Tuition Refund Insurance
Source/Author: Nancy L. Spencer, Head of School
March 02, 2023
Our re-enrollment period is now complete, with over 94% of eligible students returning to Shorecrest for the 2023-2024 school year! We have begun offering contracts to an impressive pool of applicants and are gearing up for an exciting second half of our centennial year!
We appreciate all the ways that families support Shorecrest, and acknowledge that the cost of an independent school education is a substantial investment. That is one of the reasons we offer our families the option of purchasing tuition refund insurance to provide coverage if a student faces circumstances where they need to unexpectedly withdraw from Shorecrest. In the event of a covered withdrawal or dismissal, payments made by the plan can refund tuition previously paid by families or assist in fulfilling contractual tuition payment obligations.
This year, we made the decision to change our enrollment contract in terms of the tuition insurance program to be an opt-out program, rather than the previous years’ opt-in program. This means that all re-enrolling families are automatically enrolled in the Tuition Refund Insurance Program, unless they opt out of the program by checking the designated box on the enrollment contract. We notified all families of this new format in an email prior to sending out the re-enrollment contracts and this change was highlighted in bold on the re-enrollment contract itself.
The reason for this change is to save premium costs for our Shorecrest families. Through negotiations with A.G. Dewar, our tuition refund insurance vendor, the opt-out program provides a decrease in cost to Shorecrest families who choose the coverage. The insurance rate as a percent of tuition is dropping from 3.7% to 2.4% and will remain at the current 70% amount of tuition that is refunded.
If we had continued with an opt-in program, the insurance rate for 2023-24 would have increased to 4% of tuition and the coverage would have dropped to 65% of the prorated tuition. In addition, Dewar has enhanced their program by removing the pre-existing illness and other exclusions from all policies for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Some families are required to purchase tuition refund insurance, and those requirements have not changed - families of new students who do not pay annually, new students enrolling after the school year has begun, and students returning after an absence of more than one semester. All eligible families may opt out of the insurance by checking the appropriate box on their enrollment contract, or by emailing McKinzie Henderson in the Business Office at [email protected] by July 31, 2023.
It is important to note that Shorecrest is merely a pass-through entity for these payments. We do not receive any proceeds from tuition insurance premiums. These funds are collected by us and paid in full directly to Dewar, the third party insurance vendor.
If, upon consideration, families who have opted out of the tuition refund plan decide that they would like to purchase tuition insurance, that option remains open through July 31. For more information about our tuition refund insurance program or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or Lisa Wylie, Chief Financial Officer.
