Tuition Assistance FAQ

The first step is to complete an online application through FACTS, a secure, third-party service provider, and upload all required documents, including your most recent federal tax return.

The CDS Tuition Assistance Committee uses FACTS, a secure, third-party service provider, to process your application and calculate the level of tuition that is right for your family. The formula used to evaluate the tuition level considers many factors including: income, assets, family size, cost of living, unusual expenses, number of independent school or college tuition for dependents, and other discretionary costs.

Your completed financial application must be submitted by the January deadline each school year. Each family’s financial situation is considered thoroughly and confidentially on an individual basis to ensure attention to special circumstances. All financial information received by the Tuition Assistance Committee is held in the strictest confidence.

Applications for tuition assistance have no impact in determining admission; these two processes occur simultaneously, but separately.

No, unless there is a change in the number of your children enrolled at CDS or if your income has increased/decreased by greater than 5% year over year, your tuition assistance should remain constant.

We consider the total amount of tuition within the means of your family for all students attending CDS. This calculation is done annually and is not affected by the number of children in your family who are enrolled at CDS.

Community Day School values being an inclusive and diverse community of families. More than half of current CDS families are able to afford an exceptional CDS education through our tuition assistance program, enriching the classroom for all. Many families who might not expect to be eligible for “financial aid” still may qualify for a modest tuition adjustment.

Yes, all qualifying non-U.S. citizens who do not file a federal tax return may be required to complete IRS form 1040NR in its place. This form is for tuition assistance purposes only and is not shared with the IRS.

Because the information submitted to FACTS is more than a year old, we review the most current information to determine if there are large swings in income from the base year, which would affect tuition assistance in either direction. If you are self-employed (do not receive a W-2), we require the tax return for the year just ended before tuition assistance is considered final.

We consider the total amount of tuition assistance on a family basis, not on an individual student basis. This means that your total family tuition may not decrease even though you have one less student attending the school.

We expect all families to partner with us in contributing something toward the cost of their students’ education. For some families, this amount can be significantly less than the full cost of tuition, but it is never completely covered. Even if you think a CDS education is out of reach financially, we would love to meet you and explore the possibilities.

Excellence has a high price, and in the interest of affordability, the cost of educating one student at CDS exceeds even our full tuition. Since tuition alone does not balance our budget, to meet the shortfall and fund our tuition assistance program, we depend on vital community support from various sources:

• Pittsburgh Jewish Educational Improvement Foundation, managed by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
• Central Pennsylvania Scholarship Fund
• PA Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC)
• Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program (OSTC)
• Corporate participants in the EITC and OSTC programs
• Individual participants in the EITC and OSTC programs through Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)
• Fundraising and grants
• Donor designated contributions
• Endowment distributions