Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Information

ESA website: https://www.azed.gov/esa

ESA Support Line phone # 602-364-1969

To apply for an ESA: https://www.azed.gov/esa/eligibility-requirements

All K-12 students who reside in the state of Arizona are eligible for a Universal Empowerment Scholarship Account. The student must be an Arizona resident and not enrolled in a public school.

Please note that when applying for ESA under the “Universal” category, you will need to provide the following:

Student’s Birth Certificate (full color image)
Proof of Residency Document in the Applicant’s Name (parent/guardian applying)

From the ESA website:

What is an ESA?

An Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) is an account administered by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and funded by state tax dollars to provide education options for qualified Arizona students.

Are there application deadlines? ESA accepts applications online year-round, and the scholarship amount awarded is divided into four quarterly disbursements (July, October, January and April).

DATES:

Q1: July 1 – September 30

Q2: October 1 – December 31

Q3: January 1 – March 31

*Q4: April 1 – June 30

The funding received is based on the quarter that the contract is signed.

For example, if you sign a contract at any point from July 1 – September 30, you’ll receive Q1 funding. If you sign the contract from October 1 – December 31, you’ll receive Q2 funding, etc.

*Please note, if you apply in Q4 you will not receive funding until the next school year.

What happens to funds that aren’t spent?

While a portion of funding must be spent each year, any remaining funds remain in the account and roll over to the next year.

Approximate Annual Universal ESA funding: The amount varies based on several factors, but approximately $7,000 for grades 1-12. Kindergarten students receive approximately $4,500. Students who have a current IEP/MET/504 are eligible to receive additional funding based on their IEP/MET category of eligibility.

Students cannot receive ESA funding and School Tuition Organization tax credit scholarships (STO’s such as CEA, IBE, APESF, ATC, etc.,) concurrently. Families must select one or the other for the school year. Pursuant to A.R.S.§15-2402(B)(3), students cannot receive a tuition tax credit scholarship from an STO while also receiving ESA funding. This is a contract violation and can result in termination. For further questions, please contact your STO for guidance. See the ESA contract and pages 3, 53 and 64 of the ESA Parent Handbook.

The ESA contract is between the AZ Department of Education and your family. The school does not have any access to ESA’s data, or your ESA or ClassWallet account. Our only involvement is receiving the funds you may send to us and applying them to your child’s tuition balance in FACTS. We strongly encourage you to go to the Arizona Department of Education ESA website and read the Parent Handbook, ESA Guidance section on the website, etc. so you understand the rules, laws, and regulations regarding the ESA program. If you have questions, you will need to talk to ESA directly. Please note, you will need to sign a new contract with ESA each school year.

Families are responsible, not the school, for ensuring that they are following the rules, regulations, and laws regarding their ESA accounts. Please see the note from the Diocese of Phoenix at the end of this page.

Feel free to reach out to our business office with any questions but do keep in mind that for many ESA questions (example, about ClassWallet, applying, funding, etc.) we may need to direct you to ESA, or for STO (E.g: CEA, IBE, APESF, ATC, etc.) questions to your STO.

As ESA’s policies may continue to evolve and change, so may ours, so please read your emails/newsletters from ESA, the ESA website, and visit this ESA section on our website frequently for any changes to how we are working with families using ESA.

Using ESA Funds for Tuition at St. John XXIII Catholic School

There are 2 ways you can use your students ESA funds to pay tuition, either by sending the funds directly to our school each quarter, through the “Direct Pay” option in your ClassWallet account, or using the “Reimbursement” option in your ClassWallet account and reimbursing yourself directly for tuition you have already personally paid to the school.

1. Sending your ESA funds directly to the school through the “Direct Pay” option in ClassWallet. Please note the following policies regarding sending ESA funds to our school to pay for tuition.

- A. We will put the amount we expect to receive each quarter from you through ESA/ClassWallet for your student’s tuition (as noted on the students ESA contract) on a quarterly payment schedule (The 20th of the month July, October, January and April) and on hold, once the family provides a copy of the signed ESA contract for the student to our Business Office, Laura Bentzin, lbentzin@saintjohnxxiii.org. We require a copy of the signed contract each school year to put any tuition on hold.
- B. Any tuition that is owed for the school year over the amount the school is expected to receive from you for your student through ESA/ClassWallet, will be divided into monthly payments (per the Facts payment plan) and automatically withdrawn through the families’ Facts account. Also note, ESA/ClassWallet deducts a 2% service fee. If the amount received from ESA is different from the amount the school expected to receive for the quarter, the difference will be added to the next monthly tuition payment in FACTS or 4 business days later if no tuition payments remain.
- C. The expectation is that within 2 days of the students’ Class Wallet account being funded for the quarter (July, October, January, and April) the family submits the Direct Pay request in ClassWallet. Remember, ESA payments do not automatically happen, you must login to your ESA ClassWallet account when you receive a disbursement you want to use and request funds are sent to our school.
- D. If the funds are NOT received at our school within 16 days of the ClassWallet account being funded (2 days for the family to submit the “Direct Pay” order in ClassWallet and 14 days for the order to be approved and sent to our school), families will be billed 1 month of tuition (total tuition rate divided by 10 months) via their FACTS account 3 business days later, and each subsequent month until the account is resolved. *Exception: If the April ESA funds are not received the family will be billed the remaining tuition due for the school year.
- E. The school will not reimburse or credit any tuition payment(s) the family makes due to the student having an ESA or pending ESA funds. A family can request a direct “reimbursement” through their ESA/ClassWallet account for qualifying expenses they have paid to the school.
- F. The amount we receive from ClassWallet will be applied to the student’s first available tuition payment in Facts.
- G. If we cannot apply all or a portion of the amount sent to us for the student, it will be returned to ESA/ClassWallet. We, as a vendor, are not allowed to hold ESA funds, refund them directly to the family, or apply the funds to a sibling. We must return any overpayment back to the AZ Department of Education ESA, and this process is very lengthy and time-consuming. Therefore, it is very important that you make sure you are not sending over more ESA funds than the remaining amount owed in Tuition for the school year for your student.

A few ClassWallet FYI’s: On the ESA website there are some how-to resources under ClassWallet Information, in the section called “Paying a Private School”. https://www.azed.gov/esa/classwallet .

To find our school in ClassWallet, once you select “Direct Pay, Pay for Services” make sure “Categories” is set to “All”. Under “Who do you want to pay?” start typing: st. john and you will see our school in the drop down. ClassWallet phone # 877-969-5536.

Directions for Facts Documentation needed for “Direct Pay, Pay for Services” (sending the funds to St. John XXIII Catholic School):
For ESA funds you want to send directly to the school, you need to show proof that you owe those funds to the school for the student. The Facts documentation must show: the school’s name, the students name, the school year, scheduled payment date, what the ESA funds are paying for (Tuition), and the amount owed. If the document doesn’t show these items ESA will reject the order. If possible, we suggest highlighting or circling these items on the document. Please note there is a 2% ClassWallet service fee for Direct Pay to a Vendor. Facts has been working with ESA on documentation families can use for Direct Pay. Following are the directions:

Once logged in Click on “View Details.” This will take you to the Activity Details screen.
Under the “Schedule” tab, to the far right of “Upcoming Payments” click on the word “Print”
Select the Student
Select the Payment Dates you would like the detailed documentation for and click Print
A document containing all the information ESA requires to approve a Direct Pay order will pop up. Save the document as a PDF. (where you see the printer name, click the drop down and select Save as a PDF)

Or, if for some reason you cannot access the above documentation, families are telling us the following document from Facts is still working:

Once logged in Click on “View Details.” This will take you to the Activity Details screen.
Under “Schedule” click on the down arrow next to the scheduled payment or payments you want the ESA funds to be applied towards. You will now see the details of the scheduled payment(s), which ESA will require.
Save the information/document. On a PC – click Control P, a document will pop up, and instead of printing it, where you see the printer name, click the drop down and select Save as a PDF; on a Mac – to take a screenshot press Shift+Command+3 and then save it.

2. Reimbursement – reimbursing yourself directly for tuition you have already personally paid to the school. If you plan to use the ESA/ClassWallet reimbursement option, our school does not need any further information. Your tuition payments will automatically run through your Facts account, per your chosen payment schedule.

Directions for the Facts documentation needed for Reimbursement: For direct reimbursement to yourself through your ESA/ClassWallet account for qualifying expenses you have already paid to our school, you need to show proof of the payment(s) made to our school. Following are directions for the documentation needed from Facts that families have been telling us they are using for reimbursement. You need to upload both, as there is not one Facts document that contains all the information ESA wants for reimbursement. If you upload only one, it will most likely be returned. Therefore, you will have at least 2 pages or more depending on how many payments you are looking to be reimbursed for. Also, just another FYI, some families are telling us they are also including their bank statements to also show the payments.

FIRST

Log into your Facts Payment Plan/Financial portal at Factsmgt.com
Click on “View Details”.
Click on “View Payment Summary” in the blue box.
In the box that has a year, instead select “date range” and enter the date range. You should put the month(s) you are requesting for reimbursement. (For example, if you are requesting reimbursement for October and November tuition payments, you would put October 1 as the start date and Nov. 30 as the end date.)
Click “View”
Click on “Print” at the top right to print the document or save it as a PDF. This document will show you the summary of payments made by school year, student name, and account. It also includes our school’s name, address, and Tax ID#.
This is the first document needed.

AND SECOND (make sure you are back on the Activity Details page)

Click on the “Payments Made” tab
If needed, change the date range in the box that says, “Past 90 days”, to a range where you can see the payment(s) needed.
Find the payment (For example, if your October payment was on Oct. 20, find that payment date.)
Once you have found the payment, click on the word “Payment” in blue. This will open a window showing all the detailed Payment Information. ESA requires this information for any payment you are requesting for reimbursement.
Print or save it as a PDF.
If applicable, find the next payment you need the details for and do the same.
This is the second document needed.

So, for example, if you were requesting reimbursement for the October and November tuition payments you made:

Page 1 would be the “Payment Summary” with a date range of Oct. 1-Nov. 30.

Page 2 would be the detailed Payment Information for the October payment.

Page 3 would be the detailed Payment Information for the November payment.

You would be uploading 3 pages.

A Message from the Diocese of Phoenix Regarding ESA and STOs

NOTICE REGARDING TUITION FUNDING PROGRAMS

The State of Arizona provides several options to assist families in paying for your child’s Catholic education, including the Empower Scholarship Account (ESA) Program and through State Tuition Organization (STO) tax credit funds. These programs are offered through the State and/or through the individual STO, and are not managed by the School.

Therefore, you are responsible for compliance with all terms, conditions to eligibility, and legal requirements related to any programs in which you participate. Please note in particular that pursuant to state law, if you choose to utilize an Empower Scholarship Account, you may not utilize STO funds (or vice versa). The School is not responsible for ensuring your compliance with this or any other term, condition, law or requirement relating to tuition assistance programs.

Furthermore, please be aware that payment of your child’s tuition is your responsibility, whether or not you choose to participate in ESA, STO, or any other programs or options to assist your family. These programs may not cover 100% of the cost of tuition and fees, and therefore any outstanding portion will remain your responsibility.