Frequently Asked Questions

About School Tuition Organizations

1. What is a School Tuition Organization? It is a charitable organization that receives voluntary cash contributions from individual Iowa taxpayers and then allocates those funds in the form of tuition assistance to eligible families that attend accredited nonpublic schools represented by the School Tuition Organization.   
   
   
2. Has this type of program been established anywhere else in the country? Yes. Programs such as these have been approved in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and most recently in Rhode Island.
   
   
3. Does this program interface with the existing tuition tax credit offered to taxpayers in Iowa? No. The tuition tax credit program is completely separate from the donations to a School Tuition Organization. The tuition tax credit program provides a tax credit to parents/guardians for the first 25% of tuition paid by the parents up to a maximum credit of $250 per child in grades K-12.
   
   
4. How much of my donation will be given to eligible families? The law requires that at least ninety percent of all donations be distributed as grants to qualifying families within twelve months of receipt of the gift. The School Tuition Organization may use up to ten percent of the proceeds for out of pocket expenses such as printing costs, mailing fees, and administration of the program realized while overseeing the program.
   
   
5. What is the total dollar amount of tax credits that can be issued statewide by all of the approved School Tuition Organization’s? Statewide, tax credits equaling $7.5 million each year can be issued.
    
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