Need help with tuition? More money than ever now available due to Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
Jan. 25, 2007

More than $690,000 was raised for Catholic school tuition assistance for the 2007-2008 school year in the Diocese of Sioux City through the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation and that means more families than ever before will receive help with the cost of tuition.

According to Kevin Vickery, diocesan superintendent of schools, families may qualify for tuition grants through the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation if their income does not exceed three times the federal poverty guidelines. (See the chart on page 3B.)

For the first time ever, all families seeking any form of tuition assistance offered by the schools will be asked to complete an application through a third-party review process conducted by FAIR (Financial Aid Independent Review, Inc.) based out of Rosemount, Minn.

FAIR has been used by families affiliated with Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools, St. Edmond Catholic Schools and those who have applied for the Catherine Birzle Education Scholarship.

"Families will fill out one form to apply for funds through the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation, Catherine Birzle Education Scholarship (for diocesan high school students) and local school tuition assistance money," explained Vickery. "Then we will see how we can best use all of the funds that are available for tuition assistance."

With this process, families - regardless if they have students in more than one Catholic school - will fill out just one application form.

Tuition assistance application forms are on hand at every Catholic school in the diocese. These forms include an application, instruction sheet and an envelope to mail the application and supporting tax documents to FAIR. In order to complete the application process, persons must have completed their taxes for 2006.

FAIR will do an analysis and will report back to each of the governing bodies - the Msgr. Lafferty Foundation, the Catherine Birzle Trust or the local tuition assistance provider - with recommendations concerning tuition grants. The governing bodies will have the opportunity to review the grants and make necessary changes before the grants are announced. Some families will receive grants from one source and others may receive grants from all three.

"Once the grants have been submitted for final processing, then the family will receive an award letter directly from FAIR," noted Vickery, who compared the process to the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) for post-secondary education students.

These grants will be applied to the 2007-2008 school year and not this present year's tuition. The money will be directly deposited into the students' tuition accounts at the schools. The grants do not go to families.

The firm deadline for applications is postmarked by April 16. The final grant distribution decisions will be made on May 5.

In addition to sending in an application via traditional mail, families may opt to fill out a form on-line at www.fairapp.com - with this process they must have the ability to pay the $17 application fee electronically by credit or debit card. They must also have a return e-mail address. If families do not have the capacity to pay the $17 fee, they should contact their local school or pastor.

Vickery pointed out that the costs associated with using FAIR will not be passed on to the local schools. The Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation will pay the costs.

Who should apply?

While some may think that only low-income families will qualify for grants, now that more money is available it means that more middle-income families will receive tuition grants.

Vickery said even if families make more than three times the federal poverty guidelines and do not qualify for Msgr. Lafferty grants they may still qualify for money from their school's private tuition assistance fund.

He said all diocesan schools are encouraged to budget the same dollars for tuition assistance as they have had in years past so that more families will be assisted. It is anticipated that the families with the greatest need will be assisted through the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation, freeing up local tuition assistance funds for smaller gifts for more students.

"The way in which the tuition grants from the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation will be awarded will be based on the actual cost of tuition for the individual families and the need demonstrated by the family as determined by our third-party review process conducted by FAIR," noted Vickery.

He pointed out that of the funds they were able to raise, 75 percent of the money is to be distributed by schools based on a per capita distribution. That means that Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools in Sioux City will have more funds than a rural grade school because they have a larger student population.

Vickery said that it was important to the board of the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation that families in every school would benefit from the dollars that were raised.

"In addition to that, we retained 25 percent of the available funds for unrestricted use. That means that we can allow additional assistance to go to families in schools that exceed the need demonstrated by what they were designated," said Vickery.

The unrestricted fund will not be reallocated on a per capita basis. Those funds will be used to assist families where there is the greatest need. Until they go through this first year's application process, he mentioned that they have no idea which schools will receive the unrestricted dollars.

"We may end up seeing that there is pretty equal need in schools across the board and that the unrestricted monies tend to redistribute following similar patterns to the first 75 percent, but we don't know that yet," he said.

Families that are part of the Bishop Heelan Catholic School System are familiar with FAIR as that is the third-party that reviews the tuition rate. For BHCS families that do not intend to apply for tuition assistance, they will still be asked to fill out an income verification form.

"If you fill out an application for tuition assistance, then you do not have to fill out an income verification form," noted Vickery.

Many of the schools and the diocese have posted the tuition assistance application forms on their Web sites.

"In addition to assisting families who are paying tuition to Catholic schools, we really would like those families who have for whatever reasons in the past not seen Catholic schools as an option because of financial costs to apply for these grants so that they may choose Catholic education for their children," noted Vickery.

For more information, contact your local Catholic school principal, development director or school business manager. Individuals may also seek information through the Office of Education at the diocese.