Parents encouraged to apply for diocesan scholarships

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
Last spring, the Diocese of Sioux City was able to award $2.18 million to 2,700 Catholic school students through the diocesan scholarship program.
 
Stacia Thompson, coordinator of enrollment and outreach for the Catholic Schools Office, said her office anticipates a similar amount of dollars available to award for Catholic school scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year. She encourages parents to apply before the May 1 deadline.
 
“A family of four can earn over $128,000 and still qualify for a scholarship,” she stressed, noting that the income guidelines are available online at https://scdiocese.org/scholarship. “It’s open to all students five and up and that are residents of the state of Iowa because it’s state sponsored.”
 
Scholarship dollars are raised by diocesan Catholic schools and the diocesan Stewardship and Development Office through the Msgr. Lafferty Tuition Foundation (MLTF). Those contributing to MLTF receive 75% of the donation amount in state of Iowa tax credits.
 
“Our schools have worked really hard to raise these funds, so we want to make sure that the dollars go back to the local communities where they were raised to aid students in their area,” the coordinator said.
 
As the upcoming academic year will be the first year that all families can receive Education Savings Account dollars, some mistakenly believe that it covers the entire tuition cost and they don’t need to apply for the diocesan scholarships.
 
“There are ESAs but there is a difference between the full tuition cost and the anticipated ESA dollars in many of our schools,” Thompson explained.
 Bishop Garrigan Catholic SchoolShe also noted that Superintendent Patty Lansink has worked with all 15 diocesan school systems “to ensure tuition is set at a fair rate for our families and to help compensate our teachers fairly.”
 
The Catholic Schools Office ensures that parents can maximize the funding available to them by applying the diocesan scholarship funds to their account first, and then ESA dollars.
 
“Some families will be fortunate enough to have some money left on their educational savings account that they can use for other educational expenses, computers, tutoring, testing, those kinds of things. It can stay in their ESA account until they are 20 or graduate from high school. They can use it throughout their educational journey. It’s definitely beneficial for them to apply,” she said.
 
The TADS online application is available now at https://scdiocese.org/scholarship in both English and Spanish. Thompson noted the application is for awarding diocesan scholarship funds and to assist the individual Catholic school systems in awarding additional tuition dollars to families.
 
“Applications are more streamlined this year than last year,” Thompson added.
 
The Catholic Schools Office anticipates applications for ESA dollars will open for families in April and the deadline to apply will be June 30.
 
“Between the two processes, I would encourage people that are thinking of coming to a Catholic school to please apply for these moneys that they certainly might qualify for,” Thompson said. “Spots do fill up, especially in the younger grades. If they are thinking about it, they should contact their local Catholic school and apply for a scholarship before the deadline.”