What is the basis for student fees in public schools K-12?

[Pai325]

@Voyager

Where did you go? There were no fees in New York. I don’t even recall a fee for local school trips, like to the Stock Exchange. An overnight trip that was planned but never happened had one.
And we never bought books. There were book rooms with stacks of books handed out each year to students, and returned at the end of the year.

A lot more fees in California now than in New York when I was young. No fees in our district in NJ 20 years ago, but our town always approved school taxes. Things are tight today. I was on the site council of our kids high school, and we spent any spare money on paper towels for the bathrooms to make sure it didn’t go to waste.

Northern suburb of Chicago.

[MLS]

Here in NJ it is law that every child is entitled to a free public education.

Several decades ago I taught in a mixed-income town. We were directed that NO student could be required to buy anything related to his/her education. The district provided everything; pencils, paper, books, book covers, the works. We were not even allowed to tell the student to cover their books with paper bags from the supermarket. The reason was that some students came from really poor and disfunctional families and it was considered discrimination if they were to stand out as not having the same supplies.

There are many ways school districts get around that, though. The parent-teacher associations sponsor fund-raisers, for example. No one is required to participate, but the peer pressure can be intense, via prizes for whoever sells the most of something.

[bump]

@bump

District funds. It was middle school, and there wasn’t a booster club or anything like that.

It wasn’t high-tech gear by any means, but it was provided. We got to keep the socks and jocks at the end too.

Come to think of it, this was prior to the “Robin Hood” school financing changes that happened in 1993, and our district was a fairly wealthy one at that time, so maybe that was a special case.

They had a lot of nifty perks then, even in middle school- two different late buses that would take you home from practice (one was early- like 4:45, and one was late- like 5:30-6, so that afterschool extracurriculars with differing times were accommodated.

Pretty sure they don’t do any of that nowadays anywhere in the state, as the money that might be used for stuff like that is taken and redistributed under the Robin Hood laws, which due to some weirdness in the laws (redistributive payments are based on property value, not district revenue, and districts are limited in tax increases), actually put many “wealthy” districts in a financial bind because they now have to pay a huge redistributive payment without a corresponding increase in tax to cover it.

[drewder]

@MandaJo

This will vary by the district and the event. You most certainly are not going to be allowed to join the cheer or the dance team if you can’t pay the fees, and those are likely $500-$1000. That covers uniforms and camp. Some teams may have scholarships for girls that can’t afford it, but it’s a real barrier to entry at others.

In Texas events that fall under UIL, our state-wide competitive sports/music/drama/academic organization (it’s weird) have really strict requirements about who can pay for what. Outside of UIL, it’s pretty flexible. I do think a school has to provide a path to graduation without fees, but I think as long as SOME class offers an art credit for free, you can have a fee for other courses.

And of course lots and lots of districts send home supply lists that include dry erase markers and tissue–things for classroom use. Those can be a real burden on people.

I know my sister’s school in California requires them to give $500 per student.