Discounts And Scholarships Overview

This post looks at policy relating to discounts and scholarships with regard to tuition: that is, ways in which you might end up charging less for tuition in certain circumstances.

For discounts and scholarships, there are no hard and fast rules. You might offer several or both, or you might not offer any of either.

Discounts

When deciding to offer a discount for tuition, remember that it is mostly a marketing tool: tuition discounts mean your program doesn’t make as much money, so it has to encourage potential families to enroll.

Some common discounts for tuition include:

• Sibling discount— A discount for one or several students from the same family
• Lump sum discount— A discount for families that choose to pay tuition in a lump sum at the beginning of the year instead of monthly/weekly
• Employee discount— A discount for the children of staff that work at the center or its affiliates
• Career discount— A discount for the children of individuals in certain careers, such as military or first-responders

Scholarships

Scholarships can be a tremendous benefit to individuals that might not otherwise be able to afford your program. Generally, scholarships are established with a specific need in mind, and they have explicit criteria (for example, demonstrated financial need.)

Offering a scholarship requires a steady stream of funds that can ensure the cost of the scholarship is covered in the operating budget. You might fund-raise specifically for the scholarship fund throughout the year, build the scholarship fund into the budget, or only establish the scholarship after a large donation.

Depending on your goals for the scholarship, you will need to write clear instructions on the purpose of the scholarship and how to apply for it, then create guidelines for how the scholarship is awarded. Who is eligible for the scholarship, and what do they need to provide in their application? How will the information be kept confidential? Many scholarships have committees to review applications – who will be on yours? After the scholarship is awarded, how will awardees be notified, and how will those who did not get the scholarship be told? How will scholarship funds be awarded? At what point does the scholarship cease? How many times can the same family be awarded the same scholarship?

Where To Include

At Playvolution HQ, we recommend using the Three Handbook Method. Consider adding this policy to your Parent Handbook.

Considerations

• Check with your local licensing agency to make sure there are no specific policies about discounts and scholarships you need to be aware of.
• Be very, very clear about how much your discounts and scholarships will cover, if you can utilize more than one discount or scholarship, and when they start and stop.
• Making scholarship or discount-specific materials that require a parent’s signature can be useful for ensuring that they understand the agreement.

Sample Policies

NOTE: The following samples are real-world examples relating to this post’s topic and are provided as a reference for creating your own policies and procedures. Sharing them here is not a recommendation of their content.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

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