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Our Members and Visitors Ask
Topic Areas
Children With Disabilities
Q: Will a Catholic school take my child who has a disability and what kind of special education services will he/she receive?
A: Catholic schools are happy to accept students with disabilities if the school is able to meet their needs with "reasonable accommodations". Since Catholic schools do not receive any direct federal aid (or state aid in most cases) to provide for all kinds of disabilities, some needs are too costly for the schools to be able to provide. If a parent chooses a private school for the child, the parent forfeits the right to FAPE, the free, appropriate public education required by law. Some children in Catholic schools do receive some disabilities services from the public school district, but no child is guaranteed such services.
Contact Information/Locations for Member Schools
Q: We are moving to Boondock, TX, what Catholic schools are in the area of my new home?
A: Our members are listed at /news/SchoolDiocesanLocator.asp. This is not a list of all Catholic schools in the United States but most are among our membership and are listed here. If you are unsure of exactly where you will be living in the new area, we recommend you type the first three digits of the zip code in the new area into the zip code field and search. That will give you a larger listing and from their locations, you should be able to begin narrowing down your search for institutions. An alternative would be to Search the Internet for the diocese and go there. Most have indexes of their schools and you might find that as well. The same URL at the beginning of this answer can also be set to locate dioceses by state which would help with an Internet search.
Information Requests
Q: How does St. X compare to the other schools in the Diocese of Y?
Q: How do Catholic Schools compare to other schools, public or private?
A: This answer responds to two very similar questions. There is no publicly available database of information that would allow a direct comparison of two Catholic institutions. It is possible that the diocese might maintain something of this nature as an internal management tool but it is extremely unlikely that it is available to the public. Likewise there is no database that compares specific Catholic schools to public schools. The US Department of Education and its operating agencies do have publicly available databases that compare the general performance of public with private schools but it does not compare specific institutions and provides only generic comparative data.
Q: I am a 3rd grade teacher. I was hoping to find a list of all the Catholic elementary schools in the US. Our class is doing a writing/geography project that entails contacting a Catholic school from each of the 50 states. If you have a list or could send me any information regarding such?
A: There are two options.
- The first would be to order and purchase an address listing of our Catholic elementary school members but that is perhaps the least attractive option for you because there is a cost for doing so.
- The second will take a bit of work but will get you the information for free. Go to the School and Diocesan locater at /news/SchoolDiocesanLocator.asp It is a search form for our membership. When you arrive it will be set up to search for schools. Set the STATE search criterion to the first state in the drop down list (Alabama in this case) and click Search and you will receive a list of all Catholic Schools in the state selected. Copy the information for one of the schools (you determine which one - state capitol, historical city, whatever) and paste the information into a running document in your word processor and soon your list will be complete. Please note that there are some international dioceses listed and this could add to your lesson plan. If you select dioceses, you will find information for US territories, e.g. Guam, that could also make for fun.
Q: How do I complain/register a complaint about someone in my school or parish?
A: Your first course of action should be to exhaust all means of resolving the problem directly within the school (the principal) or the pastor (parish). Very often misunderstandings quite easily occur and conversation finds the answer. If this fails AND if your school is a diocesan school, contact the Diocesan Catholic Schools office at the diocese. Contact information can be found for them at /news/SchoolDiocesanLocator.asp. There will be a similar office for the Diocesan Director of Religious Education at the diocese. If your school is a private Catholic school (its governance comes from a governing board or religious order), the school/student handbook should provide contact information for the body that governs the schools operation and they should be the ones contacted. NCEA cannot help in this case because of its status as a membership organization. NCEA has no juridical authority in the diocese and is not in the chain of command for the school.
Q: I want to recognize a person who has been extremely helpful to our school, do you have programs that could assist me?
A: Absolutely, go to /awards/index.asp and you will find that many of the departments offer Letters of Commendation/Appreciation and other gifts that can be useful in your recognition programs. If your need is special, the appropriate department can help you.
Q: I am doing a term paper/dissertation on Catholic schools. Where can I find information?
A: NCEA does not maintain a research library. Begin by searching ERIC (http://www.eric.ed.gov/) the US Department of Education’s website and refine it according to your topic. Dissertations Abstract is another useful site: http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0035.html. You may also search the NCEA publications catalog (/store/) of current publications pertaining to Catholic schools.
Q: Do you sponsor commercial organizations?
A: No, not in the sense of endorsing the products of any one commercial entity over another. Our board of directors prohibits that practice. We do number corporate members among on the membership rolls of the association. They have been good to us and good for Catholic education and we recognize their membership at /about/CorporatePartners.asp.
Q: Will you post a link on your site to my institution or organization?
A: As a matter of policy we do not link to commercial organizations except in very select circumstances and we do not link to institutions either. By not routinely linking to commercial organizations, we avoid any appearance of impropriety. There are close to !0,000 Catholic teaching institutions and to attempt to link to them would guarantee inoperative links throughout our website and it would be near impossible to index. Where our members have reported a school web site to us, it is included in the School/Diocesan locater service found at /news/SchoolDiocesanLocator.asp.
Q: I am a member of the parish council who is in charge of doing a viability study to see if we should start a school. What help can you give me?
A: This is an issue that requires consideration of multiple factors, usually under the direction of a professional consulting company. To begin, you and the pastor should contact the Catholic School Office in your diocese and find out what the policies and procedures are for undertaking such a study. They should also be able to advise you on the services of a professional.
Q: I need a prepared liturgy/mass for Catholic Schools Week, where can I download one?
A: NCEA does not provide liturgies that support Catholic Schools Week and where we have provided them in the past, it was in response to special circumstances, e.g., the tragedy of 9/11. There is a Liturgy Guide that is part of the Marketing Kit for Catholic Schools and its contents are free to be shared among all in the institution that purchases the kit - priced quite reasonably. You may see the contents of the entire kit at http://www.catholicschoolsweek.org. Review copies of materials within the kit are not available. You will find the kit listed in the Promotional Items section of the site.
Q: I like the artwork of Christ in the upper right corner of all of your pages. Where did you get it?
A: Permission to use it was granted to us by the copyright owner. To learn more, click here!
Q: Why do your web pages print with the right margin cutting off the end of the line so that I get an incomplete print?
A: The page resolution for all NCEA pages is set at 1024 x 768 pixels - the technical way of getting more information onto your screen display. If your display is set lower at a lower resolution, 800 x 600 for example, then your printer will not print the page properly when you use the routine print function in your web browser. SOLUTION: Every NCEA interior page, including the one you are viewing now, has a Print This Page button at the bottom of the page. Click this button and the page will reformat to one that will print without the line cutoff problem. Doing this will also save you money because it eliminates all superfluous graphics thereby using less toner or ink than the standard printing method.
Scholarship Information
Q: I need scholarship/financial aid to keep or enroll my child in Catholic Schools. Can you help?
A: No we cannot help as much as we wish we could. NCEA is a 501(c)3 membership organization responsive to its institutional and individual members. We are not funded to provide financial aid to either institutions or individuals. We recommend that you contact the principal/president/headmaster of the institution where your child is enrolled or hoping to enroll. They are in the best position to know what is available locally to support their students in need of financial aid/assistance.
Q: How much is the tuition for Catholic Schools in the area where I am relocating?
A: NCEA publishes the result of a financial surveys, including tuition, for both elementary schools and high schools and each is available for purchase in our on-line store however the publication does not list a specific tuition amount for a specific school but rather provides a regional tuition average. Neither does it survey the data from every school within the region but only enough to obtain reliable information.
Within the region, we find that tuition varies for a number of reasons and that publishing any amount on the Web Site could be misleading to the reader. Diocesan schools will be different from private Catholic schools; schools that are supported by the diocese will be different from those that must pay their own way; elementary schools in general will be less expensive than high schools in general and the tuition in some will be adjusted to reflect other forms of revenue coming into their operating budget - endowments being one form. Thus, what might be true on the West side of a region could vary greatly from that on the East.
We recommend you go to our diocesan locater at /news/SchoolDiocesanLocator.asp, set the selector to Diocese, select the diocese of interest and Search. Contact the Catholic Schools Office where you might be relocating and pose the tuition question to them. They will be in a better position to describe the tuition situation for their diocese.
Momentum - The Official Journal of the National Catholic Educational Association
Q: How do I go about getting an article I am writing into Momentum:
A: Specification for article submission can be found here!
Q: How can I get a back issue of Momentum?
A: Copies generally are available for Momentum issues published in the last several years. To determine availability, call the Member Services Center at (202) 337-6232. Back issues are $5 each plus shipping.
Q: How can I get a copy of an article from Momentum?
A: Momentum articles are not archived on the NCEA Web site. If you are seeking a specific article, email the editor at momentum@ncea.org and provide as much information as possible about the title, author and date of publication. Provide a fax number if you would like a fax response or a postal address if you would like a copy mailed to you. If you desire to purchase the entire issue, contact the member Service Center at (202) 337-6232.
Q: What should I do to request reprint rights to a Momentum article?
A: Momentum is a copyrighted publication so permission is required before reproducing articles for further distribution. Permissions are granted freely and liberally upon written request. Send an email to mailto:momentum@ncea.org citing the specific article to be reprinted, the intended use and the number of copies to be made. All reprints must carry the notation: "Reprinted with permission of Momentum, official journal of the National Catholic Educational Association."
Q: How can my company advertise in Momentum?
A: Advertising placement is handled through our agency. More information can be obtained here!
What does NCEA do?
Q: Does NCEA lobby the congress?
A: No, NCEA does not "lobby", as a 501(c)(3) organization; we are prohibited from by law. That is not to say that NCEA does not advocate for Catholic schools with the government. We collaborate on many issues with the government but we do not go outside of our traditional advocacy role.
Q: What is your position on Home Schooling?
A: We consider the decision to Home School an integral part of a parents right to choose how their children are educated. There are many circumstances where home schooling would be called for but as an organization of Catholic teaching institutions, we believe that where Catholic schools are available, we will provide the child the best education.
Employment - Job Hunting
Q: I am looking for a job in Catholic education, can you help?
A: Absolutely. Go to http://ncea.catholic.org/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.cgi?db=employment&websit and you will find our Job Bank. Its use is free to any member institution and their employees or any individual looking for a position in Catholic education. We expect non-member institutions and commercial organizations to pay for the privilege of using the database and help defray the cost of its operation. The Job Bank is software and user driven; there is not human interface at NCEA unless you specifically request it. Complete instruction on how to use the Job Bank is found at http://ncea.catholic.org/classifieds/howto.htm and, if printed, it will provide an excellent guide to posting an available position or a resume - from start to finish.
Accreditation
Q: Are Catholic Schools accredited by any accrediting organization?
A: There is no single answer to this question except that it will vary by institution and/or diocese depending on who operates the school. NCEA is not an accrediting organization and does not serve that function although our Secondary Schools Department has developed an instrument that can be helpful with the high school accrediting process - Validating the Vision. The instrument has been recognized by the organizations listed below but it is not a part of the accrediting process itself.
- Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
- North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement
- Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Speaking and Presenting at the Convention or Other Conferences
Q: I am interested in getting information on how to be a presenter at the upcoming conference.
A: PART 1 - Annual Convention:
The annual convention is managed by a central support office but the sessions presented there are considered and selected by the membership departments based on the needs of their constituent members. Thus, there is no one person you would contact if you wished to present at the annual convention. To simplify the consideration process and when it begins in early summer, application and nomination forms will be placed in the convention web pages of our Web Site. Notice will also be found somewhere on the NCEA home page. These forms will correspond to each membership department which can be translated to the target audience for the presentation. Simply complete the form appropriate for your target audience and the information in the form will be transmitted directly to the department. If you feel your topic is broader than one department, you are required to complete a separate form for the other audiences. Forms are specific to the department involved and are used for the majority of presentation selections but it would be false to say that letters or emails to the membership departments would not result in consideration of a topic. If you require more specific information, the email addresses for the departments are found in the Association Staff pages of the ABOUT NCEA menu selection.
A: PART 2 - Other Conferences or events:
Other meetings are normally handled individually by the department hosting the event. The largest of the other conferences is the CACE Annual Meeting. The CACE Department announces its on internal call for presentations based on the theme of the annual meeting. This is generally true for all departmental meetings. If the departmental "home page", accessible from the Web Site Menu does not announce a call for proposals, then direct email contact with the department is recommended. Departmental meetings follow their own development calendar and it is not possible to summarize them all here.
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National Catholic Educational Association
