Financial aid, scholarships & ESA
Sliding-scale awards, automatic sibling discounts, and ESA money tracked as what it is — third-party funding, not a discount.
In short
Pearspark includes financial aid at no extra charge: family applications reviewed behind a dedicated permission, sliding-scale income bands, automatic sibling discounts, and awards that come off the invoice as a percent or a per-bill amount. ESA, voucher, and SGO money is tracked as expected from the funder, with per-student ESA invoices, CSV settlement reconciliation, and printable verification letters. No tax documents, no expected-family-contribution formula.
Awards that land on the invoice by themselves
An award is a percent or a dollar amount per bill — one or the other, never both — with a note that prints on the invoice. Billing applies them in a fixed order: the sibling rule first, then percentages against the full line, then flat amounts, and aid can never take a line below zero. A student who starts mid-month is billed a day-count share of the month, and the award applies to what's actually billed rather than the full price. Every invoice keeps a snapshot of the aid that made it, so ending or editing an award changes future bills and never rewrites history.
A sliding scale, not a means test
Define the income bands families choose from — "Under $50,000 → 50% off", "$50–100k → 25% off" — and the band prefills the percentage when you approve an application. Pearspark deliberately calculates no expected family contribution and collects no tax documents: a family self-reports household size, picks a band ("prefer not to say" is a real option), and writes anything else the school should know. The band suggests. A person at your school decides.
Applications only the right people can read
Open applications for the year with your own intro text and every family gets an apply button in the portal. Reading them takes a separate financial-aid review permission that tuition access deliberately does not imply — teachers often hold tuition access, and household income isn't theirs to read. Income details stay out of the activity log, and the decision notification tells a family their answer is ready without carrying the amount through email. Awarding creates an award for every child on the application and records who decided it.
A budget you can watch, and awards that ask to be renewed
Set the year's aid budget and the page shows what has actually hit invoices against it — real invoice snapshots, not what awards promise — with a projection built from your last billing run rather than a forecasting model. Reviewers see the remaining headroom while they decide. It warns; it never blocks an award. Awards ending within 60 days, or still labelled with last year, raise a renewal banner naming each one, and Renew reopens the award prefilled — a nudge you act on, not a silent roll-forward.
ESA, vouchers, and SGO scholarships, tracked as what they are
Third-party money never pretends to be a discount. An ESA or SGO award shows the family what the program is expected to pay and leaves the invoice total intact. Each child gets a per-student ESA invoice — grade level, dates of service, itemised aid, amount due — because ESA purses are per child while family invoices combine siblings, and a missing grade level is a denied reimbursement. The portal walks the family through Pay Vendor using the vendor name you registered. The program settles to the school's own bank account; when the money lands you record it, and it clears the balance like any other payment.
Reconciling, and the paperwork states keep asking for
Download the payment report from ClassWallet, Odyssey, or Step Up and upload it. The preview is a dry run: it shows which payments will post to which invoices, which rows it couldn't match (ambiguous names are skipped, never guessed), and which columns it ignored. Transaction IDs are remembered, so re-uploading the same report records nothing twice. At quarter end the verification report gives you a CSV and printable per-student letters — enrollment standing and attendance for the period, on your letterhead, ready for an administrator to sign. Pearspark also keeps a reference of the school-choice programs in 28 states, with the honest caveat that rules change every legislative session.
What's included
- Awards as a percent or a flat amount per bill, with a note that prints on the invoice
- Automatic sibling discount, oldest child first, per family invoice
- Sliding-scale income bands families pick from when they apply
- Family applications opened and closed per year, with your own intro text
- A separate review permission for family income — not implied by tuition access
- Award or decline with a note; the family is notified without the amount in the email
- Annual aid budget with applied-to-date and a run-rate projection
- Renewal flags for awards ending within 60 days
- ESA, voucher, and SGO awards tracked as expected from the funder
- Per-student ESA invoices with grade level and dates of service
- "Pay with your ESA" steps in the family portal, using your registered vendor name
- CSV settlement import with a dry-run preview and transaction-ID de-duplication
- Import outside award decisions (FACTS, Clarity, SSS): percent, per-bill, or annual
- Scholarship / ESA verification: CSV extract plus printable per-student letters
- Aid and receipts CSV exports; family statements split family money from program money
- School-choice program reference for 28 states
All of it is part of the flat price — $50/month including 20 students, then $2.50/student (volume bands down to $1.00). Nothing on this page is a paid add-on.
See it done in 60 seconds
All 13 videosReal screen recordings, one task per minute — no fluff.
Common questions
Does Pearspark calculate financial need or collect tax returns?
No — deliberately. There's no expected-family-contribution formula and no document upload anywhere in the aid flow. A family self-reports household size, picks an income band from your sliding scale, and adds anything else you should know; "prefer not to say" is a real option. The band suggests a percentage and a person at your school decides. If you already use an outside assessment service like FACTS, Clarity, or SSS, export its decisions and import them as awards.
Who at the school can see a family's income?
Only staff holding the financial-aid review permission, which tuition access deliberately does not imply — teachers frequently hold tuition access, and household income isn't theirs to read. Income details never enter the activity log, and the decision notification tells the family their answer is ready without carrying the amount.
How does ESA money work if families pay through ClassWallet or Odyssey?
The award is recorded as third-party rather than a discount, so the invoice total stays whole and the family can see what the program is expected to cover. Print each child a per-student ESA invoice — grade level, dates of service, itemised aid, amount due — and the portal shows the family the Pay Vendor steps with your registered vendor name. The program settles to your own bank account. When it lands you record the payment, or upload the vendor's settlement report and Pearspark matches it to the right students and invoices.
Do we need Stripe connected for any of this?
Not for the aid itself. Awards, applications, the sliding scale, ESA invoices, settlement imports, and the verification pack all work with no payment processor connected at all. Stripe Connect on the school's own account is only needed when you want families to pay online by card or bank transfer.
Is financial aid a paid add-on?
No. Aid, sliding scale, ESA reconciliation, and the verification letters are part of the flat price — the same subscription that covers the gradebook. Incumbent systems commonly sell aid assessment as a separate service; Pearspark has no per-module fees anywhere.
Try it in the live demo
Explore financial aid, scholarships & esa in a real sandbox school — admin, teacher, and parent views. Sample data resets daily.