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A St. Michael’s education is an investment in your child’s future and affordable for all families. Financial aid and assistance is available through the AZ tax-credit program, the Empowerment Scholarship program (ESA), and through need-based aid awarded by St. Michael’s School.
2024-2025 Annual Tuition Rates
TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN (TK): $9,950
LOWER SCHOOL (Grades K-4): $12,975
UPPER SCHOOL (Grades 5-8): $13,575
Just a few of the benefits that make a St. Michael’s education exceptional include:
- Average class size of 14 students with an overall 8:1 student-teacher ratio school-wide
- Integrated technology in every classroom
- Enrichment classes for all grades – including PE, Music, Art, and Spanish
- Year-round athletic & intramural programs
- Tuition Assistance for all students via AZ State Tax Credit Scholarship Program and Empowerment Scholarship Awards (UNIVERSAL ESA)
- Accredited by the Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools (SAES)
A non-refundable deposit of $700/student ($500 tuition deposit, $200 enrollment fee) is due upon signing the enrollment contract. If applying for need- based tuition assistance through completion of the FAST application, only the $200 enrollment is required.
Included in Tuition
Included in Tuition:
- Electronic devices (iPads or Chromebooks)
- Textbooks
- Classroom supplies
- Fieldtrips
- Yearbooks
Not Included in Tuition
Not included in Tuition:
- Uniforms
- After-school activities
- Lunch
- Daycare services
- Middle school class trips
St. Michael’s seeks students of intellectual promise from diverse backgrounds. We maintain a tuition assistance program to help all families, regardless of income, offset annual tuition fees.
$6000
Average Tuition Award
%
of students receive need-based tuition assistance
%
of families utilize ESA funds to offset tuition
Need-Based Tuition Assistance
Please note that tuition-assistance awards cannot be combined with ESA funding. However, families may supplement their need-based award with additional recommended funds through the state tax-credit program.
Tuition Assistance
The School’s Enrollment Office makes recommendations on a need basis only; no merit aid is awarded. Tuition assistance is reviewed annually. In accepting a student on tuition assistance, St. Michael’s makes a commitment to attempt to support the attendance of the student through graduation, pending satisfactory performance and continued demonstrated need. The school maintains a need-blind admissions policy.
Families are responsible for inquiring about tuition assistance and observing all deadlines. If you are interested in applying for tuition assistance, visit the FAST (Financial Aid for School Tuition) to complete the necessary on-line application. All financial information will be sent to and processed by FAST. Their site has step-by-step, downloadable instructions and a 24 hour help line to assist you.
Families must submit tuition assistance applications annually. Students are expected to maintain satisfactory performance in academics and behavior.
Additional Tuition Assistance Programs
For families with an income above the level that would qualify for need-based assistance, there are ways to offset tuition expenses through the Arizona Universal Empowerment Scholarship Award Program and the Arizona State Tax-Credit Program. Income-limits do not apply to these funding pathways. Families must pick one option or the other as these two programs are mutually-exclusive of one another. Receiving funds from both programs concurrently during one school year is against the rules and will disqualify a family from receiving any funds.
Affordability Workshops
Join us to learn about funding pathways for your child’s education.
- What are Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs)?
- What are School Tuition Organizations (STOs)?
- Who is eligible to participate?
- Can I use the two programs concurrently?
- How do I apply?
During the 2024-2025 school year, workshops will be offered at 6 PM on the following Wednesday evenings:
- August 14, 2024
- September 25, 2024
- November 13, 2024
- January 15, 2025
- February 26, 2025
- April 9, 2025
Additional Tax Credit Opportunities
There are four different ways that families can use tax credits to help defray the tuition costs at St. Michael’s. All Tax Credit funds must be channeled through School Tuition Organizations, or STO’s. There are currently over 70 STO’s in Arizona that all have different constituencies and policies. It is important to note that Arizona law prohibits parents from using their own personal tax credit to benefit their own children. This means that you can’t apply your tax credit to your own child, and you may not direct it in any way that will even indirectly benefit your child. Hopefully the following information will help you understand some of the most pertinent options available to you.
Your Personal Tax Credits
St. Michael’s asks that all parents direct their personal tax credits to the Arizona Episcopal School Foundation (AESF) with a designation that their funds go to St. Michael’s School. Your donation may be made at the AESF website. By increasing these funds, and hence increasing the size of the student body, St. Michael’s is able to keep tuition low for all students.
St. Michael’s Direct Tax Credit Assistance
Each year St. Michael’s takes the Tax Credits received from parents and friends of St. Michael’s and allocates them, based on demonstrated financial need, to St. Michael’s students. The school’s policy is to require any recipient to pay whatever portion of the tuition they can reasonably afford and then have tax credits make up the difference. Learn more about financial aid.
General Funds STO’s
Some STO’s have policies of helping students from any school and are generally based on financial need. Once a family gets accepted by these STO’s there is a high probability that they will be assisted for years into the future as long as their child continues to attend a private school and their financial situation does not dramatically change. Examples of these STO’s include:
Donor Directed Tax Credit STO’S
Finally, a small group of STO’s have expanded their policies to allow donors to direct their credits not only to specific schools, but to specific students within those schools. Therefore, friends, relatives, business colleagues, etc., can be contacted by you and encouraged to direct their tax credits to your children without any restriction regarding the financial needs of the child. This is an excellent method for middle income families to receive help even though they might not qualify for straight needs based assistance. Examples of these STO’s include:
Tips on Using Tax Credits
Tax Credits can be a very complicated issue for both the donor and the recipient. Arizona law has developed several ways to donate, made the allowable limits different for couples and individuals, and made the carryover provisions somewhat difficult to understand.
The following tips are helpful in trying to take maximum advantage of these credits:
- The amount that can be claimed each year is not limited by the amount that is due on April 15, but on the total tax liability for the year. If a couple has paid $2,000 in tax withholdings during the year and only owes $100 on April 15th, they can make a $2,000 contribution to an STO and claim it on their return. They would then not be responsible to pay the $100, and would receive an additional $1,900 refund after their filing.
- Contributions to STO’s can be made up until April 15th for the previous tax year.
Many STO’s accept credit card payments. Therefore, if timed properly, the donation can be made with no out of pocket expense. By the time the credit card comes due the refund has been received back from the state and can be used to pay off the credit card. - Most computerized tax filing programs (including TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA) have the Arizona tax credit built into their programs and no special effort is needed to obtain your refund.
- Some STO’s have extensive marketing assistance to help you raise funds through friends and family. The Arizona Tuition Connection is very good at this and information on how to get started is on their website.