The Dominican Republic requires that all children attend school until grade eight. Public schools are available, however, the government only provides a building and teacher; they are not required to provide materials, books or even chalk. There are some private schools in the area that provide a higher level of education and more opportunities for continuing on to university and obtaining a profession. With a profession, a student not only becomes self-supporting, they can also support their parents and help their siblings with their education. A good education is one of the best ways to change the future of an entire family and help them to rise above poverty.
Our school sponsorship program began in 2006. For the 2022-2023 school year, we have 160 students being sponsored from kindergarten through university.
K-12 Students Needing a Sponsor
University Students Needing a Sponsor
Sponsoring a Child
The sponsor’s responsibility is to pay for the yearly registration fee and monthly tuition fee. For the tuition, sponsors can pay monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or yearly. Schools usually do a price increase about every two years but nothing is “routine” in the Dominican culture.
University works a little different in that they are on either a trimester or semester program so their fees are based on trimester or semester. University students take 3 trimesters or 2 semester each calendar year. Universities charge per credit and each trimester can be different in the amount of credits being taken.
The parents are responsible to register their child at the school, attend all school parent meetings, follow the rules of the school, pay for uniforms, school supplies, textbooks, ensure their child does their homework, have their child actually go to school and pay for transportation (if necessary). Parents are also required to attend three yearly parent meetings with our ministry and write letters to their sponsors at least three times a year.
The student’s responsibility is to maintain a 70% or higher GPA, attend school every day (not skipping or missing for unreasonable reasons), follow the rules of the school and have good conduct. If the student is old enough to write, they are also required to write letters to their sponsors three times a year.
University students are responsible to apply, register, their transportation as most universities are in another city, books, supplies, attend all classes and complete all requirements.
Some sponsors like to send a bit extra in the summer to help with school supplies and uniforms or a gift at Christmas or birthdays but some do not. That is totally up to the sponsor but definitely not required!
Preschool – Grade 12: Monthly tuition must be paid to the schools between the 1st – 5th of each month. The only exception is July in which July’s tuition has to be paid by June 5th. The school will not release final report cards until the year’s tuition is paid in full so they require payment for June and July at the beginning of July. In the DR, the government has a law that private school teachers must be paid for 11 months. Most schools charge tuition from September through July, although July’s tuition is due in June. Therefore, June and July’s tuition needs to be submitted by the sponsor no later than May 15th of each year.
University: Tuition is paid six weeks prior to the start of new trimester or semester (November, March, July).
Due to how we receive your funds, you need to submit your donation no later than the 15th of the month prior to the due date.
All donations will receive a tax receipts.
100% of all donations go directly to the students’ sponsorship.
If you decide to sponsor a student, email me with the complete name of the student. We then will contact the parents/university student to confirm that they still eligible for sponsorship and have the parent enroll the child in the desired school or the university get enrolled.