Request By:
Mrs. Christene Johnson
Route #2, Box 205A
Dawson Springs, Kentucky 42408
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Deputy Attorney General and Chief Counsel
You have written to the Office of the Attorney General regarding the school fees imposed upon the parents of children attending the Charleston School in Hopkins County. You stated that parents were informed that if they did not pay the student fees for their children that they would not be enrolled in school or not be promoted at the end of the school year. You feel you were forced to pay the student fees. You further related you have not been specifically told what the fee money is to be used for.
We must first point out that this office is not familiar with the student fee practice in the Hopkins County Schools. This being so we will only set out below what we believe is a proper construction and application of the new school fee law.
In OAG 82-359, copy attached, we indicated our belief that the 1982 General Assembly "has put the public common schools in Kentucky back in essentially the same position as they were before 1978." By this we meant, the General Assembly has again authorized local school districts to charge parents incidental fees associated with the instruction of their children. The schools have always been legally able to charge a fee for extra-curricular activities. We discussed instructional student fees/supply fees in OAG 75-619, copy attached. Thus, it is our belief the school districts may now charge parents for materials and supplies for courses and projects that relate to any educational program, remembering the special considerations applicable to handicapped children. We believe parents are entitled to be informed what the fee they are being charged will be used for, that is, what is going to be received by the child in return for the payment of this money by the parent.
This office well understands the significant burden imposed by the charging of fees to parents for children attending Kentucky's public common schools. However, the General Assembly has authorized fees in part at least due to a lack of sufficient state revenues for this purpose. The new statute is not to be used for general fund raising, but only to reimburse the school district for materials and supplies provided to a child as a part of a child's educational program. The statute, KRS 158.108, also places a responsibility on each school district to make sure that no child is denied the opportunity to have full participation in any educational program offered in a school district due to the parents inability to pay the fee necessary to reimburse the school for the supplies and materials their child or children receive. Very clearly, KRS 158.108 authorizes only the charging for "necessary school supplies." We are not in a position to know what school supplies will be received in any particular school district and by each grade level in that district. If there is any misunderstanding as to what will be received for the money expended, we believe parents may reasonably expect to be enlightened by local school district officials.
One other point to be made is our strong belief that a school district cannot use parents inability to pay or refusing to pay against a student. As we have pointed out above, no child is to be denied the opportunity to participate in an educational program due to the parents inability to pay. How such "inability to pay" is determined is up to the reasonable discretion of each local school board. Additionally, we just recently concluded in OAG 82-386, copy attached, that a school district may not withhold grades or otherwise use academics as leverage in the need by the school to collect fees or other charges incurred by children going to school. Admittedly this does leave the school district with limited extra-legal resources in collecting money owed to the district. Nevertheless, we do not believe any school district in the Commonwealth can use "debt" collection as an obstacle to prevent a child from receiving an education in one of our public common schools.
We trust we have helped you to understand the current school law concerning the charging of student fees.