Tuition & Funding
What it costs, and what helps.
Everything is on this page, so you know before you fall in love with the place. Below: what we charge, what is included, and the two Florida programs that reduce the number for a great many families.
no discovery call required. ↓
Tuition
One number per classroom, published for the year.
Tuition varies by age, because the ratios do. Rates are set for the full school year and do not change mid-year. Enrollment is capped by classroom, not by building — so the number of places is small and fixed.
This year's rates
Rates are set per classroom — infants, toddlers, twos, age three, pre-K and kindergarten, elementary — and published for the full school year.
A registration fee and a deposit are due at enrollment, and tuition is billed on a fixed schedule for the year. Both appear in full on your enrollment agreement before you sign it.
Included
All project materials — and this school goes through a lot of them. Outdoor program. Your child's documented portfolio. Two conferences a year. Weekly family notes.
Not included
Meals and snacks, summer sessions, and any care outside your program's hours.
Siblings
We look at families with more than one child here individually — ask us when you tour, and we will put it in writing with your agreement.
Start here
Which route applies to your child?
Two different Florida programs, mixed up constantly: VPK is for four-year-olds. Step Up scholarships are for kindergarten and up. Find your child's age below.
Birth – age 3
Private tuition
Neither state program covers infants, toddlers or twos. Families in this stage pay tuition directly. Some employers offer dependent-care assistance — worth asking your HR team before you assume not.
Age 4 (the VPK year)
Free VPK hours
Florida pays for the instructional hours of a four-year-old's prekindergarten year, for every family, regardless of income. You pay for the hours around it.
Kindergarten & elementary
Step Up For Students
Florida's K–12 scholarships are administered by Step Up For Students and can be applied to tuition at a participating private school.
Florida VPK
Free prekindergarten, for every Florida four-year-old.
Florida's Voluntary Prekindergarten program is free to all four-year-olds who live in the state, regardless of household income. It pays for the instructional hours of the prekindergarten year.
Who qualifies
Your child must live in Florida and turn four on or before September 1 of the program year. If their fourth birthday falls between February 2 and September 1, you may choose to use the VPK year then, or postpone it a year and use it at five — a genuinely useful option for a summer birthday.
What it covers
The school-year program is 540 instructional hours; the summer program is 300 hours. Providers choose how those hours are arranged across the week. VPK is free for the instructional hours — families pay for wraparound care outside them.
How to apply
Apply online through Florida's Early Learning Family Portal. Once approved you receive a Certificate of Eligibility — bring it to us and we handle the rest. Winter Park sits in Orange County, so the program here is administered by the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County.
At this school
Bring us your Certificate of Eligibility and we will show you exactly how the VPK hours sit inside our day, and what the hours around them cost. Ask on your tour or call the office.
Kindergarten & elementary
Step Up For Students
Step Up For Students is the non-profit that administers Florida's K–12 scholarship programs. Award amounts are set each year by the Florida Legislature, and applications are made and managed by families in Step Up's online platform, EMA.
Two things worth knowing up front: a student can have only one active scholarship application at a time, and these scholarships apply from kindergarten onward — for a four-year-old, VPK is the route.
How the money actually reaches the school
You apply in EMA and receive an award
Everything begins in your own Step Up account. Once your child is awarded, EMA shows you a student Award ID.
You give us that Award ID
This is the step families most often miss. Send the Award ID to the school office — nothing can be billed until we have it.
We enroll your child in EMA at the agreed rate
Using the Award ID, the school enters your child at the tuition and fee amount in your enrollment agreement. Step Up confirms the enrollment before proposing the student for funding to the state.
An invoice appears each quarter — and you approve it
Every quarter EMA generates an invoice against your award. Both the school and you have to review and approve it. If a parent approval is sitting untouched, the payment simply waits — so watch for the notification.
Funds are disbursed to the school, quarterly
Scholarship money is deposited four times a year, not monthly. We bill you only for the difference between the award and your tuition — and we tell you that number before you enroll, not after.
At this school
Call the office before you apply and we will confirm our current participation status and which programs we can bill against, so you are not guessing at the application stage.
One safety note
Step Up will never ask you for your account credentials or banking details by phone, text or email. If someone does, it is not them. Their published family line is (877) 735-7837.
Everything on this page reflects Step Up's published process for families and schools. Award amounts and rules are set annually — always confirm current details with Step Up directly.
What we handle, and what only you can do.
Scholarship paperwork sinks more enrollments than tuition does, so here is who does what.
We do
Enroll your child in EMA once you send the Award ID. Submit our side of every quarterly invoice. Tell you your out-of-pocket balance before you sign anything. Chase a missing approval rather than letting a term drift.
Walk a first-time scholarship family through the whole thing in person, at the office, if that is easier than a website.
Only you can
Create and hold the Step Up account, apply, and keep your household details current. Approve each quarterly invoice from your own login — we cannot do this for you, and it is where payments stall.
For VPK: apply through the Family Portal and bring us the Certificate of Eligibility.
if the forms are the thing standing between you and this school — call us. we will sit down with you.
Bring us the number. We'll do the arithmetic with you.
Tell us your child's age and whether you hold a VPK certificate or a Step Up award, and we will tell you exactly what a year here costs your family — before you tour, if you prefer.