Financial Aid
Financial Aid Contact
Our mission statement says that we seek to be “one community” with parents; part of being one community indicates that we are there for one another. As such, we do not want finances to interfere with a child receiving a Catholic education. Our goal is that the tuition is “affordable” (which is not an absolute guarantee for all situations).
There are sources outside of the school for scholarship that anyone seeking financial aid needs to apply for; in addition to these outside sources, the parish may provide, according to its means, financial support to cover the cost of some of the tuition, as long as the family is ready to make the necessary sacrifices on their part to pay their portion. Through mutual sacrifice, we strive to attain this affordability goal.
There are currently three outside sources of scholarships:
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Seeds of Hope
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The Schmitz Family Foundation
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ACE
A family qualifies if they are within 300% to 350% (depending on the organization) of the federal poverty guidelines. For example, according to the poverty guidelines for 2025, a family of four qualifies for these scholarships if they make $99,000 or less (at the 300% level) or $115,500 or less (at the 350% level).
This annual amount of income is your adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year, which is normally less than one’s total amount of (gross) income for the year. On Tax Form 1040, this AGI amount is line 11.
We encourage every family to look at their 2024 taxes to see if they qualify for one of these outside scholarships. For those who qualify, these organizations can grant you a scholarship (which will continue almost automatically at local Catholic schools through 8th grade, requiring a shorter application and barring major changes in your life situation).
All Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver (including Nativity of Our Lord) automatically contribute toward the Seeds of Hope organization as a percentage of regular donations, which funds the scholarships. Historically, Nativity of Our Lord has paid in more to Seeds of Hope than we have received back in students’ scholarships. We are confident that there are families in our school community who qualify for these grants but are not aware that they qualify. When you apply and receive these outside funds, those funds are paid directly to the school to lower your tuition bill—helping both you and the school.
What is new for 2026-2027:
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The financial aid application is now only one: the Seeds of Hope application. This one application gets you access to all three outside scholarships; the three organizations work together to cover the students in need.
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Anyone requesting aid must fill out this application.
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An anonymous financial aid committee has been formed to work with families to come up with that “affordability” number. The financial aid committee will determine the amount, if any, the parish will contribute to further reduce the tuition, in addition to outside scholarships.
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Non-Catholics may now apply for financial aid and these outside scholarships!
As a note, all new or potential families seeking financial aid must first complete a school application and be accepted to receive a reward letter from the financial aid committee.
Under normal circumstances, the deadline for filling out the Seeds of Hope application is April 15th. In unusual situations, such as moving from out of state after this deadline, exceptions may be made for considering a financial aid application; in this case, the deadline is September 15th. For other unusual situations, please ask if you missed the deadline. We may be able to accommodate you with a different deadline.