Public schools charging "fees"?

[shawthorne44]

I looked and from what I found online there aren't any fees in my local school district.  

 

For those that don't have textbooks, and have ipads instead, would they let you use your own ipad?

[a27mom]

Public school is pricey here. It is $90 just the base registration fee for K-5. That doesn't include book rental, workbook cost (they can charge you cost and shipping for workbooks), activity fees, required school supplies, and "optional" things like pictures, yearbook etc... My friend just told me this morning it was $300 to register her son for middle school. Extracurricular also have special fees.

 

Granted for many people this is cheaper than child care. But I do feel like I can spend a bit on homeschool curriculum, since I am "saving" $180 minimum by not sending my kids to ps.

[JubilantNest]

The public charter we attended certainly wasn't free!  The fees looked something like this:

$400 activity fee (covers P.E., art, and music)  If it wasn't paid children were not be allowed to participate!

Additional fees for interest groups such as choir, chess, and science club.

Fees for field trips, dances, necessary T-shirts, etc.

Constant fundraising.

Instead of parents shopping for all of the school supplies, each parent had to buy a supply box from a contracted company ($65-$80) and then go buy composition books, tissue etc. on their own (another $40?)

Students had to supply all of their own medication and it had to be left on campus.  ($279 EpiPen + $6 Benadryl for our child)

Fees for late pick-ups. 

This all ran around $800 per child for our family.  Keep in mind that our state only has 1/2 day kindergarten.  That is a lot of money for 15 hours per week! 

[Mimm]

My sister attended the local public school. It's a nice school last year for her senior year. The school that my kids will attend if they go to public high school. And yes, she paid fees for her culinary class and a lab fee in another class, I forget which. Her band fees were $300.

[Ravin]

My DD's new charter school charges a $100 activities fee. I figure this is a fraction of the cost of private dance lessons (one of her electives) so it's money well spent. Her supply list was for items for her own use and perfectly reasonable. The fee is higher for high school, which makes sense.

 

I think custom uniform fees for a public charter are ridiculous. But my DD's school has nothing like that. They have no dress code whatsoever, in fact.

[kiwik]

NZ schools aren't allowed to charge fees for the basics but they send you an invoice for a "donation" they also ask for money for other stuff. We don't have supply toilet paper or printer paper but we do supply tissues. I don't think any of it is thrown away and sometimes stuff is returned or given away. The school my sons go to is holding out against uniforms - it was proposed and voted against a couple of years ago. On a slight side not it really annoys me when people complain a uniform is cheaper in the long run and evens the playing field. It is only cheaper if you spend a lot of money on clothes (we have hand me downs, cheap stuff plus a couple of fancier sale pieces - i spend less on cloths in a year than a basic one season uniform) and it wasn't until i went to a high school with a uniform that it became blatantly obvious which kids had parents who didn't really care or had no money.

 

Any most have optional BYOD (bring your own device) from 4th grade and compulsorily from 8th grade.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I think it is normal and there isn't enough in a school budget to cover the cost of uniforms and extras for sports and band for all those kids.  If you want to do extras, you shell out the $$ for it and it has been that way since umpteen years ago when I was in school.  My dd went back to high school this year and the only fees so far have been $10 Technology Fee, $15 Theatre Class Fee to cover royalties for scripts and such (the class is well worth it), if she makes the soccer team I am sure there will be a hefty uniform/bag/travelling fee (but I see that as totally worth it for my child to get to do a high school sport that she tries out for and has to make the team), and of course when she does PE the gym uniform is $12 a tank or tee.  

To me, this doesn't seem out of the way. I mean the education is free.  If you take classes outside your core and electives which have been cut in many schools such as the arts and music, then I think paying a fee to keep it available to your child is well worth it.

 

[Lovingparent]

I was surprised to hear about California. I pulled my son out of school 6 years ago and at that time, the school required a donation of 600 dollars per kid. My son went to the public school for two years. The second year I did not pay the "donation" and the system put together to shame the parents they hadn't paid was pretty elaborate. They even formed a committee and had other parents called us at our home to tell us how terrible we were. 

But the donation was not the only thing, we had to buy supplies, provide food/decorations/general items for parties and celebrations. And there was constant fundraising. Constant. 

Also, they really did not have anyone to monitor the big break/lunch time and they asked parents to do it. I volunteered and it was a big commitment, I had to be there 3-4 days every week for 1.5 hours. I stopped going when the principal commanded me to care for a special needs kid that just had brain surgery and he was not very cognizant and had fainting spells. It was just too much responsibility. I was appalled the school did not have someone at least for the special needs kids for lunch time, you know? 

The irony is we lived at the time in a small townhouse to be able to afford to live in that area because of the good schools!

[Saddlemomma]

My DD has been participating in one to two PS classes every year since K.  We've never been assessed any fees other than the rental of her flute through the school.  We have to pay the exact same rental fees every other regular students' parents pay.

 

In Maine, homeschoolers have the right to partially enroll students in the public schools because, as a property tax payer, I'm already supporting and paying for the public schools in our district whether or not I choose to enroll my child.  Partial enrollment can be as little as one class.  As a partially enrolled student, DD has access to all the services and/or sports that every other fully enrolled student has access to.

 

I wonder how the schools who charge a "fee" to attend classes justify the property tax issue.  If you own property and your property taxes also pay for your schools, how can a public school justify double-charging you to gain access to what you've already paid for?  I think I would investigate and inquire about this to get to the bottom of it. Sounds like double-dipping to me.

[shawthorne44]

They are slick. They make the nonrequired high school classes Dual Enrollment, instead of in-house. The reasoning goes like this: only rich people can afford DE, and said rich people should be ashamed of themselves for asking for nonrequired classes for free, because that is stealing from special needs children, who do not have enough funding, and from poverty people who need all the remediation they can get.

 

I am not saying that you agree with this.  But reading the logic it really struck me how inherently bigoted that thought process is. 

 

Smart kids must come from rich families.

Poor kids are slow-learners.  

[Supertechmom]

I paid more in fees at the public school than I did for all the books and everything to home school.

 One of the things I did with all the kids was figure how much it would cost me to send them to school minus clothes and food each year.    There was always field trips, book fees, class fees, technology fees, supply fee or provide the list, registration fee at registration every year.  My neighbors and public school friends would share the amount they paid and for what.  I typically always came in cheaper to order material and homeschool than to send them off to school.  Only 11th and 12th grade have I started paying more to homeschool than to go to public school and that is because I chose some CC classes.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

For middle school +

$300 registration

$110 required laptop, after fourth year it's yours. You may not use one you already have

 

Plus school supplies, activity fees, and any other expenses along the way.

[idnib]

from the bankrupt state, a clear consequence

 

Source?

[athomeontheprairie]

My bil is a freshman. His fees were slightly more than $100. Not including sport fees which will come later. When I first started hs'ing I asked several good friends what their total cost was to send their DC to school: yes, I can hs cheaper than sending them to free school.

 

Source?

For state that doesn't charge fees, and went bankrupt... surely there is a connection. Though, not necessarily. I live in Kansas, the other state that went bankrupt, and we still charge fees. And those fees still didn't cover the deficit. I don't think money is necessarily the answer

[Chrysalis Academy]

Fees are illegal in CA . . . but in my experience, there are work-arounds.  You get a long list of supplies that you are asked to buy and "donate" to the classroom - this can easily run to over $100 if you buy everything on the list.  You are asked to donate $5 for the bus every time they have a field trip, and to donate to every party/activity/event that happens in the classroom.  All that is directly for your child's class and goes to the teacher.  On top of that, there is extensive fundraising by the PTO, and that is what pays for all the extras - enrichment classes, technology, etc.

 

They do say that no one will be excluded from an activity or a field trip if they cannot pay the fee, but there is a lot of public pressure/shaming - if you haven't brought in the $5 for the bus, your name goes on the board or a list on the classroom door for everyone to see.  It's always the same names, and I think it's really mean and humiliating for the kids whose families can't afford the extras.

[idnib]

For state that doesn't charge fees, and went bankrupt... surely there is a connection. Though, not necessarily. I live in Kansas, the other state that went bankrupt, and we still charge fees. And those fees still didn't cover the deficit. I don't think money is necessarily the answer

 

Sorry I wasn't clear. I was looking for a source for the bankruptcy. I can't find one.

[Arcadia]

I was looking for a source for the bankruptcy. I can't find one.

California issued out IOU for tax refunds in 2009 when they ran out of money.

States aren't allow to declare bankruptcy by federal law.

[idnib]

California issued out IOU for tax refunds in 2009 when they ran out of money.

States aren't allow to declare bankruptcy by federal law.

 

OK, I thought rjones was talking about something current and as far as I knew CA has a budget surplus. I live in here and have only heard of bankruptcy for cities and so I realized she must have been using the term loosely. Thanks.

[Wheres Toto]

Our local district does not have any fees outside of extras - field trips and school supplies.  I never heard of so many fees before although I guess I don't know if they are common in other NJ districts.  I belong to a group for moms in my county and I see griping about school supply lists but nothing about extra fees.

 

I know a few years ago the budget was cut pretty harshly and more schools were doing "pay to play" for sports but that only lasted one year here, along with limited busing.  Our "courtesy busing" where someone who lives across the street from the school could get bused, was reinstated the following year.

[vonfirmath]

"It's worse than Christmas!" said my public school friend last year.  Her daughter had started K.  "At least with Christmas, you can plan ahead and spread the cost out!  With this, it's ALL due at once!"

 

She mentioned:

School fees

School pictures

School supplies

Shoes and clothing for changing weather and growing kids

 

So far, in Texas, we have no school fees. Had none growing up.

 

School pictures are voluntary

 

School supplies cost $30 (Less, actually. I got seconds of stuff to keep at home) (And I enjoy shopping for them)

Shoes and clothing for changing weather and growing kids happens with having kids, not just sending them to school.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I just registered my daughter for part-time high school.  Only 2 classes per semester and it came to over $200.  I'd hate to see what it would cost to go full time.  Probably what I would spend a year homeschooling her.

[DianeW88]

The fees here are ridiculous...and everything has a fee.  Just to register for high school is $90, and then the real fun starts.  My kids have never attended any brick and mortar school (or online equivalent), but my dd did participate in drill team at the local high school her senior year.  The fee for that....$3,000.  And that wasn't the worst part of it for me.  When we were in the office one day, a girl transferring here from another country was also there with her father.  She asked about drill team, and the snooty secretary said, "Are you sure you can afford that?  It's going to cost you around $3,000 per year."  The girl looked crushed, and her father was shocked that the "public" school could charge that much for a school sponsored extra curricular activity.  I just wanted to pop the secretary in the mouth for her condescending attitude.

[athomeontheprairie]

OK, I thought rjones was talking about something current and as far as I knew CA has a budget surplus. I live in here and have only heard of bankruptcy for cities and so I realized she must have been using the term loosely. Thanks.

despite many googling attempt I cannot find what I'm looking for! in 2011? 2012? Kansas and California went broke. Congress went into emergency sessions, and it was a very real possibility that state employees would not be paid ( my FIL works for the state and this was a huge concern). but the bankruptcy thing was a couple years ago, not current.

sorry for confusion

[Murphy101]

The bottom line is that as long as parents & teachers give the money - the administration will be glad to take it and to give themselves a pay raise for their great "budgeting" strategy. Say no. If everyone did, things would have to change. And I bet it would change fairly quick if all parents/teachers did it.

 

They do say that no one will be excluded from an activity or a field trip if they cannot pay the fee, but there is a lot of public pressure/shaming - if you haven't brought in the $5 for the bus, your name goes on the board or a list on the classroom door for everyone to see.  It's always the same names, and I think it's really mean and humiliating for the kids whose families can't afford the extras.

I think that should fall under the student privacy protect rules. If they can't post pass/fail grades, they shouldn't be able to post paid/unpaid stuff. I'd threaten to sue if they did that to my kid. Jerks. :/

[Dramorellis]

When my son went to school there was a "donation" fee of $2400 for K and $1200 for every grade after that. It was not mandatory but was very, very strongly encouraged and there was so much gossip and crossover with the Parent Assoc. and parent volunteers, that they for sure knew who didn't pay and were happy to give you the stink eye about it. This was in addition to the mandatory book fee of $125 and the supplies list that cost me around $40. Not to mention the dozens of fees throughout the year for field trips, teacher gifts, classroom snacks etc. etc. They also had uniforms. It's laughable how much money we have saved by taking him out of "public school". 

[Murphy101]

And this is nothing new. People used to tell me all the time wasn't I worried the kids would miss sports, music, plays, art and so forth at school?

 

Um. I went to public school k - 12 and never once had any of that unless you count finger painting in kindergarten and dodge ball in gym class in elementary school. Only the kids with money got that stuff. The rest of us couldn't stay after school, buy supplies, pay for uniforms and away competitions and and and.

[bethben]

When my son went to school there was a "donation" fee of $2400 for K and $1200 for every grade after that. It was not mandatory but was very, very strongly encouraged and there was so much gossip and crossover with the Parent Assoc. and parent volunteers, that they for sure knew who didn't pay and were happy to give you the stink eye about it. This was in addition to the mandatory book fee of $125 and the supplies list that cost me around $40. Not to mention the dozens of fees throughout the year for field trips, teacher gifts, classroom snacks etc. etc. They also had uniforms. It's laughable how much money we have saved by taking him out of "public school". 

 

What?!?!  What kind of middle class family could afford that?  In that school district, I would have had to pay over $6000 just for my kids to attend school - more than 15% of my husband's take home pay.  There would have been no way we could afford that when we're just making ends meet.  I'm sure there was no resentment on having to pay school property taxes and a fee with that one!

 

Beth

[dirty ethel rackham]

Well our state is so broke that they are about 2 years behind distributing funds to the local school districts.  The state owes our district about $6 million IIRC.  Our local property taxes are already high so they make up for it in fees. 

[Erica in OR]

I was pleasantly surprised when I went to register my oldest this week at the high school for two classes. Her one-semester art class only had a fee of $15 and there is no fee for the choir class. We chose to pay an overall $30 registration fee so that she could get a student body card to get into games, dances, get discounts, etc. and might order a yearbook. Otherwise it would have been nearly free—that is, minus paying in property taxes for the eight years we've been in the district and been homeschooling :). Those in sports and a few other fee-based classes can really add up though.

 

Erica in OR

[Lanny]

School fees can't be charged in California. There was just a lawsuit that reminded public school districts that they cannot require students to pay any fees to register or participate in any classes, nor can they make students pay for school materials, supplies, or school sponsored extra curricular activities, etc. 

 

The son of one of my cousins and his family live in So CA. I think in Orange County. They were, along with other parents, donating USD$1000 per year, per kid, to their local PS.  I wonder if the voluntary contributions will continue?

[Nart]

The son of one of my cousins and his family live in So CA. I think in Orange County. They were, along with other parents, donating USD$1000 per year, per kid, to their local PS.  I wonder if the voluntary contributions will continue?

 

AB 1575 specifically states that donations are still allowed but must truly be voluntary. The school can't say students need to donate money for instructional fees/class material fees/activity fees and then add students who can't pay can get waivers. A student's participation in a class, program, or activity cannot be conditioned upon the receipt of a "donation". There is now a complaint process in place if you feel you are getting charged an illegal fee.  

[Word Nerd]

I know my parents had to pay fees even when I was in school--high school, at least.

[mom2scouts]

My oldest started in public school 20 years ago and we have always had to pay class fees.  They vary each year and are called "workbook fees" or "art fees" or "foreign language" fees.  They used to charge us for a school issued planner that was not optional.  In my school district, students who get free or reduced lunch can get the fees reduced or waived.  I don't miss having kids in public school!

 

ETA:  I do remember CA having a lawsuit on the issue of fees, but they are required in my area.  One year I didn't have the money to pay them and I couldn't get any of my child's report cards until the fees were paid in full.

[Arcadia]

The son of one of my cousins and his family live in So CA. I think in Orange County. They were, along with other parents, donating USD$1000 per year, per kid, to their local PS. I wonder if the voluntary contributions will continue?

Is your cousin's son in a public charter? Those ask for higher donations.

 

When donations drop, the PTA runs more fundraisers.

For activities like local field trips, the PTA paid for those on free/reduced lunch who ask for PTA sponsorship so it is technically not a waiver. It was $30 per year for K-5 and some grandparents of those on free lunch paid. The 8th grade field trip is funded by its own fundraising since that is a big expense.

[ebrindam]

Our local public schools have no fees. We did have a school supply list for my 9th grader and 6th grade that totaled less than $100 for both (personal supplies only....no cleaning or paper goods). We buy clothes and shoes regularly throughout year for both our public and homeschooled kids. I don't consider that a school issue. We are in a high cost of living area. Schools are well funded and taxes are high.

[MyHandsAreFull]

I have one of my kids in CA public schools (rising 6th grader) and at school orientation last night they told us the district won't even allow them to send out a recommended supplies list because of a pending lawsuit over fees. Parents kept asking how many notebooks or pencils to get and teacher kept saying she is not allowed to mention any specifics. We are in a small district in Nor Cal. My son is in band and we have never been charged a fee for that, either.

[Arcadia]

I have one of my kids in CA public schools (rising 6th grader) and at school orientation last night they told us the district won't even allow them to send out a recommended supplies list because of a pending lawsuit over fees.

Same for one of the nearby title one K-5 school in my district. The school web page say no supplies needed. Each student will be issued a notebook and a few pencils. It seems so extreme compared with the recommended school supplies we get at other nearby public schools.

My local middle school that is not title one recommends a binder, notebooks and a calculator for algebra. Math teachers do have loaner calculators.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I had heard that there were lawsuits over the supply list thing.  They are still passing them out here, so far as I know, but it's true that this is my 2nd year out of ps, so maybe it has changed.