If you've heard about the NC Opportunity Scholarship and wondered whether it actually applies to your family — or whether the math really works out the way schools say it does — this page is for you.
The Opportunity Scholarship is North Carolina's state-funded private school tuition assistance program. As of the 2024–25 expansion, it's available to every K–12 student in the state, regardless of household income. That single change made private school newly accessible to a large part of Western NC's families — most of whom didn't know it existed, or assumed it wasn't for them.
We're a confirmed and approved NC Opportunity Scholarship Direct Payment School. We've had qualifying families through the door whose tuition came down to $48 a month after the scholarship. We've also had families assume they didn't qualify because their household income was "too high" — and then qualify anyway, because the program now has no income cap, just a sliding scale.
This is the guide we wished existed when we were first explaining the scholarship to parents at our tour table. It walks through what the scholarship is, who actually gets it (with real income tier numbers), how to apply, what the deadlines are, how it works at Sol & Son specifically, and the questions families ask us most often.
The short version, if you want it
For families who want the bottom line in three lines:
- Every NC K–12 student is eligible. No income cap as of the 2024–25 expansion. Award amount scales with household income.
- Award range: $3,578 to $7,942 per student per year. Lower-income families get the larger awards; the scale is gradual, not cliffed.
- Priority application window: February 2 – March 2, 2027 (for the 2027–28 school year). Awards continue past March 2 if funds are available — most families who apply do receive a scholarship.
If that's enough for you to act on, contact us for the application checklist or schedule a tour to see what private school can actually look like for your family. The rest of this page goes deeper.
What the NC Opportunity Scholarship actually is
The NC Opportunity Scholarship Program is a state-funded scholarship administered by the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA). It pays a portion (or all) of a participating private school's tuition for any K–12 student in the state.
Three things to know about how the program works structurally:
It's a real scholarship, not a tax credit or rebate. The state writes a check directly to the participating school each semester. Parents don't pay tuition out of pocket and get reimbursed later. They pay only the difference between the scholarship award and the school's actual tuition (and sometimes nothing, depending on the tier).
It only works at "participating" schools. Not every private school in NC accepts Opportunity Scholarship students. Schools have to be approved and registered with NCSEAA as a "Direct Payment School" before the state will send funds. Sol & Son is approved and in the directory — confirmed as of April 2026. (When you're researching other schools, the NCSEAA participating school list is searchable at the NCSEAA portal.)
The award amount is per student, per year. Each child in your family applies separately and receives a separate award. Two kids = two scholarships, each set independently based on the family's income tier.
The scholarship has been around since 2014, but it expanded dramatically in 2023–24, when North Carolina lifted the household income cap and opened eligibility to every K–12 student in the state. That expansion is what made the program newly relevant for many WNC families who'd ruled it out years earlier.
Who actually gets the scholarship — the income tiers, with real numbers
The award amount your family receives is set by which of four income tiers your household falls into. The tiers are based on the federal income eligibility used for free and reduced lunch programs, indexed annually.
For the 2026–27 school year (most recent published figures), here's how the tiers and awards work for a family of four:
| Tier | Family of 4 income range | Award per student / year |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Up to ~$61,000 | ~$7,942 |
| Tier 2 | ~$61,000 – ~$117,000 | ~$6,300 |
| Tier 3 | ~$117,000 – ~$195,000 | ~$4,700 |
| Tier 4 | Above ~$195,000 (up to ~$275,000) | ~$3,578 |
A few things that surprise parents when we walk through this at a tour:
Tier 1's award is large enough to cover most or all of typical WNC private school tuition. At Sol & Son, the highest-tier award reduces our K–2nd grade annual tuition from $8,470 to roughly $528 out of pocket — about $48 per month for qualifying families. That's not a typo.
The tiers are gradual, not cliffed. A family one dollar over Tier 1's threshold doesn't lose the whole scholarship — they move to Tier 2's award, which is still substantial. The drop-offs at each tier boundary are gradual.
Even Tier 4 is meaningful. At ~$3,578, the highest-income tier still covers more than 40% of Sol & Son's annual tuition. For families who'd been writing off private school as "out of reach financially," the math after the scholarship often comes out to less than what they're already paying for full-time childcare.
The income tier dollar amounts get updated each year by NCSEAA, indexed to federal poverty thresholds. The numbers above are 2026–27. For the most current tiers, check the NC Opportunity Scholarship page on NCSEAA's site.
The application — what it actually looks like, step by step
The scholarship application opens annually on February 2 and the priority window closes March 2. Here's what families do:
- Confirm your eligibility. Any NC student entering K–12 (including new kindergartners). Your child needs to be a North Carolina resident on the application date.
- Choose a school. You apply for the scholarship while specifying which participating private school you intend to attend. You can name Sol & Son as your school of choice on the application — even if you haven't formally enrolled yet. The application doesn't require an acceptance letter from the school, just an indication of intent.
- Gather documents. The application requires:
- Federal tax return (most recent year) for the parent(s) listed in the household
- Proof of NC residency for the student
- Birth certificate or other proof of age
- W-2 forms or other income documentation if applicable
- Submit through the NCSEAA online portal. The application is digital — at k12.ncseaa.edu/opportunity-scholarship — and takes most families 30–45 minutes to complete the first time. Subsequent years' renewals are faster.
- Wait for the award decision. NCSEAA processes priority-window applications between March 2 and roughly mid-April. Award notifications go out by email and through the portal. You'll learn (a) whether you've been awarded a scholarship, and (b) what tier and dollar amount.
- Confirm enrollment with the school. Once you receive the award, you formally enroll at the school you named, and the scholarship begins applying to that school year's tuition.
If you miss the priority window — say it's mid-April and you're just hearing about the program — you can still apply. Awards continue past the priority deadline if funds are available, which they often are. Inside the window your application is processed in the first round; outside it, you're in a rolling pool.
How the scholarship works at Sol & Son specifically
We're a confirmed NC Opportunity Scholarship Direct Payment School. That means once a family is awarded a scholarship and names Sol & Son as their school, NCSEAA sends the scholarship payment directly to us each semester. Families don't handle the funds.
Practical specifics for Sol & Son families:
The scholarship covers most or all of K–2nd grade tuition for the lowest income tier. Our annual K–2nd tuition is $8,470. After a Tier 1 award (~$7,942), out-of-pocket annual tuition is ~$528 — paid as roughly $48/month over the school year, or as a lump sum.
Pre-K Enrichment scholarships work differently. The NC Opportunity Scholarship is K–12 only. For Pre-K (ages 2–4) families, we offer separate private scholarships funded by community donors and grants. These are awarded based on demonstrated need and on availability of funds. Pre-K scholarship recipients also commit to volunteering at fundraising events and at the school once a month — a small reciprocal commitment that strengthens the school community.
You can apply for the scholarship before you've formally enrolled. Most of our families do this in parallel — they tour, they decide they want their child at Sol & Son, they put down the commitment deposit, and they apply for the Opportunity Scholarship in the same month. That way they have an idea of what their out-of-pocket tuition will look like before the full enrollment commitment kicks in.
You don't lose the scholarship if you change schools. If a family moves or transfers, the scholarship transfers with the student to another participating school. The scholarship is tied to the student, not to Sol & Son specifically.
Want the full tuition picture, tier by tier?
See tuition & scholarship tiersCommon questions families ask us at tours
These are the questions we hear most often, in roughly the order they come up:
Why this scholarship matters specifically for Western NC families
A practical reason that goes beyond the scholarship itself: Western NC has historically been a region where private school options were either unaffordable or geographically inaccessible for most families. The closest comparable private schools — in Asheville, Hendersonville, or further east — are 1–2 hours away. The closest dual-language private school anywhere is Sol & Son; the next closest is in Asheville, also roughly two hours.
For many WNC families, the lack of local options meant private school was effectively not on the table. The cost of private school plus the cost of a long daily commute pushed the calculation out of reach.
The Opportunity Scholarship rebalances that math. Tuition at a school like Sol & Son becomes — for many families — within the same ballpark as full-time daycare or after-school care. Add the value of the dual-language outcome (a bilingual child by mid-elementary), the four-day in-person school week (Mon–Thu, plus a Friday virtual day for K and up), and Christ-centered formation woven through the curriculum, and the practical case starts looking different than it did pre-scholarship.
This isn't theoretical. Several of our current families came to us through a chain of events that started exactly like this:
What the priority window actually means (and why timing matters)
The February 2 – March 2 priority window is when NCSEAA processes and decides applications before the school year starts. That's the most important date on the application calendar.
A few things about the priority window worth understanding:
Funds are limited per school year. While the program has expanded significantly, there's still a finite annual budget. Priority-window applicants are funded first; late applicants compete for whatever's left.
Decisions come out by mid-April. That gives families a meaningful window — late April, May, June — to coordinate enrollment, finalize school choice, plan logistics, and (in some cases) appeal an award if circumstances changed.
Renewals process before new applications. NCSEAA processes annual renewals for existing scholarship students before opening the queue for new applicants. This is part of why timing the application within the priority window matters — it lands you in a known cohort.
If you're considering applying for the 2027–28 school year (kindergarten in fall 2027, or any other grade), the priority window opens February 2, 2027 and closes March 2, 2027. Mark the calendar now. The application is online and renewable year over year.
See it for yourself, if you're curious
The numbers and the process documents are abstract until you see what private school actually feels like. That's the gap the scholarship closes for a lot of families — it makes the option real, but only after you've seen the school.
If anything in this guide resonated, the next step is to schedule a tour. We do tours by appointment, Mon–Thu — call us at (828) 421-5268, email admin@solandsondla.com, or book a time on our calendar. Tours are no-pressure conversations; we can also walk through the scholarship application step by step at the tour if that's helpful.
If you'd like to start the application yourself first, the NCSEAA portal is the entry point: k12.ncseaa.edu/opportunity-scholarship. And if you have specific questions about how the scholarship would apply at Sol & Son for your family, just contact us — we can usually tell you what tier you'd land in and what your out-of-pocket cost would look like.
The math looks different once you've seen the school.
Schedule a tourTuition Details · Apply for the Scholarship
Sol & Son Dual Language Academy is a Christ-centered, two-way Spanish–English immersion school serving Pre-K through 2nd grade in Franklin, NC. We are an approved NC Opportunity Scholarship Direct Payment School. We're located on the bottom level of Franklin First Assembly of God Church at 1150 E Main Street, and we're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Reach us at (828) 421-5268 or admin@solandsondla.com.