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.

Community Fundraising

To support our commitment to making a ROCS education accessible for families, we engage our parent community in fundraising efforts to supplement tuition costs. By setting an annual fundraising goal, we aim to keep tuition fees as low as possible while ensuring quality education for our students.

For the 2024/2025 school year, our fundraising goal is set at $25,000. This target reflects our ongoing dedication to working collaboratively with parents to mitigate financial burdens and provide an inclusive educational environment.

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 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!

Financial Aid Program

Since its inception, Red Oak’s leadership teams have made it a priority to work towards a sustainable financial aid program. We have engaged various community-driven ideas over the years in an attempt to accomplish this goal. Building on the progress made through those past initiatives, we are now fully committed to opening a scholarship fund through The Columbus Foundation. We are pleased to announce that our Accessibility Fund will officially open on July 1, 2025!

This means that our application process for the 2026-2027 school year will include an option to apply for financial aid. The fund will be small at first, but we will continue working to grow the fund in order to make Red Oak more accessible for families in 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.

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 financial aid program (see above).

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!