For the last 6 months we have been researching how other Montessori Schools are charging tuition and fees in order to be long-term sustainable, and how their scholarship/financial aid programs work.
For our own Bovina Center Montessori School, we are actively working on estimating all the costs, so we can determine what tuition is required to cover operations, facilities, and teacher salaries.
Also, we are working to establish a “Friends of Bovina Montessori” scholarship foundation, so families with financial needs are able to pay for their children’s enrollment. More about this foundation later!
What we’ve learned is that the annual fee for children across 3-15 years in Montessori Schools in our Northeast region average around $14,000 per student per year.
If a school year has 170 days with 7 hours a day, this would equal around $12 per hour.
For part-time toddler programs (e.g. 3 hours in the morning), we have seen an average annual tuition fees of $7,500 per year, or $625 per month.
Schools in the North East typically charge a $50 application fee, with a separate application fee for a scholarship being $100 (this is because about half goes to pay the system which handles such applications, e.g. the widely used enrollment platform called TADS).
Montessori Schools typically also offer discounts for upfront payments and siblings.
Often the default payment schedule is 12 payments per year, however, families who pay annually upfront could get a 5% discount, and two annual payments would offer a 2,5% discount of the annual tuition.
For parents with several kids it is not unusual to see a 10% discount for the second child and a 20% discount for the 3rd child.
We hope this gave you a better idea about what you can expect. We know that you are waiting for final numbers! We will be communicating more about these very soon, as we know how important this is for all families that are trying to make a decision about enrolling in the school.
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