Ohio EdChoice
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All St. Mary students in grades K-8 are eligible to participate in the EdChoice program.
Families whose income is at or below 450% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines are eligible for a maximum EdChoice Scholarship of $6,166. All families whose income is above 450% of the Federal Poverty Guideline will be awarded a prorated scholarship amount. See the links below with the income guidelines and a general information sheet about the Expansion Program.
About EdChoice
Ohio’s Educational Choice (EdChoice) Scholarship Program is now accessible to ALL Ohioans! Thanks to sweeping changes outlined in HB 33 and signed into law on July 3 by Governor DeWine, EVERY student now has the opportunity to attend a participating Catholic school for little or no cost.
Originally enacted in 2005 to serve families living in underperforming school districts, the program has been expanded multiple times over the past 18 years to aid more families, particularly those with lower incomes. But, now, every Ohio family – regardless of their residence or household income – can utilize state scholarship dollars to help fund tuition at the Catholic school of their choosing.
Once you complete the scholarship application and turn in to St. Mary’s, along with the supporting documents, we will submit the application to the State on your behalf. We will not submit until we have all necessary documentation as we do not want any delays in your scholarship approval.
How to Apply
NEW APPLICATIONS: (New EdChoice Applicant or switching the type of EdChoice Scholarship between Traditional and Expansion)
If you have already received an EdChoice award (including those who attended a different private school last year), see renewal applications tab.
Please read through and follow the steps below to complete your scholarship application. We ask that all families complete the process by March 15, 2024. This gives us time to input all documents and address any missing information before the State of Ohio’s deadline. This will also allow us to add your scholarship award to your 2024-2025 Tuition Statement. All steps must be completed for your application to be considered complete:
- Complete the EdChoice Request Form and sign. One is required for each student.
- Proof of Address–a utility bill showing both the service and billing address (no cell phone bills). Only one per family is needed.
- Copy of Each Child’s birth certificate (photo is acceptable). One is required for each child.
- Copy of custodial paperwork (if applicable). This is required for all multi-household families. We need the residential and custodial sections of the document noting the student’s name and the signature page. One is required for each child.
- Complete the Diocesean Direct Deposit Authorization form and physically sign. One is required for each student.
- All documents from this list, except the income forms, must be emailed as separate files to [email protected]. Please indicate your student’s name and “2024-2025” in the subject with all the documents attached separately. If you have multiple children please send a separate email for each child. If ALL required documents are not attached, we will NOT be able to process your application.
STOP!
Do NOT move to the next step UNTIL you receive an email from St. Mary indicating your application has been submitted. Once received, proceed to the next step.
- Income verification: If you have already completed income verification for the 2023-2024 school year, you DO NOT need to complete this step. ODE will use the income from the 2023-2024 school year. Only submit income verification again if:
- Qualify for Low Income Status (your poverty level percentage fell below 200% or it will for the 2023 tax year)
- Income decreased for the 2023 tax year compared to 2022.
Income verification is done online through the ODE portal. https://safe.ode.state.oh.us/portal. The income document you should use is your 2023 Federal 1040 Form Page 1. Black out the first 5 digits of all social security numbers. Attached is more information, but this must be completed online via the link above. If you have dependent children over the age of 18, please email [email protected] for instructions on how to add them to your household. Do NOT submit a copy of the income verification with your application. Only one income verification is necessary per family.
- Award Letter – Once awarded, you will receive an award letter in the mail. As soon as you receive your award letter, please sign and mark accept. Please scan a copy to [email protected]. Please also send the original to the office to the attention of Ceena Baker. If this is received during the month of July when the office is closed, you can mail it to the school or wait until the office opens in August to turn it in. Without this signed acceptance letter, we cannot accept your award into the ODE system, and your scholarship will be removed from your tuition statement. All award letters must be received prior to the first day of school.
RENEWAL APPLICATIONS: (Everyone who received an EdChoice Scholarship for the 2023-2024 school year, unless applying for a different type of scholarship, Expansion versus Traditional)
Please read through and follow the steps below to complete your scholarship application. We ask that all families complete the process by March 15, 2024. This gives us time to input all documents and address any missing information before the State of Ohio’s deadline. This will also allow us to add your “estimated” scholarship award to your 2024-2025 Tuition Statement. This estimate will be based on your 2023-2024 Poverty Level percentage calculated by ODE, as the scholarships will not be awarded by the state until after the 2023-2024 school year concludes. All steps must be completed for your application to be considered complete:
- Complete the EdChoice Renewal Request Form and sign. One is required for each student.
- Proof of Address–a utility bill showing both the service and billing address (no cell phone bills). Only one per family is needed.
- Copy of custodial paperwork (only needed if there were changes from the prior year). This is required for all multi-household families. We need the residential and custodial sections of the document noting the student’s name and the signature page. One is required for each child.
- Complete the Diocesean Direct Deposit Authorization form and physically sign. One is required for each student.
- All documents from this list must be emailed as separate files to [email protected]. Please indicate your student’s name and “2024-2025” in the subject with all the documents attached separately. If you have multiple children please send a separate email for each child. If ALL required documents are not attached, we will NOT be able to process your application. If you are NEW to St. Mary and received the EdChoice Scholarship last year, please indicate this information on the email with all the attached documentation.
STOP!
Do not move to the next step UNTIL you receive an email from St. Mary indicating your application has been submitted.
Once the email is received, proceed to the next step if you intend to complete income verification again. This is NOT required!!
- Income Verification: Only complete income verification for the 2024-2025 school year if:
- You Qualify for Low Income Status (your poverty level percentage fell below 200% or it will for the 2023 tax year)
- Income decreased for the 2023 tax year compared to 2022.
Income verification (NOT REQUIRED IF COMPLETED PREVIOUSLY)–Done online through the ODE portal. https://safe.ode.state.oh.us/portal. The income document you should use is your 2023 Federal 1040 Form Page 1. Black out the first 5 digits of all social security numbers. If you have dependent children over the age of 18, please email [email protected] for instructions on how to add them to your household. Attached is more information, but this must be completed online via the link above. Do NOT submit a copy of the income verification with your application. Only one income verification is necessary per family.
- Award Letter – Once awarded, you will receive an award letter in the mail. As soon as you receive your award letter, please sign and mark accept. Please scan a copy to [email protected]. Please also send the original to the office to the attention of Ceena Baker. If this is received during the month of July when the office is closed, you can mail it to the school or wait until the office opens in August to turn it in. Without this signed acceptance letter, we cannot accept your award into the ODE system, and your scholarship will be removed from your tuition statement. All award letters must be received prior to the first day of school.
Have a Question?
FAQ
Since its founding, our school’s tuition has been greatly subsidized by the generosity of the St. Mary’s parishioners. In fact, in 2022-23 the parish subsidized the school by over $300,000, lowering the published tuition by $1750 up to free tuition for 4th child. This discount was prior to any additional parish scholarship or grants that were applied to tuition bills. We did this in order to maintain accessibility to families of varying economic backgrounds. By publishing a tuition rate that was lower than our actual costs we were able to market our school as a more economical option.
Now the State of Ohio will subsidize the education of every child at our parish school with scholarships ranging from $650 – $6,165 and allows us to use parishioner donations (which can fluctuate from year to year) for other parish and school expenses. But it’s not automatic! In order to maximize the EdChoice Scholarship benefit this year and for the years to come, families must apply for EdChoice and we must now express our tuition as a cost-based model.
Your 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. children may still go to St. Mary’s for free! However, we ask that you please apply for EdChoice as all parish subsidies and tuition assistance will only be awarded if families have first applied for EdChoice. This decision was made, because every family can receive a minimum $650 per child regardless of their income level. Many of our families will receive much more!
We will not be providing additional scholarship/tuition assistance for families who do not utilize this opportunity. Your 4th child may go free with this new model–but we save the parish a minimum of $2600 ($650/child) because we first receive 4 checks for your children from EdChoice to help mitigate the cost.
Surprisingly, cost-based pricing is what it sounds like. Normally, a business calculates the cost of a product/service and adds a standard margin to the cost. For example, if it costs $2.50 to make a widget, then a 50% standard margin would mean the widget’s price is $5. In our school’s scenario, we do NOT add a profit margin, so it is simply the operating cost of the school (salaries, supplies, utility bills, etc.) divided by the number of students we expect to attend. For example:
$2,160,000 Operating Costs / 300 Students = $7,100 Tuition
In the meantime, please continue to make your current tuition payments. Once we receive the EdChoice scholarship for your child(ren), we will credit your account and reimburse you for any overpayment. This will ensure the bills are able to be paid, teacher salaries, eclectic bills, etc. as we await the state processing of scholarship dollars.
The Emmaus Road Scholarship is an important part of our financial assistance, and will still be available for our school families. It serves as our 2nd line of defense once EdChoice scholarships have been applied to your child’s tuition. Therefore, Emmaus Road is geared toward reduction in cost of tuition assistance provided by the Parish General Operating Budget.