Qualified school means a preschool that offers services to students with disabilities, nongovernmental primary or secondary school that is located in Arizona and financial aid is distributed by ALF without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, gender/gender-identity, disability, religion, or sexual orientation. All teaching staff and personnel that have unsupervised contact with students are required to be fingerprinted. Qualified school does not include a charter school or any program 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 [email protected] 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. It is not to be used for any other expenses or fees (such as application or registration fees, sports fees, tutoring).
Applications for school year 2023-24 are closed. Please check back in April 2024 for the following year. If you have additional questions please contact [email protected]
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.
