1. How do parents pay the tuition for private schooling?
Many parents assume that their budgets cannot afford tuition for private, quality Christian schooling.  Sometimes, however, family or friends offer to help (i.e., grandparents or godparents) with the cost.  Occasionally, churches contribute a tuition subsidy, directly to the school, for students from their congregations.  Advance financial planning may even allow tuition to be paid with pre-tax dollars, reducing the impact on a family budget.

2. What if a family still cannot afford private, quality Christian schooling?
Some families—perhaps 1) a single-parent family, 2) a one-income family, 3) a family with several children, or 4) those in special circumstances of  financial stress—need more assistance.

Visionary schools of quality recognize that tuition assistance must be used not to keep schooling “affordable” but to keep schooling “available.”   They charge the true cost to educate each child while budgeting for and granting a college-type, income-and-need-based tuition assistance.  Calculated and administered by a third-party agency in a confidential process—it allows each family to pay what its income and budget can afford.  Thus, Providence Hall makes its visionary program of college preparatory studies available to its growing community in Santa Barbara.

3. How does offering tuition assistance to families benefit the school?
Every student and family in a Christian school benefits from tuition assistance provided to some families on a family-income need-basis.  How?

• A program of tuition-assistance at a Christian school, enabling students to attend whose families could not afford full tuition, bolsters a shared sense of Christian community and biblical mission on behalf of young men and women.
• Instead of a community comprised exclusively or primarily of  financially “comfortable” or affluent families, a broader socio-economic range of families—one more characteristic of a New Testament church and of the Body of Christ—can receive quality schooling integrating faith and learning to establish a Christian worldview within an educational culture which is Christ-centered.
• Tuition assistance enabling children to occupy otherwise empty seats adds to the school’s budget what a family can afford and advances the school financially, lowering average costs per child and extending the reach and influence of its vision to families otherwise excluded from the school community.
• The resulting increase in the pool of students allows a school to fund its strategic plan, developing its programming and staffing more rapidly, both academic and co-curricular.  New students and revenue bring additional individualizing among students as well as an increase in the number and variety of opportunities to discover and exercise their God-gifted abilities and talents.

Because Providence Hall believes that Christian schooling should be available to all families regardless of their financial status, we have contracted the services of Family Financial Needs Assessment (FFNA), a Christian third-party agency, to help determine accurately and confidentially what portion of the tuition families might pay.

Families who intend to apply for tuition assistance are encouraged to do so even if they have not yet completed the Providence Hall Application for Admission.  Requests for tuition assistance have no bearing on admissions decisions.

Below you will find information regarding applying on-line for Tuition Assistance for 2007-2008.

• Apply for Tuition Assistance on-line at www.ffna1.com.
  
  
• Do not submit a paper application if you file on-line.
  
  
• Complete instructions can be downloaded if needed.   Your processing fee will need to be paid with a credit card.
  
  
• The FFNA code for Providence Hall is 4704.
  
  
• When you submit your application successfully, you will see a screen that says, “Congratulations, you have one more step.  You must fax or mail a copy of your taxes to FFNA.”  You will be instructed to “click here” to receive a Fax Cover Sheet that you will send with your taxes.  Print a copy of the Fax Cover Sheet.  You will receive an e-mail confirmation.
  
  
• Fax or mail a copy of your federal income taxes to FFNA.  (Make sure you include a copy of the cover sheet.)  Fax number: 662-429-8500
  
  
• Optional: If your situation requires an explanation beyond the scope of the application, include a brief letter explaining your situation.  Be brief, but specific!