At MSN, over 25% of our families receive some kind of financial assistance. The assistance varies depending on whether the student attend Children’s House, Kindergarten, or the Elementary Program.

Children’s House

At the Children’s House level (three and four year olds), the school generally does not make direct grants to families but does accept Community Partnership grants and Voucher funding. Your eligibility for these programs is determined by the agency who supplies the funding. We work with a number of Community Partnership and voucher funding agencies, and which one you would apply to depends on where you live.
If you live in Northampton, your contacts would be:

• For Community Partnership, Barbara Black at Jackson Street School, 587-1471
• For the voucher program, Community Action! At 582-4230.

If you are eligible for either of these programs, they will establish a daily parent fee which represents your portion of the tuition. The Community Partnership or voucher program will subsidize an additional tuition amount, for which we will bill them directly. These two together do not add up to full tuition, so MSN underwrites the rest of the tuition for students receiving these subsidies.

If you are applying for admission and expect to receive funding from either of these sources, please notify us immediately, so we can determine the availability of matching funds from our Financial Aid budget.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten-aged children who have received vouchers for preschool may be eligible for vouchers for their kindergarten year. Please contact your Voucher program or call our Business Manager if you need assistance with this. Kindergarten-age children who are not receiving outside subsidies and are intending to continue into our Elementary program are welcome to apply for financial aid here at MSN. The process is the same as for Elementary students.

Elementary

Financial aid for elementary students is administered by the school. To apply, families should submit an application to School and Student Service (SSS). The applications should be completed by February 15 for first-round consideration. You can request an application from our business manager  (kathymurri@northamptonmontessori.com) or you can apply directly online at the School and Student Services website. SSS analyzes your financial information and develops a recommendation of how much you can afford to contribute toward tuition. This information is then sent to the school (remember to designate MSN as a recipient.) Around the middle of March, the Financial Aid Committee meets to take an initial look at the applications we have received by that date, (The Financial Aid Committee is composed of the Head of School, Business Manager, a Board member and a staff member. The Board and staff member do not know the identities of the applicants.) Awards are based on the overall need that year and the resources available. It is very important, if you are applying for financial aid, to submit your application in to SSS by February 15 for the first round, which allows us optimal consideration of your application. We do accept applications after that date, but our pool of remaining funds may be limited. Once awards are made, parents are notified and new contracts are issued reflecting the financial aid awards.