Application Process

In order to qualify for a Cornerstone Education Scholarship (administered by ACE in the Delmarva Peninsula), a student must meet the following eligibility requirements:

1. Meet the ACE income guidelines represented on our website: Cornerstone Education Scholarship Income Eligibility.
2. Attending an ACE Partner School.
3. Meet either one of these requirements:
1. Be entering Pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten.
2. Be attending the school for the first time. An example of this would be if a student in the prior year was home schooled, attending a public or charter school, or transferring from another private school.

*Important Note: If the parent or guardian is employed by Mountaire, other criteria apply. See here.

An ACE Scholarship is completed on a site called FACTS. While your school may also use FACTS for Grant & Aid, the ACE application is a separate application from a school application. The links for an ACE application are specific by market. Please select your state below to be routed to the appropriate application.  

Arkansas

Colorado

Cornerstone

Kansas

Louisiana

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

National

New Mexico

Texas

Utah

Wyoming

New students as well as returning students in Louisiana and previous year tax-credit awarded students in Arkansas must submit the documents listed below.

*Applicants who received an award from ACE in 24-25 will have tax documents automatically waived except for awarded students in Louisiana and tax-credit awarded students in Arkansas.

2024 Tax Return (1040) and numbered schedules (1&3).

Non-Taxable Income Documents (as applicable):

Our 2025-2026 school flyers are available to download! Feel free to circulate them to families in any way you prefer. These informational flyers provide details about ACE, scholarship eligibility criteria, coverage amounts, participating schools, and the application process.

General ACE Scholarship Information

Arkansas

Colorado

Delmarva (Cornerstone Education Scholarship)

Louisiana   

Kansas

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

New Mexico

Texas

ACE Texas Learning Differences – Houston Schools

Utah

Wyoming

Nonprofit organization with a mission to provide children of lower-income families with scholarships to private schools.

• Can answer questions about applying, qualifications, awards and award amounts, funds disbursement, timelines, partner school lists, etc.
• Utilizes FACTS for scholarship applications 

FACTS provides tools and solutions to private K-12 schools that elevate the education experience for administrators, teachers, and families. It is the platform ACE uses to process all applications.

• Can answer questions about uploading documents, incomplete applications, school FACTS applications vs ACE FACTS applications, etc.

(856) 746-6521 is a dedicated support line and routes to either ACE or FACTS depending upon the prompt selected. Please call! Both are here to help. 

ACE applications are state specific and can be accessed through our website: https://www.acescholarships.org/become-a-scholar/. Additionally, ACE applications have the ACE logo on the landing page of the application as well as in the top left corner of the application itself. 

If you are unsure if you have applied for ACE or your school’s own grant and aid application in FACTS, please contact ACE by emailing support@acescholarships.org to confirm or calling (856) 746-6521.

In the case of divorced/separated parents, the domiciliary parent should apply for ACE. If the parents jointly split custody, the one who carries the student on their tax-return should apply. If awarded an ACE Scholarship, that parent will remain the ACE parent applicant going forward, even if the other parent lists the student as a dependent on tax return in later years. This is because FACTS recognizes returning ACE awarded students based on the account used to apply for ACE. The originally awarded account should be used to reapply every year so that the student is marked as returning and receives priority in the awarding process.  This is the case even if the parents split tuition. The award will be sent directly to the school in full following enrollment verification, and then the school can split the tuition accordingly. 

Since ACE Scholarships are awarded to the student, not to the parent, each student can only receive one ACE Scholarship, even if their parents both apply and qualify.

Step 1. Apply/Enroll your student in one of ACE’s partner schools in your area. To see current partner schools, learn more about ACE, and see a list of requirements, please visit here, then scroll down to select your state.

Step 2. Apply for an ACE Scholarship on FACTS. You can find the link to apply here.

Step 3. Make sure that you have submitted your application (including all the correct documents and all application questions) on FACTS by the deadline (April 15 2025 at 11:59 PM in the time zone in which the school you are applying to resides).

Step 4. After you submit your application, you will have to wait a few days while FACTS processes your application and documents. FACTS will reach out to you via email if additional information is needed or if your application is complete. ACE will review applications after the application window closes on April 15.

Step 5. ACE will send out award notifications to families over the summer before the school year begins. (Schools will be notified after we have finished allocating awards and finalizing them.)

If awarded, you will receive a link to accept the award and complete a survey. Complete this by the deadline.

Step 6. We will reach out to the school to confirm the awarded students’ enrollment in early September and send funds to the school directly once enrollment is confirmed. Families are responsible for working out a payment plan with the school for the remainder of the tuition that the award does not cover.

The ACE Scholarship application for the 2025-2026 school year will open on Monday, February 3rd and close on Tuesday, April 15th at 11:59 p.m. The link for the application will be posted on our website at https://www.acescholarships.org/become-a-scholar/. Please select your state in the dropdown, and you will be redirected to the webpage with your state specific eligibility requirements as well as link to the application.

Your application is complete after the following steps have been taken:

• All application questions have been answered.
• The application fee has been paid.
• All necessary tax/financial documents have been uploaded. This includes a copy of your last year's tax return and if applicable, any additional income documents including child support, SNAP, alimony, TANF, Social Security, welfare, tuition support from friends/family/employers, workers' compensation, housing allowance, tax-exempt interest, and other nontaxable income.

If you have already completed a school application in FACTS for the 2025-2026 term, another fee to process your application will not be required. If not, a $35 processing fee paid to FACTS for the application needs to be completed as the final step in submitting the application.

The application must be completed in its entirety and submitted by 11:59 PM on April 15.

Please note: if you have any questions or need assistance on the application, you must reach out before the deadline. We are unable to reopen the application after it closes. You can contact ACE Scholarships at: support@acescholarships.org.

Applications in FACTS can be edited and documents can uploaded through the 2025-2026 application window (Monday, February 3rd through Tuesday, April 15th at 11:59 p.m. in the time zone in which the school resides).

Important note: ACE’s first round of awards will go to applications that are fully complete and qualified as of the April 15 deadline based off either a tax-return or federal financial assistance. Should there be funds remaining, ACE will review applications that have since been verified to include the 2024 tax return on a rolling basis, as funds allow. As scholarships are dependent on funding available and number of applications received, there is a likelihood that all awards may be expended during the first round of awards, and that we may be unable to award applications that were verified with a tax-return after the April 15 deadline.

ACE’s first round of awards will go to applications that are fully complete and qualified as of the April 15 deadline based off either a tax-return or federal financial assistance. Should there be funds remaining, ACE will review applications that have since been verified to include the 2024 tax return on a rolling basis, as funds allow. As scholarships are dependent on funding available and number of applications received, there is a likelihood that all awards may be expended during the first round of awards, and that we may be unable to award applications that were verified with a tax-return after the April 15 deadline.

You've decided to take control of your student's education and want to apply for an ACE Scholarship! Here are some tips to help you ensure that your application has the best chance possible of receiving an ACE Scholarship:

• Make sure that your contact information on your FACTS account is accurate and stays updated!
• Double check that FACTS is listed as a "Safe Sender" in your email. Otherwise important communications about your application may end up in your junk folder!
• When you upload any tax, SNAP, Social Security, TANF, etc. documents to your application, make sure that they are not blurry.

-If the documents are to blurry or hard to read on a computer, it will delay the process, potentially even making you ineligible for a scholarship!

-The document being uploaded must include the applicant's name, the amount received, and the frequency in which it's being received (i.e. Monthly or Annually). If the document doesn’t include this info it will be rejected and will slow down the completion process of the application.

• Get the application done early! If you run into any issues while applying, our staff can help before the deadline (April 15th) but there is nothing we can do after the application has closed.

• Review your application before you submit it. Sometimes small mistakes that you make on your application (such as listing the wrong grade level or school for your student) can mistakenly make your student ineligible for a scholarship.

• If you are a returning applicant, you must use the same username and password from the prior year in order for your child to be recognized as a returning student and carry forward applicant, co-applicant, and student data.

• If you have questions as you apply, don't hesitate to contact us! We are happy to help you.

For any questions on the process, please contact (856) 746-6521 or support@acescholarships.org. You will be routed to either ACE or FACTS depending on the nature of your question.

To apply, visit https://www.acescholarships.org/become-a-scholar/