Tuition and Financial Aid

Our Financial Aid program is internally funded from such sources as tuition, charitable giving through the Annual Fund and the Endowment, Georgia’s Financial Aid Tax Credit program, and fundraising events like the annual π Party, Eat Lunch with your Child Day and the Slither, our annual 5K run. Given our commitment to maintaining a family’s financial aid award from year to year, most of the money for new awards becomes available when enrolled financial aid students graduate.

If this would be your child's first year at Paideia, you must create a Clarity account and complete and submit an admissions application through Ravenna before applying for financial aid. Applying for financial aid is one of the steps in the application process listed in Ravenna.

For families with students currently enrolled at Paideia, if you are considering submitting an application for financial aid, please read these step-by-step instructions  and give yourself ample time to complete and submit all required documents by February 1.

Contact Dara Simmons, Financial Aid Coordinator, or her colleague Kristal Litchfield at financialaid@paideiaschool.org with any financial aid questions.

The 2025-26 Family Application Guide, available in English and Spanish on Oct. 1, 2025, will walk you step-by-step through the Clarity application. We know you may have questions about this change and its impact on your family. We welcome you to contact Dara Simmons with any questions or concerns. We also invite you to review the Clarity FAQs or attend one of the upcoming Family Info Night Webinars to learn more about Clarity!

We use the Clarity Financial Aid application to process applicants’ financial information according to a standard set of procedures. To the extent possible, this methodology assesses the financial resources individual families have available to contribute to tuition with the idea that parents should finance their child’s education to the best of their ability.  By providing standardized, impartial, and confidential processing, Clarity promotes consistency in financial aid procedures among schools. Contact Dara Simmons, Financial Aid Coordinator, or her colleague Kristal Litchfield at financialaid@paideiaschool.org with any financial aid questions.

Clarity will determine a family’s estimated contribution taking into account many facotrs, including: :

• Income (both taxable and nontaxable) and expenses
• Assets (home equity, other real estate, savings, investments, etc.) and indebtedness
• Age of parent(s)
• Family size
• Number of children attending tuition-charging schools
• Debt

Clarity considers these and other factors when determining a family’s discretionary income. A portion of this discretionary income is suggested as the family’s contribution to education: the more discretionary income available, the higher the stipulated contribution.

Our Financial Aid Review Board makes these decisions. The information they receive is held in strictest confidence, and there is no discussion about a family’s financial information outside of the Review Board.

The Review Board uses the Clarity financial aid application as a guideline in determining awards. However, Paideia generally expects a family to pay more than the Clarity calculation suggests. We are trying to spread our limited funds among as many eligible families as possible. We also believe that a high percentage of a family’s discretionary income should be used for educating their children. For these reasons, it is crucial that we have an accurate and detailed picture of every applicant’s financial circumstances. If information is incomplete or inconsistent, the Review Board may not be able to give the application full consideration.

Many factors determine financial aid awards, such as household income and expenses, assets and indebtedness, and the number of children attending tuition-charging schools and colleges. Because individual family financial circumstances differ, the calculation of need will be unique to each circumstance. Given the many variables that affect an award decision, it is impossible to accurately predict a family’s financial aid award based solely on family income.

We welcome financial aid applications from families who, after carefully considering all the available resources, feel they cannot afford our full tuition. If you are still determining if it is appropriate for your family to apply for financial aid, please contact Dara Simmons, Financial Aid Coordinator, or her colleague Kristal Litchfield at financialaid@paideiaschool.org with any financial aid questions.

The Admissions Committee makes its initial decisions without regard to financial need. However, because our school has limited resources, we may occasionally be forced to make difficult decisions about the number of financial aid applicants we can accept within the limits of our budget. Our financial aid awards are allocated when we make our admissions decisions. Additional funds are rarely available after these decisions have been made.

Our financial aid program is based on demonstrated financial need. Some students from A Better Chance may not qualify for financial aid.

All parents are expected to contribute according to their means, taking into account total income, assets, number of dependents, and other appropriate information. For the 2025-2026 school year, financial aid awards range from 15% to 99% of tuition. Every family receiving aid is asked to pay some portion of the tuition.

Financial aid students receive the same percentage assistance as their tuition award for such things as high school textbooks, aftercare, class trips, athletic expenses, and other required school activities. Please refer to our Additional Expenses chart for more details.

It is the policy of the Financial Aid Review Board to continue providing assistance as long as a family’s financial situation remains relatively unchanged. Recipients must re-apply for financial aid every year.

When financial circumstances change significantly, it is the family's obligation to make that known to the Financial Aid Review Board through Financial Aid Coordinator Dara Simmons, or her colleague Kristal Litchfield at financialaid@paideiaschool.org.

Award decisions are mailed out the first week in April. Financial aid tuition payments are made in 10 monthly installments from April to January.

If you would like to explore alternative payment options, we can suggest contacting your bank for a loan or using Lightstream (lightstream.com), Truist's online consumer loan division. For more information about our tuition policies, please contact Susie Fiorello, Director of Business and Finance.

If you have any questions about Paideia's financial aid program, feel free to contact Financial Aid Coordinator Dara Simmons or her colleague Kristal Litchfield at financialaid@paideiaschool.org.