Fully half of the alumni of Imago Dei Middle School in Tucson, Arizona, have the opportunity to attend a private high school after graduation, and since the school exclusively serves children from low-income families, all of the families qualify for scholarships – which IDMS helps them identify and apply for. This is a great opportunity for IDMS scholars, who are accustomed to a small and well-organized private-school, and who often thrive best in private high schools. (The school’s Graduate Support Program staff works hard to find the right “fit” for each student.) However, their scholarships usually do not cover registration and technology fees, which run to hundreds of dollars for both freshmen and seniors, and which can shock low-income parents into pulling their child out and losing a hard-won place in a competitive school.
To keep this from happening, IDMS Graduate Support staff is very explicit with parents whose children are accepted to one of Tucson’s private high schools about IDMS’ ongoing commitment to all our grads’ continuing educational success – the school commits to cover all such expenses from our Private High School Access Fund.
Recognizing EUSA’s commitment to assuring equal-opportunity access to quality private schools, IDMS successfully applied for support for the Private School High School Access Fund in 2021-2022, a year when fully half of our 18-strong graduating class went on to private high schools. The school and our graduates are deeply grateful for this generous and innovative support!