If you believe that a private school education is out of reach for your family, you may be surprised to learn that thousands of Florida families each year are awarded scholarships amounting to millions of dollars. One of the main scholarships that provides this funding is in the form of the Step Up For Students Scholarship. This scholarship provides an average of $7000 per year to students in K-12 for a variety of needs. But what if you don’t qualify for the Step Up scholarship? Are you simply out of luck for help paying for an affordable private elementary school in Clearwater, FL?
Our team at Lakeside Christian School, one of the premier private elementary schools in Clearwater, FL, has shared the requirements for the Step Up scholarship, as well as a few options for your family if you are considering applying for private school but are denied the Step Up for Students scholarship.
The Step Up for Students scholarship is a collection of scholarships from the state of Florida with differing requirements. Formerly known simply as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, this program began in 1988 to help empower low-income students and their families to have more of a choice in their education. The overall goal of the Step Up for Students scholarship is to allow parents the opportunity to take their children to participating private schools if they felt they were not being served well in their local public and/or charter schools. The Step Up for Students scholarship program targets students who tend to have the most limited options for improving the quality of their education.
A few of the requirements for this collection of scholarships include:
The Income-Based Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship: A child may be eligible for an FTC scholarship for any of the following reasons:
Gardiner Scholarship: This scholarship is for children with special needs and unique abilities. Students between the ages of 3 and 22 who have yet to complete the 12th grade may qualify for the Gardiner scholarship. Your child may qualify for the Gardiner scholarship if they have:
Your child may also qualify if they are hospital or homebound. Please click here for the full list of qualifying disabilities, impairments, and requirements.
Reading Scholarship: This scholarship helps students that are struggling with reading who:
All students, no matter their background or abilities, are entitled to a private education at Step Up for Students participating schools in Clearwater, FL, including Lakeside Christian School.
If you don’t qualify for the Step Up for Students scholarship, you still may qualify for other scholarship opportunities. Lakeside Christian School provides over $250,000 in scholarships to qualified families each year, and many of these scholarships are not solely directed to Step Up for Students.
Lakeside Christian School is committed to granting scholarships to families in need, which is why we created the FACTS scholarship. This scholarship is generously provided by our donors and helps those who are not recipients of Step Up for Students in Clearwater, FL.
If you don’t qualify for the scholarships above, you may still be able to use the FACTS program. This in-house scholarship is designed to create more affordable tuition for low-income families and is available to new families who have decided that Lakeside Christian School is right for them. Financial aid is available to all qualifying families through a process called FACTS. FACTS is an online financial aid assessment program.
For over 30 years, our school ministry has been blessed with the income required to meet budgets. Our desire is not to have to turn away any student due to finances, which is why we started offering the FACTS scholarship and LCS scholarship. In the past few years, we have substantially increased our tuition subsidy budgets to provide aid through reduced tuition so that families can enroll their students at Lakeside Christian School at a cost they can afford.
Our team is proud to offer a variety of scholarship options, tuition assistance, and payment plans to help make quality education affordable for every family. Speak to a member of our team to learn how the FACTS scholarship option can help you.
With over 40 years of experience and a diverse student body of children from various socioeconomic backgrounds, Lakeside Christian School is built on the biblical principles of loving God and loving others. This care is demonstrated through the warm, respectful relationships among staff and between staff and students, and uses a tailored approach to your child’s education. If you’re interested in learning more about how we challenge all of our students to achieve their academic and personal goals, give us a call.
If you would like to learn more about Lakeside Christian School, an affordable private elementary school in Clearwater, FL, please give us a call at (727) 239-7808 or schedule a tour of our campus.
High school is an important time for your child and you might be thinking about how to set them up for success as they enter adulthood. If your child has been in public school their entire life, you might not think it’s worth it to transition to private school for high school or you might think it’s too late to change from public to private. However, that’s not necessarily the case, and your child can benefit greatly from a private high school in Clearwater, FL.
In this brief article, the team at our Christian high school in Clearwater, FL has shared a few of the main factors that make private Christian schools different from other schools, and why you should consider enrolling your teen in one.
If faith is important to you, then faith-based education should be on your list of priorities for your teen as they enter high school. High school is often a time when outside influences can take hold in your child’s life, sometimes for the worst. Having the foundation of faith as part of the school curriculum can help better prepare your child for how they should react when those influences are around.
Furthermore, faith-based education helps your teen understand scripture and how it applies to practical situations in their lives. Going to Sunday school and church can provide some of that foundation, but having faith-based education will give your teen the time to dive deeper into critical analysis of the text of the Bible.
Even if a faith-based education isn’t at the top of your priority list, all kids and teens can benefit from smaller class sizes. Unfortunately, due to budget restraints and a lack of resources, public schools often max out their class sizes and your teen can quickly become just another face in the crowd.
In private high schools in Clearwater, FL, you will find smaller class sizes for students of all ages. That means that if your teen is struggling in any particular area, whether it is academically, socially, or emotionally, more support and resources are available. They won’t be battling for the attention of their teachers because the classroom is a more manageable size. Furthermore, class discussions and group work is often more challenging and rewarding when classes are smaller. When everyone has the opportunity to make their voice heard in a classroom discussion, students may be more motivated to participate.
It’s an unfortunate reality, but public schools are in a continual state of change because of budget cuts and politics. Depending on the outcome of any given election, some facets of your teen’s education may be on the chopping block. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you fall on, we can all agree that putting our kids’ and teens’ education first is crucial.
When you have your child enrolled in a private high school, you can enjoy the knowledge that your child’s future doesn’t rest in the hands of people who haven’t set foot in that high school. You can also get to know the administrators of the school so that you can understand when or why specific decisions are made, and make sure your voice is heard in a way that you simply can’t do with public schools.
In a private high school, there is often a closer sense of community. This community isn’t limited to just your child, but to yourself and your whole family as well. For example, your teen will make lifelong friends, but beyond their friends they will also have the opportunity to build relationships with their teachers, faculty, and staff so that they can better foster growth beyond high school.
For your family and yourself, you’ll have a smaller community full of like-minded parents to connect with. After all, the friendships don’t stop with your teen — you can create lifelong friendships as well. You’ll be invited to engage with the school and get involved in activities that help you grow closer to your teen as well as closer to your community.
If COVID-19 showed us one thing, it’s that a coordinated and clear approach needs to be taken in cases of emergencies. We can’t predict what will happen next with the pandemic, and with any hope things will improve — but if they don’t improve, Christian high schools in Clearwater, FL are prepared. Here at Lakeside Christian School, we have set forth clear guidelines that will take the guesswork out of the way that we handle COVID-19 outbreaks to mitigate future disruption.
Preparing teens for college is an important part of high school, but in public school you may find that college prep is put on the back burner. For students who have become complacent in lesson plans provided by public schools, a private school may offer more challenging coursework to better prepare them for college and beyond.
To take that a step further, it’s important to mention that the focused college and career prep courses in private school are often not available in public school. For example, some public school students may need to hire a tutor for college prep courses, which takes place outside of school time. A private school offers those college prep courses during class time so that your teen can spend their time at home focusing on growing in other areas, and volunteering or working.
With over 40 years of experience and a diverse student body of children who participate both in virtual learning and/or an in-person setting, Lakeside Christian School is built on the biblical principles of loving God and loving others. This care is demonstrated through the warm, respectful relationships among staff and between staff and students, and uses a tailored approach to your child’s education. If you’re interested in learning more about how we challenge all of our students to achieve their academic and personal goals, give us a call.
If you would like to learn more about Lakeside Christian School, a private high school in Clearwater, FL, please give us a call at (727) 239-7808 or schedule a tour of our campus.
Are you ready to join the Lakeside Christian School community? Contact us, and schedule a tour today.
Parents of Students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan, Click Here.