Schools & Partners

Is your school looking to help students with their tuition needs?

We can help! the Arizona Leadership Foundation works with over 175 schools throughout the state of Arizona. Our list of schools that we work is always expanding. We welcome new schools to join our program, simply complete the school application form. We will then schedule a school tour with you. After we have determined your school is a qualified school, families can apply for and receive scholarships during application periods. Financial aid is distributed by ALF without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, gender/gender-identity, disability, religion, or sexual orientation.

The Process:

Families apply to ALF for scholarship funds.

Once a student’s application is deemed eligible, ALF contacts the school with a proposed scholarship amount.

The school tells ALF if the student can accept the proposed scholarship.

ALF sends a scholarship check to the school.

ALF notifies families of the scholarship award

Contact us or attend an upcoming school scholarship seminar. Email us for details at apply@arizonaleader.org

Download 2025-26 School Agreement

Frequently Asked Questions

Qualified School means a preschool that offers services to students with disabilities, nongovernmental primary school or secondary school, located in Arizona, that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, disability, familial status or national origin and that requires all teaching staff and any personnel that have unsupervised contact with students to be fingerprinted. Charter schools are not qualified schools nor are any programs operated by a charter school. This means that a private school program which operates in the same facilities as the charter school operates and a private school program that is administered by the same staff as employed by a charter school is not eligible for private school tuition organization scholarships.

The Arizona Leadership Foundation tours schools and meets with the staff before reaching a conclusion on the qualification of a school. The Arizona Leadership Foundation also requires schools are operational for one school year before they are eligible for scholarship funding from our organization.

Please create an account on our online portal here. After you have created the account, you can create a scholarship application for each eligible student and the scholarship programs they are eligible for. If you need a printable application, please contact apply@arizonaleader.org for assistance.

The Arizona Leadership Foundation reviews all applications for accuracy and makes an award decision based on the applicant’s financial/tuition needs and the funds available for distribution. Any personal information that is submitted is kept confidential within the committee. All scholarship decisions are the sole discretion of Arizona Leadership Foundation and all award decisions are final. We will notify you by email or regular mail as to your student’s scholarship award and to confirm that the award works with the student’s tuition balance. Financial aid is distributed by ALF without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, gender/gender-identity, disability, religion, or sexual orientation.

For public kindergarten, Arizona requires that children must be 5 years old as of September 1, though a school district governing board may allow admitting children into kindergarten who will reach the age of 5 by January 1. A kindergarten scholarship applicant must be eligible for kindergarten under public school guidelines.

If the parent has already paid part of the tuition for the academic year, the school may refund that partial tuition paid to the parent. If the parent has not paid part of the tuition or if there is still excess scholarship money for the academic year after a refund to the parent, the school must return that excess money to one or all of the STOs paying scholarships. The amount of scholarships paid from all STOs for one student cannot exceed the amount of tuition for that academic year.

The scholarship or grant can cover tuition only. If the school’s tuition includes fees that apply to and are required of ALL students (such as application fees, registration fees, facility fees) these amounts can be covered by the scholarship.

The 2024-25 Application Period will be open April 15 through June 18, 2025. If you have additional questions please contact apply@arizonaleader.org

No.  Arizona statute (A.R.S. §15-2402(B)(3)) requires that when a parent has a signed contract with the ESA program, a student cannot accept ESA and STO funds (tax credit scholarships) for the same fiscal/contract year (July 1 – June 30). Once there is a signed ESA contract, all STO scholarship money remitted for the same contract year (July 1 – June 30) must be returned by the private school to the STO regardless of when the ESA contract was signed during the contract year or when the STO remitted the payment to the private school for the same academic year.

The Arizona Leadership Foundation does not award scholarships to students participating in hybrid programs. Online and modified/reduced hybrid schedules are also not eligible.

Only students attending the traditional school program at an approved private school are eligible.