Financial Information
We acknowledge that many families face financial barriers to paying tuition, acquiring necessary gear, paying ancillary fees and/or providing transportation for students to and from school. At the same time, the average cost of educating a student in Ohio is around $15,000 a year and our tuition (which is not subsidized by a religious or governmental organization) remains well below that threshold. As a result, we must carefully balance the financial needs of our families with the need to provide staff with fair and equitable salaries, benefits and other expenses needed to run our program. This page contains information about the numerous efforts we make to strike that balance.
ROCS Accessibility Fund
Since its inception, Red Oak’s leadership teams have made it a priority to work towards a sustainable scholarship program. We have engaged various community-driven ideas over the years in an attempt to accomplish this goal. The progress from those past initiatives have led us where we are now - ready to officially launch our Accessibility Fund!
2026-2027 school year applications (and beyond) will include an application for scholarships. The Accessibility Fund will be small at first, but we will continue working to grow it in order to ensure Red Oak’s accessibility for families across central Ohio.
If you would like to contribute to our fund, please use the button below to visit our site at The Columbus Foundation. Every dollar donated will be completely tax-deductible and provide needed financial assistance to a Red Oak student.
Community Fundraising
To support our commitment to accessibility, each year we engage our parent community in fundraising efforts to supplement tuition costs for families. By setting an annual fundraising goal, we ensure the sustainability of our Accessibility Fund. Our fundraising goal is loosely set as a percentage of tuition each year. For 2025/2026, that goal is $25,000.
These funds are raised by engaging the creative ideas of our community. Past efforts have included - yard sales, Parents Night Outs, the ROCS Comfest drinks booth, a tattoo sale, story times, a spring silent auction, restaurant/food truck nights, a keg tapping event, bulb sales, FB fundraisers and more!
Tiered Tuition Program
At Red Oak, we embrace equity, transparency and fairness in our approach to tuition. We believe in providing families with the opportunity to make a financial commitment according to their available resources. Our tuition program operates on an honor system, offering discounted rates without necessitating additional paperwork. This not only streamlines the process for our families but also fosters transparency, ensuring that they have a clear understanding of their financial commitment from the outset of the admissions process.
It can be complicated to do an honest assessment of your family’s financial experience, so we’ve provided a graphic below to help you decide which tuition tier is appropriate for your family-
Family Volunteer Hours
We uphold our dedication to providing an accessible educational experience by effectively controlling expenses by maintaining a lean administrative team. However, as the efficient management of a school requires the involvement of many individuals, we embrace a communal approach by distributing responsibilities among our community members. We achieve this by asking every family to contribute volunteer hours. Alternatively, families have the option to fulfill their commitment through a buy-out of $25 per hour. Understanding that each family has unique circumstances, many opt for a combination of these choices, depending on their available resources.
Annual family volunteer hours:
60hrs/$1,500 for 5-day families
36hrs/$900 for 3-day families
24hrs/$600 for 2-day families
(Hours for single-parent families are halved.)
How does it work? Upon enrollment, the buy-out amount of volunteer hours is placed on each account. Families can then choose to buy out some or all of their hours. Otherwise they have until June 30th to contribute volunteer hours, and the fee will be reduced by the corresponding amount ($25/hr) each time hours are recorded.
Who can contribute? Any adult can contribute to a family’s volunteer hours- friends, family, etc.
What kinds of opportunities are there? There are lots of ways to contribute- board membership, staff support (laundry, helping educators prep materials, etc.), facilities (play area maintenance, tending school gardens, etc.), chaperoning field trips, giving tours, and of course… FUNDRAISING!
Sibling Discount
While we do not have a direct sibling tuition discount, our Volunteer Hours are per family, not per student, essentially creating a discount for families with multiple students enrolled. This amounts to an 11-15% discount per sibling.
EdChoice Scholarships
Red Oak received an initial charter from ODEW in January 2025, which makes us ELIGIBLE to become an EdChoice provider. However, we do not take the decision whether or not to operate under a government charter lightly and are spending the year exploring what impacts the charter might have on our organization. Once we have determined whether or not to maintain the ODEW charter, we will seek input from stakeholders to assess whether we will opt to become an EdChoice provider.
In the meantime, we are focusing on fully funding our Accessibility Fund (see above), which is a more stable and more equitable approach to tuition assistance. (For instance, EdChoice scholarships are not available for part-time families.)
529 College Savings Plans
Did you know now you can use your tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan funds to pay your ROCS tuition? Talk with your financial advisor to learn how!