FAQs

Donations and Recommendations

How much can I donate and receive a dollar-for-dollar Arizona tax credit?

For the 2023 tax year, the maximum credit is $2609 for those married filing jointly — $1307 for a single filer. 2023 tax year donations may be made through April 15, 2024.

For the 2024 tax year, the maximum credit is $2910 for those married filing jointly — $1459 for a single filer. 2024 tax year donations may be made through April 15, 2025.

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What if I don’t owe enough in Arizona income taxes to use the whole credit?

You have 5 more years to use it up.

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May I donate to SpecialNeedsScholarships.org and ECA (public school extracurricular activities)?

Absolutely. They are separate state tax credit programs and donating to one does not decrease the amount you can donate to the other.

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How much of my donation goes to funding scholarships?

By law, at least 90% of the donations received for the Arizona private school tax credits must go to scholarships (after required financial reporting costs are deducted).  For the 2023 tax year, the first $1303 from a married couple filing jointly goes to the original private school scholarship program created by the legislature, the next $1301 goes to the more recent “Switcher” scholarship program. For single filers the amounts are $655 and $652 respectively. The original scholarship program covers a greater population of students than the switcher scholarship program.

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When is the donation deadline to receive the Arizona tax credit for a particular tax year?

Usually the same date as the deadline for filing that year’s tax return. For tax year 2023, that's April 15, 2024.

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Can I recommend my own child for a scholarship?

No. It’s also illegal to agree to swap donations with another taxpayer to benefit either taxpayer’s own dependent.

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If someone else recommends my child for a scholarship, will my child get the full amount that person donated?

Possibly, but not necessarily. We're not permitted to use donor recommendation as the only criterion in awarding scholarships. We're charged processing fees if a donor uses a credit card. And remember, you can only receive a scholarship if you submit an application.

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On my federal tax return may I itemize my donations to SpecialNeedsScholarships.org?

Yes. If you receive an Arizona tax credit you itemize under state taxes. If you don't receive an Arizona tax credit, you itemize under charitable contributions. The federal standard deduction may mean that you are unlikely to itemize deductions every year. It might make sense for you to itemize every other year, grouping deductions in the year you itemize. This can be achieved by delaying or accelerating certain deductions, such as property taxes and charitable contributions. Remember, Arizona allows you to donate to SpecialNeedsScholarships.org until April 15, 2024 and count that contribution as a credit on your 2023 taxes (until you max out on that year's credits). Therefore, you could make your 2023 and your 2024 SpecailNeedsScholarships.org donations in 2024, grouping them along with other deductions on your 2024 federal tax return. Then the years you don't itemize, you could take the standard deduction even though that might be much more than what your deductions would have been if you itemized. Be sure to check with your tax professional for your specific circumstances.

Scholarships

How can my child get the highest scholarship amount possible?

• Ask everyone you know to donate and recommend your child for a scholarship
• Share this brochure with them, which explains the benefits of donating
• Tell them about this website
• Consider sending a letter like this one
• Check all specialty categories in the scholarship application that apply to your child and send us any required documentation
• Ask your company to donate. Corporations get tax credits and deductions too! They can’t recommend a student, but they can recommend a school. Send your company a link to this page of our website or have your company contact us if it wants to donate because its procedure for getting an Arizona tax credit is different than that for individuals.
• Apply for a scholarship from multiple school tuition organizations.

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What is the cost to apply for a scholarship?

Nothing.

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Should I apply if my child does not have a disability?

Yes. While it’s true we focus on giving scholarships to students with special needs, if donations are sufficient, we can provide private school scholarships for almost every circumstance throughout Arizona.

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When is the scholarship application deadline?

May 31 for the upcoming school year (July 1-June 30.)

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What criteria do you use when awarding scholarships?

Eligibility, availability of funds, financial need, disability, donor recommendation, and administrative feasibility. We do not award, designate or reserve a scholarship solely on the recommendation of any person contributing money to our charity.

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What does “eligibility” refer to?

Arizona had created 4 private school scholarship programs — 2 funded by donations from individuals and 2 from corporate donations. Each program has categories for which we may award scholarships. They vary and sometimes overlap.  Categories include students with a disability, entering kindergarten, switching from public to private school, low household income (nearly 3.5 times the poverty level or less), or those who have received a scholarship in the past, been a foster child, or who have a parent or guardian in the armed forces stationed in Arizona. The state also caps how much we can award each year from the corporate-funded scholarships.

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How do you determine financial need?

We require all scholarship applicants to provide household income and household size. We also ask them to tell us how much they are requesting.

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Do you only award scholarships for specific schools?

No. We award scholarships for students to attend any Arizona preschool that offers services to students with disabilities and any Arizona nongovernmental primary or secondary school if:

• The school does not discriminate based on race, color, disability, familial status or national origin, and
• All teaching staff and personnel that have unsupervised contact with students are required to be fingerprinted.

We do not award scholarships to attend a charter school because they receive their funding from the government.

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Do you award scholarships for summer school?

Possibly.  Per Arizona law, it must be a high school class being taken for credit. This doesn't include study abroad programs or summer school in other states.

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What if a student leaves school during an academic year he or she received a scholarship?

The school the student left must return the pro-rated unused scholarship amount to SpecialNeedsScholarships.org.

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Private Schools

Where can I find a list of special needs schools?

www.raisingarizonakids.com/special-needs-schools-arizona/

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Isn’t it only the rich that can afford to send their kids to a private school?

This is definitely not true in Arizona. There are literally tens of millions of scholarship dollars available each year for private school tuition.

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Don’t Private Schools lack diversity?

No—according to privateschoolreview.com, minority enrollment for private schools in Arizona is 32%.

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Why do you focus on giving scholarships to those with special needs?

We believe all families should have the choice of the school environment that works best for them. Students with special needs particularly benefit from the individual attention and custom lesson plans private schools are in a unique position to deliver which is why we’ve chosen to focus on helping students with physical, psychological, and/or intellectual special needs. Having associated with children with special needs for over 40 years, it’s where our passion lies and where we feel we can make our greatest contribution.