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Wonderworks offers only need-based financial aid and only in the form of tuition waivers
for students demonstrating financial need. The following criteria determine whether
students qualify for tuition waivers:
• Enrollment in a federally-subsidized free or reduced-cost lunch program at school.The family income criteria set forth above are more generous than those for free or
If you receive such a lunch at school, please indicate this in the financial aid part
of the application and have an appropriate school official sign the line provided for
verification. This, by itself, will serve as sufficient evidence of need.
• Enrollment in the Texas Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or Medicaid. If you
are enrolled in either of these programs, please indicate this on the financial aid part of
the application and provide a copy of your certificate of enrollment. This, by itself, will
serve as sufficient evidence of need.
• Family income not exceeding four times the federally defined poverty level. If your
family's income falls within this limit (see: http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/11poverty.
shtml), please indicate this on the financial aid part of the application by:
filling in the income blank with the figure reported to the Internal Revenue Service on
line 4 of Form 1040EZ or line 22 of Form 1040, or line 15 of Form 1040A for your family's
2011 (or 2010 return if the 2011 return has not yet been filed, circle one)
and providing, as verification, a copy of the first page of Form 1040EZ or the first two
pages of Forms 1040 or 1040A.
Please note: If your parents are divorced, their combined family incomes must fall
within these limits and both must provide proof of income.
reduced-cost lunches, CHIP or Medicaid. Wonderworks uses them as a supplement to freeor
reduced-cost lunches and CHIP or Medicaid enrollments as a measure of need because
we recognize that even the comparatively modest tuitions associated with our programs
may overburden the resources of families who are neither very poor nor affluent. (For a
fuller discussion of the nature of federal poverty measures and what they indicate, see
this link to Teresa Tritch, "Reading between the Poverty Lines," The New York Times, 20
September 2011.)
As a matter of fairness, Wonderworks expects only families who can afford tuition without
undue stress or sacrifice to pay it. We also trust that those families fortunate enough to be
able to afford private schools, recreational travel, independent counselors and other lifestyle
enhancements that betoken affluence, will view Wonderworks' tuitions as the bargain
they truly are, no less than a timely investment in the intellectual and creative growth of
their children.
For more information: info@wonderworkshouston.org