2024-2025 TA Tuition Assistance

Application Deadline:  May 31^st, 2024

Our Commitment:

TA is committed to opening its doors to all children regardless of their parents’ financial ability to pay full tuition. The following information will guide those families who wish to apply for scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year. TA’s tuition committee takes its responsibility very seriously and functions with the mission to:

• Assist TA families with sensitivity, compassion, fairness, confidentiality, and individual attention to each family’s circumstances and;
• Appropriately support any of our families in sending their children to our Yeshiva.

Parents’ Responsibilities:

We understand our families’ immense sacrifices to afford a Torah education, and we don’t take that lightly.  Our Tuition Assistance Program exists for your benefit – to help ease the burden of yeshiva tuition for families who cannot bear the full amount.  At the same time, the continued success of the Yeshiva is largely dependent upon the financial responsibility undertaken by our families.  TA’s full tuition rates are priced at an amount that reflects the approximate actual cost of educating your child.  We respectfully ask that before families apply for scholarships, they consider very carefully whether or not they have done everything possible to be able to maximize their tuition payments – helping to cover the cost of educating their child – to whatever extent they can.  Specifically, we expect our families to:

1. Prioritize their Yeshiva tuition payments over discretionary expenses and view their financial obligation to the Yeshiva as a basic living expense that takes priority over non-essential spending.
2. Provide transparency in their scholarship application, giving a true picture of their financial position. Taking advantage of the tuition assistance program is unethical, and unfair to other families who truly need assistance and diverts funds from them, as well as other essential school programs.
3. Maximize any available outside funds including the BOOST Scholarship Program, Children’s Scholarship Fund, and other such grants and awards.

Factors that are considered in Tuition Assistance Applications:

Please consider the following as general guidelines for families seeking to maximize their potential scholarship eligibility.  It is not an all-inclusive list but is intended to give some insight into some of the factors that TA’s tuition committee takes into consideration when evaluating your application:

• Financial strength based on your income and assets – Significant savings in cash, stocks, bonds, or other investments, as well as significant contributions to your retirement plan, are means that could and should be used to fund your tuition bill.
• Housing and Transportation – While often families must make legitimate housing choices based on their family size and other factors, luxury housing purchases/renovations and luxury vehicle choices are lifestyle choices that tuition assistance is not meant to subsidize.
• Tzedaka – Tzedaka Funds should be prioritized in consultation with each family’s Rav, with emphasis on allocating funds to pay current yeshiva tuition obligations.
• Retirement / College Savings – Careful consideration should be given to funds allocated to 401k accounts, retirement accounts, 529 plans, and the like in light of current yeshiva tuition obligations.
• College/Seminary/Beis Medrash tuition – We understand that college/seminary/Bais Medrash education is important and can be very expensive. Please explore your college/seminary/Bais Medrash financial aid options (eg: student loans, deferred payments) as these are avenues to reduce your overall financial burden that does not exist for yeshiva primary and high school tuition.
• Travel & Vacation – The benefits of travel, vacation, and spending time together as a family outside of the home are very important. There are numerous low-cost, high-value opportunities to enjoy family vacations on a budget. Many families make appropriate decisions in this arena to help make ends meet. As a general principle, scholarship preference will be given to families who travel or vacation within their budget in light of all the various obligations.

There is no one-size-fits-all across all of these areas, and extenuating circumstances are always considered.  We therefore ask that such conditions be clearly explained in the application.

Application Process: 

We have two options to apply for tuition assistance.

1. Option 1 – Full Application

1. 1. This option can be utilized by both new and returning families
   2. Complete The Tuition Assistance Form.  This is a shared form that is utilized by many of our Baltimore community schools.  If you have children in multiple participating schools, this form should only be completed once.  The application must be completed by May 31^st, 2024.
   3. Submit required supporting documentation to help the committee understand your family’s financial situation. Required documentation includes:

1. 3. 1. 2023 tax returns
      2. 2023 W-2 for both parents, where applicable
      3. Any business tax returns, where applicable

1. 4. The Tuition Committee will review the completed application and assess the required tuition amount.
      
      All final determinations can only be made once all of the required documentation has been submitted. The Tuition Committee reserves the right to request additional information, documentation, or an in-person meeting with the applicant.  Applications submitted late or incomplete post-deadline may be billed at the full tuition amount until the required documentation is submitted and a final determination can be assessed.

2. Option 2– Expedited Application 

2. 1. Families who certify that their income a) did not change by more than 10% since last year and b) do not expect it to change by more than 10% in the coming year, have the option to agree to a prorated 8% tuition increase from last year, without any further documentation or full tuition assistance process.  
   2. This option is available ONLY for returning families who a) received tuition assistance last year, and b) completed the full tuition assistance application last year.  Families who used an expedited application last year must use the full tuition application in Option 1.
   3. Complete the Expedited Application Form to attest that your family income did not change by more than 10% since last year and you do not expect it to change by more than 10% during the upcoming year.  The application must be submitted by May 31st, 2024. 

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Rochel Mandel at rmandel@talmudicalacademy.org or (410) 484-6600 x7302.  We thank you for your strong commitment to your children’s chinuch, and the z’chus that we have to partner with you in that holy endeavor.