Tuition Aid FAQ

No! Tuition aid applications for the 2025-2026 school year will be considered as long as funds remain.

FSMN’s tuition aid awards are need-based grants that do not need to be repaid.

Each family’s financial situation is unique, so income alone does not determine need. A few of the additional factors that affect the decision-making process are the number of family members currently enrolled in tuition-based schools, assets, family size, and unusual expenses. Income, however, is the primary guide used by SSS and Friends School in determining estimated family contributions.

To get a rough idea about whether your family would qualify for tuition aid, consider that for recent school years, nearly all students receiving aid reported earnings of less than $200,000.

• 38% had a gross family income between $100,000 and $150,000
• 27% between $150,000 and $200,000
• 19% had incomes between $50,000 and $100,000
• 16% had gross incomes under $50,000.

The school expects financial support from a child’s biological/adoptive parents as well as from the adults a child lives with (step-parents and partners).
Please be aware that we also believe that divorced or separated parents have an ethical obligation to contribute to their children’s educational expenses, whether or not they have a legal obligation to do so.

Financial aid requests must be accompanied by an admissions application.

SSS will accept your tuition aid application and submitted forms; however, the FSMN Tuition Aid Committee will not consider your request unless you have also applied for admission to the school.

No. Admissions decisions and tuition aid decisions are made by two separate committees at FSMN, and the processes are kept distinct to ensure fairness and integrity.

A small admissions committee reviews each child’s application on its own merits. This committee does not have access to any of the financial information you submit for tuition aid. Separately, a tuition aid committee reviews tuition aid applications using the SSS Estimated Family Contribution as the foundation for decisions.

The Admissions Director helps coordinate both processes but does not have sole decision-making authority in either area. Most importantly, a family’s ability to pay has no influence on whether a child is admitted.

If your child is accepted and your family qualifies for tuition aid, you will receive those decisions at the same time. In some cases, we may admit a student but be unable to meet a family’s full financial need. Families may choose to decline enrollment in those situations—but the admission decision itself is never shaped by financial considerations.

This structure reflects our commitment to equity, transparency, and the integrity of both processes.

You may apply online for 2026-2027 school year at the School and Student Services website starting November 1, 2025.

Tuition aid applications which are completed by the tuition aid deadline of February 15, 2026, are considered first. Applications received after February 15 will still be considered as long as funds are available.

Beginning with the 2026–27 school year, families only need to submit the previous year’s tax documentation when applying for tuition aid.

This change allows families to apply earlier and with less stress. SSS will guide you through the required fields and document uploads. Clear photos of tax documents are accepted.

Please reach out if you believe this applies to you.

SSS charges a $60 fee to submit the Parents’ Financial Statement each year.
However:

FSMN can also provide a manual fee waiver for families who may not meet SSS’s threshold but for whom the fee is a hardship.

SSS automatically waives the fee for families who qualify based on income and family size (similar to federal free/reduced lunch guidelines).

SSS uses the financial information in the PFS itself to means-test a family’s situation and automatically applies a waiver if the family qualifies for one. Once a qualified family submits a PFS, we simply do not require payment.

If you do not qualify for SSS’s waiver but feel you can afford the financial aid application fee, please contact Shane at FSMN.

Because families’ financial picture can change from year to year, families must re-apply for tuition aid every year.

Your tuition aid award is based upon your financial information from your most recent tax filing.

FSMN uses a standardized, need-based process to determine tuition aid for every family. All families who apply for aid complete the same application through School & Student Services (SSS), an independent third-party organization used by schools across the country. SSS analyzes each family’s financial information—income, assets, expenses, family size, and special circumstances—and provides FSMN with an Estimated Family Contribution. This number is the primary basis for our tuition aid decisions, and in the vast majority of cases, it is the number we use when determining a family’s award.

A small Tuition Aid Committee then reviews each application with care, ensuring the SSS EFC is accurate and complete. This human review serves two important purposes:

• Context and compassion: Financial formulas cannot always capture sudden changes—such as job loss, medical expenses, or major family transitions. When families share this information, the committee can adjust the award so it aligns with their actual ability to contribute.
• Verification: Sometimes applications contain omissions, incorrect entries, or misunderstandings that may significantly affect the SSS calculation. Our review helps identify and correct these errors, ensuring the award reflects a family’s true situation.

The committee’s role is not to make arbitrary judgments about a family’s circumstances, but to use the SSS assessment, along with any additional context a family chooses to share, to make decisions that are fair, consistent, and grounded in our Quaker values of equity and stewardship.

This means that:

• Every family is evaluated using the same standardized SSS methodology.
• SSS provides the baseline recommendation; FSMN uses this to ground decisions.
• Human review ensures families can explain unique situations that formulas alone cannot capture.

Our goal is a process that is both objective and compassionate—one that treats all families equitably while recognizing that every family’s story is unique.

We are usually able to assist most of the qualifying families who apply for tuition aid. However, sometimes the amount of tuition aid requested exceeds the amount we have to offer, even for qualifying families.

If we do not have assistance available when initial awards are made, you will be placed on a waiting list. If money becomes available later, you will receive notification of your award at that time.

It is important to understand tuition aid awards are not lump sums of money doled out by the school, but rather a discount from base tuition. The discount you receive depends on your need and the number of other families requesting aid.  All families are asked to pay at least 10% of tuition.

You receive this information with the letter of acceptance in early April. It will tell you:

(a) the amount of the grant you have been awarded, or

(b) that you are eligible for a grant, but are on the waiting list until funds become available, or

(c) that you do not qualify for a Friends School grant.

If you are on the tuition aid waiting list, you will not be asked to commit to enroll unless you receive an award. Sometimes funds become available as late as the end of the summer.

Tuition aid is calculated annually, so it can change if your family’s financial circumstances change. Most families see relatively consistent awards unless their income, expenses, or overall financial picture shifts significantly.

If your financial situation has changed—for better or for worse—please describe this clearly in your SSS application.

We will review your circumstances individually.

• If your financial need has grown (e.g., job loss, major expenses, caregiving changes), we will consider increasing your award if possible.
• If your financial capacity has increased, we may adjust your award so that funds can continue to support families with greater need.

Our goal is to ensure that awards are aligned with each family’s current situation.

We expect that families who begin by paying full tuition to the school will continue to do so unless unforeseen circumstances make that impossible. We advise families not to go to extraordinary lengths to pay full tuition during their first year in the hope of receiving tuition assistance the next year. However, if your financial situation since you joined the school has changed significantly, you should apply for aid.

The school makes every effort to be helpful in the case of circumstances beyond a family’s control (for example, loss of a job or unexpected illness). Typically, the school isn’t able to support parents who choose to make a change in their employment status that reduces their income (for example, a working parent who returns to school, or a parent who decides to quit their job to start a business).

As you plan for the long term, remember that tuition will increase each year, usually between four and six percent.

There are also increases in tuition when a student enters grades five and seven.

Even if the percentage of tuition aid you are awarded remains the same, the amount of tuition you pay is very likely to be somewhat higher each year.

Many families have a fluctuating income. Please understand that the tuition aid process is based on your previous year’s income.

If you have a higher income year, you will need to plan ahead and save money for tuition for the following year. Conversely, you may benefit from a lower-income year as you may receive a higher aid award even if your current year’s income is larger.

The school recognizes that families make all kinds of decisions about employment. We support families of many different income levels.

When considering a family’s financial need, we do consider the earning potential of all parents of school-age children. If a parent chooses to be a stay-at-home-parent, attend school, work part-time or other similar low or no-wage options, potential wages will be attributed to reflect a family’s potential income level. 

The school will not impute income for a stay-at-home parent caring for an infant or preschool-age child.

FSMN expects parents to participate in the financial aid process even in the case of divorce or separation, and even when the parents do not have—or never had—a formal, legal relationship.

We may waive participation by a non-custodial parent if that person has had minimal or no contact with the child for at least two years, and has not provided any financial support for the child during that time.  Please understand that if contact is re-established, the non-custodial parent will be expected to participate in future financial aid applications, per our policy.

Tuition aid information is kept strictly confidential. Only a very small number of staff—typically no more than three—have access to any financial information or even know which families receive tuition aid. Classroom teachers, specialists, and general staff do not see this information, and it is never shared within the school community. Families can trust that both their financial details and their aid status remain fully private.

SSS uses strict, industry-standard security protections for all documents. Safeguards include:

• Secure processing facilities with 24/7 monitoring
• Fire-safe vault storage for physical documents
• Certified shredding of paper documents after six months
• Encrypted electronic storage
• SAS 70–audited data protection systems
• Enterprise-level network protection and intrusion prevention

Families may upload clear photos from a phone—this is common and secure.

Not at all.
FSMN is rooted in Quaker values of equity, justice, and community, and socioeconomic diversity is a strength of our school. Your financial situation is known only to the Tuition Aid Committee and the Business Office. Classroom teachers, staff, and other families have no access to this information.