Tuition 2024-2025
Our goal is to make quality Christian education affordable. However, with significant increase in inflation and its impact on the overall expense of operation, we will once again need to raise rates by $25 per month for the 2024-2025 school year. For students in Grades 1 to 8, the increase will fall into the charitable donation portion of the tuition so that the after-tax cost will be considerably less than $25 per month for all families. For kindergarten students, the increase will qualify as childcare expense so that the after-tax cost will be considerably less for families with two working parents. We will continue the discount for the second and third student in the family and will continue to include the cost of workbooks in the tuition.
| 2024-2025 | ||
| Per Year | Per Month* | |
| First Child | $10,500 | $875 |
| Second Child | $8,700 | $725 |
| Third Child | $7,500 | $625 |
| Fourth Child | $7,500 | $625 |
| Fifth Child | $7,500 | $625 |
| Sixth Child | Free | Free |
* 12-month pay plan
Most families prefer our 12-month pay plan, whereby they give the Academy 12 equal monthly installments in the form of cheques post-dated from July to June. (The monthly payment is lower than the actual cost of attending for the month because we are spreading the costs of about nine months of teaching over a twelve-month period in order to keep the monthly payments as low as possible.)
The tuition fee also covers registration, entrance testing (where applicable), workbooks, writing materials in the lower grades, and childcare during lunchtime and for brief periods before and after school. There are modest additional costs for such items as uniforms, field trips, optional after-school clubs, musical instruments and music sheets, and some minor school supplies in the older grades.
For new students registering for the first time, we require a currently-dated cheque at the time of registration equivalent to one month’s installment for each child in order to hold the placement(s) for you. (To register for September, 2024 your deposit cheque would be $875 for one child; $1,600 for two children; $2,225 for 3 children). This deposit cheque will be cashed only upon acceptance of your application. If we accept your application, you will be notified by email or mail. You then have ten days in which to deliver the tuition (the full amount, less the 2% discount, or 12 post-dated cheques) to the Academy.
Once we accept the registration, the deposit becomes non-refundable because it confirms a contractual relationship based on which the Academy, in turn, enters into contracts for teachers, accommodations and books for the coming year.
Your March cheque (or 1/12th of your full payment cheque) will then be treated as your deposit for the following school year, to be confirmed by the filing of a Re-registration Form in February. If you do not wish to register for a second year at that time, and provided you notify us in writing by February 28, we will return your June cheque (or 1/12th of your full payment), so that you will have paid the correct amount for the one year.
All post-dated cheques are due on the first of the month, but may be dated up to the 15th of the month if that would be helpful to you. All cheques should be made payable to Richmond Hill Christian Academy and should have your child(ren)’s name(s) on the bottom.
Should you wish to prepay your fee for the full year before July 15th, 2023, you may deduct 2%.
| 2024-2025 Fee | Less 2% | |
| One child | $ 10,500 | $10,290 |
| Two children | $19,200 | $18,816 |
| Three children | $26,700 | $26,166 |
| Four children | $34,200 | $33,516 |
| Five children | $41,700 | $40,866 |
Registering for Part of a School Year:
If, at the time of registration, you state that you will be able to stay for only part of the coming school year, we will pro-rate your tuition if we are able to accept your registration for the partial year.
Cancelling Registration After Payments Have Started: If you are unable to start or complete a school year, for example because your employer unexpectedly transfers you to another city, or, if you simply change your mind, we will retain all payments (including the deposit and any payments made during the summer) up to the later of: the month of receiving the notice of withdrawal, or, the last month (or partial month) of attendance. Your notice must be in writing (we recommend e-mail). If you have prepaid your fees, we will refund the amount required to put you in the same position as if you had been paying monthly.
For students already attending the Academy and who wish to continue their education at the Academy in 2024-2025: All families will receive a Re-Registration package in February 2024. Parents have already given the Academy a March 2024 cheque that we will use as the deposit for the 2024-2025 year. Please return the Re-Registration Form properly filled out, along with the tuition for the 2024-2025 year prepaid by cheque dated not later than July 15, 2024, if you take the 2% discount, or by 12 cheques post-dated July 2024-June 2025. Deadline: February 28: If you do not re-register by February 28, your child’s place will be open to other applicants beginning March 1. If you are uncertain as of February 28, please inform the Administrator in writing (we recommend e-mail); in some circumstances, we may be able to provide up to a maximum 30-day extension.
We use your March cheque (or 1/12th of your full payment) as your deposit for the following year in order not to burden families with an extra payment during the year. Nevertheless, the deposit is a serious indication of your intent to re-register, and is non-refundable after the February 28 deadline.
For students attending the Academy up to June 2024, but who do not wish to register for 2024-2025, we need to receive your notice of withdrawal in writing by February 28, 2024, in order for you to recoup your deposit by getting your final (June 2024) payment back. It is not sufficient to simply not re-register.
Registering a younger brother or sister of a student already attending the school: To register an additional child, please fill out the Sibling Registration Form (included in your package in case you need it), and deliver it with a deposit cheque of $725 for a second child; or $625 for a third, fourth, or fifth child. Sibling registrations are always accepted up to the deadline of February 28, so you should include the payments for all your JK to Grade 12 children in your full-tuition cheque or in your 12 post-dated cheques ($1,600 per month for two children; $2,225 per month for three children; $2,850 per month for four children; $3,475 per month for five children).
All families participating in the 2023-2024 program will receive a Re-registration Form in February 2024 for the 2024-2025 school year. This form is due back by the end of February, 2024, along with the post-dated cheques for the 2024-2025 year.
If you notify us in writing by the end of February, 2024, that you do not wish to re-register for 2024-2025, your March, 2024 cheque will be treated as part of your fees for the 2023-2024 school year, and your final (June, 2024) cheque will be returned to you.
Tax treatment of fees:
A. Child Care: Our tuition fee includes an amount charged for supervision during the 60 minute lunch period for Grade 1 to 4 students and for the 45 minute lunch period for Grade 5 to 8 students, as well as for supervision of the students for up to 15 minutes in the morning prior to the start of classes, and for up to 30 minutes prior to pick-up after school. This service is charged as 14% of the fee for Grade 1 to 4 students and 11% of the fee for Grade 5 to 8 students and is charged whether the student attends or not on any particular day. The charge is receipted separately as Child Care.
In addition, fees for the before-school and after-school clubs and activity clubs for all students, regardless of age, are recognized as Child Care Expenses by the Canada Revenue Agency and are so receipted.
Until recently, most assessors recognized tuition up to $8,000 as Child Care for all children under the compulsory school age of 7. (See Canada Revenue Agency Interpretation Bulletin # 495). More recently, some assessors appear to be narrowing this group to kindergarteners only. Although we are not aware of any legislation or case law in this area, we receipt only kindergarten tuition fees as Child Care.
B. Charitable Donation Portion of Tuition: Richmond Hill Christian Academy is a charity. The Canada Revenue Agency allows religious schools to receipt as a charitable donation the portion of the tuition that is not Child Care and is not the cost of providing secular education.
The charitable donation portion is proportionally less for multi-child families (and for families entitled to our 25% discount for heads of families who are in full-time Christian work) because the formula proscribed under IC 75-23 requires the school to calculate a cost per pupil of providing secular education and then to deduct that (as well as the child care portion) from the fees paid to determine the charitable portion. In rare cases, if the tuition paid (less the child care portion) is less than the cost per student for secular education, then there is no portion left that can be receipted as a charitable donation.
Receipts for Child Care and Charitable Donation amounts are provided by the end of February of the following year.
Donations: The Academy is very grateful for donations and will provide an Official Receipt for Income Tax Purposes for donations – as received from non-parents, and at the end of February of the following year for parents.
Donations from families paying less than the prescribed amount of tuition fees will be treated as tuition up to the prescribed tuition rate.
