Montessori should be within reach.
Many families pay less than the full tuition. MCHL accepts the Virginia Child Care Subsidy, works with military and federal-employee child care programs, and qualifies for pre-tax dependent care dollars. Here is how each one works, and how our office helps.
Call (703) 421-1112 or email info@mchl.org and say you would like help paying for care. We will tell you which program to look at first, what paperwork it needs from us, and what your family would pay each month. Everything you tell us stays with our office.
Virginia Child Care Subsidy
For working or studying families within the state income limits. The state pays us directly; you pay a family co-payment.
Military families
Fee assistance through your service branch when on-base care is not available, plus our 10% active-military discount.
Federal employees
Federal agencies may pay part of a licensed center’s tuition for lower-income employees. We complete the provider forms.
Pre-tax dollars
A Dependent Care FSA or the federal child care tax credit lowers the real cost of any program for working families.
The state pays most of it. You pay a co-payment.
MCHL is an approved vendor in Virginia’s Child Care Subsidy Program, and families use it here today. When your child is approved, the Commonwealth pays us directly each month. You pay the family co-payment the county sets for you, plus any extras you choose, such as hot lunch.
In our Toddler and Early Childhood programs, that co-payment is all you pay toward monthly tuition: we do not bill you the difference between our tuition and what the state pays. For the Infant program, our office will tell you your share before you enroll.
Who qualifies
- You live in Virginia and are working, looking for work, or in an approved school or training program.
- Your household income is within the limit. For families with a child under 5 who has not started kindergarten, the limit is 85% of the state median income: as of October 2026, about $8,539 a month for a family of three and $10,166 a month for a family of four.
- Families receiving TANF (now or in the last 12 months), in the VIEW program, in Head Start or Early Head Start, or with a Child Protective Services case may qualify by another route. Ask the specialist.
How to apply in Loudoun County
- Check your eligibility and apply online at commonhelp.virginia.gov, or ask the Department of Family Services for a paper form.
- Call the Loudoun County Department of Family Services at (703) 777-0353 and ask for a Child Care Specialist. The office is at 102 Heritage Way NE, Suite 103, Leesburg. Families outside Loudoun apply through their own county.
- Have proof of income and of your work or school ready, plus any other papers the specialist asks for. The county reviews applications within 30 days and may ask for an interview.
- Name Montessori Children’s House of Loudoun, 880 West Church Road, Sterling as your provider. Ask the specialist whether there is currently a wait for new families.
What our office does
We give you a letter confirming your child’s spot and schedule, complete every vendor form the county sends us, record attendance the way the program requires, and tell you plainly what your monthly bill will be before you sign anything. We cannot fill in your income or vouch for it; that part must be yours.
Fee assistance off the installation, and 10% off here.
Active-duty families who cannot get a spot in on-installation care can receive child care fee assistance for a licensed community center through their service branch, a program often called Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN). The program sets a monthly family share, and the fee assistance pays us the rest of our rate.
MCHL has been an approved provider in Child Care Aware of America’s military fee assistance program since 2021, and military families have used it here. We also take 10% off tuition for active military families. If you use fee assistance too, the program’s rules have us take the discount off our rate first, and you pay the family share on your approval certificate.
How to apply
- Create a household profile at MilitaryChildCare.com and submit a Request for Care for community fee assistance.
- MilitaryChildCare.com then sends you to your branch’s fee assistance program. For Army families, that is Child Care Aware of America’s portal. Child Care Aware of America’s fee assistance line is 1 (800) 424-2246.
- Give the program our name and address. If they ask us for a license, an inspection report or a rate sheet, we send it the same week.
Families posted here from an allied country’s armed forces: some governments, Germany’s among them, reimburse pre-school care for families abroad. Ask your command’s administration office what receipts it needs, and we will provide a year-end statement of what you paid.
Your agency may pay part of your tuition.
Federal agencies may use their own funds to help lower-income employees pay for licensed child care. Each agency sets its own income ceiling and share, so two parents at different agencies can have very different benefits. Children under 13 in a licensed center qualify, and MCHL is licensed by the Virginia Department of Education.
How to apply
- Ask your agency’s Work-Life or Dependent Care Coordinator, or your HR office, for the Child Care Subsidy Program application.
- If your agency’s application includes a form for the child care provider, send it to info@mchl.org and we return it completed, with our license number and rates.
- Once approved, the subsidy is usually paid straight to the school and your monthly bill drops by that amount.
Two ways to pay with money that was never taxed.
Dependent Care FSA
If your employer offers a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, you can set aside part of each paycheck before taxes and use it for tuition at MCHL. For 2026 the federal limit is $7,500 per household ($3,750 if married filing separately) where the employer has adopted the new limit; employers that have not updated their plans still allow $5,000. You sign up during your employer’s open enrollment, or after a change such as a birth or a new job.
A family that sets aside the full $7,500 and pays roughly 30 cents of every extra dollar in federal, Virginia and payroll taxes keeps about $2,250 a year it would otherwise have paid in tax: close to $190 a month off the real cost of care. At $5,000 the saving is about $1,500 a year. Your own rate will differ; this is an example, not tax advice.
Child and Dependent Care Credit
Families without a Dependent Care FSA can claim the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit on their tax return. For 2026 it covers between 20% and 50% of up to $3,000 in care costs for one child, or $6,000 for two or more, depending on income: a credit of up to $1,500 or $3,000. The same dollars cannot count for both: FSA money comes off the costs the credit can use, so a family with a full FSA usually has little or no credit left. We provide a year-end statement of tuition paid for either.
Please check the current rules with your tax preparer or at irs.gov; limits change and we are a school, not tax advisers.
Questions families ask
Does using the subsidy change anything about my child’s day?
No. Your child is in the same classroom with the same teachers and the same materials as every other child. Billing is the only difference, and it is handled quietly between our office and the county.
Can I use more than one of these at once?
Sometimes. With military fee assistance, our 10% military discount comes off our rate first. A Dependent Care FSA and the tax credit cannot cover the same dollars. Ask our office before you apply and we will go through it with you.
Can I start before the county approves me?
Yes, if we have an opening. Until the county’s approval starts, our regular tuition applies. Tell us you have applied and we will plan around it.
Do you help with the application in Spanish?
This page is also in Spanish, at mchl.org/es. When you call the county, ask the Child Care Specialist about help in Spanish. Our office provides the school’s letters and forms either way.
What if my income is just over the limit?
Ask anyway. Limits move each year, some routes do not depend on income, and the federal tax credit has no income ceiling. Our sibling and teacher discounts also apply.
Your child’s second home is waiting.
Visit on a weekday morning and see a calm, joyful classroom at work — or, if you already know, apply online in a few minutes.