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The “Children’s Scholarship Partnership—Regionalization Rewards Program,” a scholarship program for public elementary school children who wish to attend Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York, is now accepting applications, said Dr. Timothy J. McNiff, superintendent of schools.
A total of 1,000 partial-tuition scholarships will be offered to public school children who wish to attend one of the participating Catholic schools. Applications are being accepted at 129 elementary schools, with the scholarships effective in September.
“A key component of Pathways to Excellence and regionalization is the reinvestment of archdiocesan funds back into our schools,” said Dr. McNiff in a statement released Aug. 5.
“Reinvestment includes reallocating current resources into furthering Catholic education, while identifying and securing additional funding,” he said. “With the ‘Children’s Scholarship Partnership-Regionalization Rewards Program,’ we are putting reinvestment into action and, as a result, look forward to offering over 1,000 children a quality Catholic education,” he said.
The maximum scholarship amount for academic year 2013-2014 is $2,800, with the actual amount awarded per student to be calculated on a sliding scale determined by the family’s income and the school’s tuition.
Scholarships are available to incoming public school students in grades 1-6. Kindergarten students from all schools will be eligible, not just those entering from the public school system. Scholarships are renewable through eighth grade if a family demonstrates continued financial need and funding remains available. Since these are partial-tuition scholarships, families are responsible for tuition and fees not covered by the award.
The Children’s Scholarship Fund, a national scholarship organization, and the Archdiocese of New York, as part of its regionalization process, will provide funding for these scholarships. The Children’s Scholarship Fund currently administers three other archdiocesan scholarship programs, and the application process and awarding of these scholarships will be modeled after those existing Children’s Scholarship programs.
A letter sent to pastors and principals from Dr. McNiff in late May said that The Children’s Scholarship Fund had committed $250,000 over each of the next four years to support the new program. Seventy-five percent of scholarships will be awarded to regionals schools and 25 percent will go parish-based schools.
To apply and for further information, including a list of participating schools and an income eligibility scale, visit http://www.scholarshipfund.org/nyc/howtoapply.html.
