Houston Private-School Financial Aid for Fall 2027

One calendar, several clocks

The aid deadline is often later than the application—but not by much.

The recovery rule is simple: if a school deadline has passed, submit what the portal permits and contact the aid office the same day.

Ask whether the file can enter the first review, a later review if funds remain, or only a full-pay pool. Do not confuse “we still accept applications” with “aid is still available.”

The platform does not award the money

FAST is closed, SSS has a new name, and each school still decides.

FAST permanently closed August 31, 2026. SSS was renamed Ravenna Financial Aid in May 2026. Houston schools also use Clarity and Blackbaud. A platform’s estimate is not a portable entitlement; the school applies its own budget and policy.

Create separate logins, deadlines, document lists, and completion checks. “Submitted” is not the same as “verified,” and an admission file marked complete says nothing about aid.

A completion routine that survives January

1. Make one adult the owner and a second adult the checker.
2. Enter every household exactly as the school instructs; ask for any waiver before waiting on a hard-to-reach parent.
3. Upload the return with schedules, W-2s, 1099s, business returns, pay statements, and requested benefit or support records.
4. Save the submission receipt, then return until the portal shows documents received or verified—not merely uploaded.
5. Check the school portal separately and resolve every hold in writing.

A platform fee waiver, estimate, or support response comes from the vendor. The school still controls eligibility, exceptions, and the grant.

St. John’s uses the SSS process and says its aid is need-based, annual, and subject to budget. EHS and John Cooper use Clarity. Awty currently uses Blackbaud and requires both parents unless it approves an exception.

Planning figures, not promises

Build the first-year bill school by school.

Kinkaid publishes a January 8 Ravenna deadline and need-blind admission. St. John’s publishes current prices and aid policy, but not the Fall 2027 deadline; its page says admission can become need-aware when the aid budget is constrained.

EHS’s known first-year floor is materially higher than tuition after food, laptop, and the new-student fee. Awty separately publishes registration, capital, transport, trip, book, and IB-related costs.

Four first-year reality checks

• EHS Grade 9: $38,100 tuition, $1,625 required food, a $2,500 new laptop, and a $1,500 new-student fee total $43,725 before transport, athletics, arts, optional insurance, or family spending.
• St. John’s Class 9: $38,530 tuition, $1,000 new-student fee, $750–$1,200 of books and supplies, and the $375 class trip produce $40,655–$41,105 before meals, transport, sports, fine arts, testing, and the enrollment deposit. The school publishes supplemental-cost aid that varies by award category; ask which category an offer includes.
• Kinkaid Grade 9: $38,960 tuition plus the $2,500 new-student fee starts at $41,460. Books, meals, transport, trips, uniforms, activities, and the deposit require separate confirmation.
• John Cooper Grade 9: $36,240 tuition, $1,000 new-student fee, roughly $500–$800 in books, and the published $450 Grade 9 trip produce $38,190–$38,490 before other costs.

These are arithmetic examples, not forecasts of Fall 2027 tuition or aid. Their purpose is to expose the cost categories a rounded tuition number hides.

Your full-cost worksheet

• Net tuition, registration, capital, new-student, and class fees.
• Deposit, payment-plan charge, and tuition-refund insurance.
• Books, device, insurance, supplies, uniforms, and replacements.
• Meals, trips, athletics, arts, clubs, testing, and senior expenses.
• Bus, tolls, fuel, parking, ride-hail, aftercare, and adult time.
• Tutoring, evaluation, therapy, medication, accessibility technology, and any service the school does not provide.
• Expected annual price growth and one realistic emergency reserve.

The financial story schools need

Explain complexity; do not hide it.

Divorce, remarriage, self-employment, unusual assets, recent job loss, elder care, medical costs, and several tuition-paying children can all make the tax return a poor summary of current capacity. Meet the deadline with the standard documents, then add a concise letter and evidence.

For two-household families, ask who must file and how an exception works. A court order assigning tuition to one parent does not automatically erase the school’s request for the other household. For business owners, distinguish revenue, taxable income, cash retained for operations, owner benefits, and one-time events.

Separated, divorced, remarried, or guardian-led

Kinkaid explicitly asks every signatory parent—including parents who are separated, divorced, remarried, or never married—to submit a separate application. Awty says it cannot be bound by a private or legal agreement between parents and generally requires custodial and noncustodial parents, while allowing a written request for reconsideration.

St. John’s says both parents file regardless of marital status. Those are school rules, not a judgment about who has behaved responsibly.

When contact is unsafe, legally restricted, impossible, or genuinely estranged, do not put a child in the middle. Ask the school which exception form and third-party documentation it accepts. Because a waiver is a school decision, vendor support cannot promise the outcome.

Business, real estate, trusts, and a changed year

Attach a short reconciliation rather than a memoir: what the tax form shows, what has changed, the annual cash effect, and the document that proves it.

A business owner may need full entity returns and an explanation of retained operating cash. A family with home equity or investment property should expect questions about value, debt, ownership, and liquidity. A job-loss family should still file by the deadline, then document severance, unemployment, new earnings, and the current monthly gap.

One award does not price thirteen years

Siblings and renewal change the long-term answer.

Aid is generally annual. St. John’s says a family in good standing can anticipate a comparable award absent a significant financial change, but it also says a full-pay entrant has little chance of later aid without a major change until the next division.

Awty describes roughly the same percentage from year to year unless finances change. John Cooper requires annual reapplication and says prior recipients do not have funds reserved. These are materially different risks.

With siblings, ask the school to model the transition years: one child enters while another is in preschool, private school, or college; one later graduates; a third might apply.

Do not assume the school will offset every tuition bill dollar for dollar, or that two admitted children produce two independently affordable awards. If both children need the same school to make the family logistics work, say that before the committee finalizes the package.

The award and the contract are one decision

A deposit may be the smallest amount at risk.

Read the full withdrawal clause. Some agreements create a full-year obligation after a cutoff. Payment plans may add percentage costs or tuition-refund insurance.

John Cooper warns that returning families can sign and deposit before receiving aid, and that funds are not reserved for prior recipients. Ask what happens if the award is late, TEFA changes, a job disappears, or another child’s school decision arrives later.

Duchesne publishes a March 5 award and March 24 contract, but its page also contains an apparent date typo. Strake and St. Thomas publish March 5 admission and aid decisions.

Ask for the cash calendar, not only the annual total

Put the application fee, deposit, registration fee, first tuition installment, bus enrollment, device purchase, and insurance election on a dated calendar.

Ask whether aid reduces the deposit immediately or is credited later. If a grandparent will pay, clarify whether the payment is expected through the family or may go directly to the school. If two schools answer on different days, learn the exact hour each offer expires.

Wait-pool families face a real option cost. A deposit at a workable school may be rational protection while waiting, but the later move can sacrifice the deposit or much more.

Before enrolling, write down the latest date at which the family would still switch and the maximum money it is willing to lose. That prevents an anxious April call from making the decision for you.

Texas Education Freedom Accounts

Treat TEFA as unknown until your child has an actual award.

The current 2026–27 program describes a $10,474 award for a student at a participating private school and up to $30,000 for a qualifying student with a disability, though the state warns that most disability awards will be lower.

Fall 2027 amounts, dates, and selection results are not announced. Demand exceeded available funding. Do not sign a private contract assuming selection, timing, school participation, or unchanged school aid.

The state’s present funding schedule releases 25% after the school confirms enrollment, another 25% on October 1, and the remaining 50% on February 1. That schedule is for the live program, not a promise for 2027–28. Ask whether the school will bridge installments or require the family to carry the gap.

Participation varies and can change. Strake currently describes TEFA alongside its school-funded aid; St. John’s and EHS explicitly say they do not participate, John Cooper says it will not participate in 2026–27, and Presbyterian says it deferred its 2027–28 decision. Reconfirm each position before relying on it.

The state says a participating school may consider TEFA in its financial-aid method but may not charge a different tuition solely because a student uses TEFA.

Ask for the school’s written stacking rule: whether the state award reduces the family share, the school-funded grant, or some combination. Also remember that a larger disability award does not import public-school IDEA rights into a private-school contract. Price the actual services the school agrees to deliver.

Public–private timing

Use the March overlap to compare the actual net decision.

Most private admission and aid answers arrive March 5. HISD posts results March 17 and requires acceptance March 23. The dominant private reply is March 24. Preserve both routes until the family can compare school fit, the final private bill, transport, and the public offer.

Public and magnet routes are not consolation prizes in a financial-aid article. They are genuine educational options with a different cost and service structure.

Keep zoned-school enrollment, HISD School Choice, dual-language, charter, and disability-service questions alive until the private bill is final. Families considering an international program or boarding-style routine should also compare Village, BIS Houston, Awty, and Chinquapin on transport, inclusions, visa or residency constraints, and the full school-week routine—not tuition alone.

When the first answer does not work

An appeal needs a number, new information, and a respectful exit.

Start with the exact annual gap: “We can responsibly contribute $18,000; the offer requires $25,500 before bus and care.” Then name the item the first review may not have captured—job loss, changed custody, medical cost, business cash that is not distributable, an expiring grandparent gift, or another child’s documented obligation—and attach evidence.

Ask whether the committee can reconsider, whether later funds may open, and when you should expect an answer.

“Another school gave us more” is useful only when the family can explain the true net comparison and would attend if the gap closes. Schools have finite budgets and many families with need. A calm appeal can end in no; decide in advance whether the recovery path is a less costly independent or faith-based school, a public or magnet option, a later entry year, a shorter commute, or declining private school altogether.

Keep going

Put the net bill beside fit and timing.

Use the Houston timeline, the fit and commute guide, and the main Houston guide together.