Scholarships are awarded by lottery until the funds allotted for the current academic year are committed. Students currently receiving scholarships will have priority followed by a lottery for new students. All families must reapply annually. The ultimate goal of the ISF is to partner with foundations, corporations, community organizations and individuals to offer more scholarships every year, as funding becomes available. For the 1999-2000 academic year, the Independent Scholarship Fund awarded 107 tuition scholarships .
Scholarships are renewable for a period of three years.