows how financial aid decisions were made on file for a minimum of seven years.

How Does a School Pay for Financial Aid?

This is a tough question. Schools frequently choose several approaches. Here’s a brief list based on responses from the surveyed schools:

• Annual Fund-raising: This was the method most frequently used for generating funds for financial aid. Many schools used this approach along with memorial scholarships and a designated percentage of the school’s budget.
• Designated Percentage: Some schools designate a percentage of their general budget for financial aid. The amount designated by schools in our survey ranged from one to five percent. Six to eight percent is a worthy goal. Several administrators commented that they had slowly been raising the percentage over the last few years.
• Tuition Discounting: Giving tuition discounts for additional children from a family is common in Christian schools—but is it a good practice? Paul Young, founder of Family Financial Needs Assessment, suggests that schools reconsider the multiple student discount. He urges schools to charge a higher tuition for all students and at the same time fund a more aggressive financial aid program. He believes that schools commonly underestimate by 20–25% the income of their families and their ability to pay tuition. Most Christian schools could raise tuition and provide financial aid to those who cannot afford to pay or cannot afford tuition increases.
• Unfunded Financial Aid: Some schools that are not operating at full capacity grant various amounts of financial aid to families. However, it is in the form of unfunded financial aid that is simply written off by the business office. It differs from tuition discounting in that the amounts of aid awarded per family or student may vary. Schools using the unfunded financial aid approach do receive partial tuition payments for such students.
• Individual Donations: Individuals, churches, and employers can be approached about donating to your school’s financial aid fund. Churches can set up scholarships for children of their members. Employers can provide aid for children of employees. At some point a school should consider setting up an endowment fund and using the interest generated from the principal for student financial aid. Especially consider this option if your school receives a large donation or memorial gift. Some schools have a memorial fund named after a particular individual, and they use the proceeds from that fund to provide one or more scholarships each school year. Clear criteria should be established by the school for awarding aid from memorial funds.

ACSI thanks more than eighty schools that provided samples of their financial aid forms and policies. The ideas for the various sections of this article are drawn from these samples. ACSI also thanks the individuals for their prepublication review of this article and their helpful suggestions.

Authored by: Burt Carney, ACSI Director, Legal/Legislative Issues. Attorney John L. Cooley, of Wooten & Hart, Roanoke, Virginia, reviewed the article for legal accuracy.

Assessment Companies

Confidential Financial Analysis
PO Box 5321
Woodland Park, CO 80866
719.650.3188

CFA is processed by Development Testing Services, John Shelhamer, Director. Special features: Schools are provided a statistic sheet that compares the statistics of their applicant families with all others who have applied that year, and a detailed program manual is provided the school explaining how to set up a financial aid program.

Cost: $35 per school; $10 per family; $12 for priority service.

Family Financial Needs Assessment
PO Box 466
Hernando, MS 38632-0466
www.ffna1.com
1.800.579.7200

FFNA’s ad appears in ACSI’s Discount Purchasing Network notebook. Paul Young founded FFNA in 1991 to assist Christian schools that were dissatisfied with their financial aid programs. Paul is president emeritus of Southern Baptist Educational Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and it was there that his financial aid model and his strategies for growth were tested and proven. Using these strategies, the center experienced a 61% increase in its number of students over a ten-year period.

Cost: $50 for ACSI members; $15 per family; $35 for priority service

Private School Aid Service
PO Box 770728
Lakewood, OH 44107
1.800.722.2577

Currently PSAS provides service to more than 2,000 private schools. On the date specified by the school, PSAS sends it the following reports: a Family Financial Profile for each family applicant, an alphabetical listing of all applicants, a ranked listing of all applicants according to their “ability to pay,” and a statistical analysis of the applying families. Information can also be provided on disc. Applications can be processed on a year-round basis. Forms are available in both English and Spanish. PSAS works closely with FACTS Management Company, which is a tuition collection service listed below.

Cost: $90 per school; $13 per family

School and Student Service for Financial Aid
PO Box 6657
Princeton, NJ 08541-6657
609.771.7713

This organization is a division of the Educational Testing Service. It provides financial aid information to hundreds of private colleges and schools. There is a provision for parents to update their information forms. SSS puts on seminars for school financial aid officers that demonstrate how to use the SSS computer software. The training helps your financial aid administrator to navigate the financial aid process. This is the same company that many of your parents will be dealing with when they apply for college financial aid. [This is a more sophisticated program that best suits larger Christian schools that have a financial aid administrator working on staff—Editor.]

Cost: $110 per school plus additional fees for the various reports; $17 per family for the first school to receive the report and $9 for each additional school.

Note: Most if not all of the above vendors charge schools for packages of the forms that parents fill out and send to the vendor.

Tuition Collection Companies

FACTS Tuition Management
PO Box 67037
Lincoln, NE 68506
1.800.624.7092

Endorsed by ACSI.

Academic Management Services
PO Box 991
Swansea, MA 02777
www.amsweb.com
1.800.635.0120

SMART Tuition Management Services
95 Wall Street, Suite 2300
New York, NY 10005
1.800.SMART08

Tuition Insurance Companies

A.W.G. Dewar Inc.
50 Braintree Hill Office Park
Braintree, MA 02184
781.380.8770

Dewar’s ad appears in ACSI’s Discount Purchasing Network notebook.

Dewar has been providing the Tuition Refund Plan since 1930. Currently nearly 1,000 schools and colleges are protected by the plan. Annual premiums are paid by parents who choose the coverage. Programs can be offered to parents on a strictly optional basis. About one-third of the schools using the plan require all parents to participate. [This program is used primarily by schools that require most or all of the tuition for a school year to be paid prior to the beginning of the school year—a common practice of secular and Christian prep schools—Editor.]