Too many Utah schools are not complying with legal requirements that school fees be waived for school fees be waived for children whose families cannot afford them, Utah Legal Services believes.
The legal agency filed suit Friday afternoon in 3rd District Court against the state Board of Education and the state superintendent for failure to enforce the legislative mandate.Last December, Utah Legal Services wrote to then-Superintendent Jay B. Taggart making several demands. Among them were requriements that school districts void any arrangements for installment payments or deffered paymetns plans agreed to by students or parents, districts be required to prove compliance with the law before collecting any fees and that the state board createt uniform notification and application forms.
Friday's suit repeats those demands.
Fees vary from district to district but generally cover such items as books, athletics, activities and participation in classes that have special costs.
Utah Legal Services filed a class-action suite on behalf of 17 children and seven adults. The plaintiffs live in Alpine, Davis, Ogden, Provo and Tooele school districts. They say the secondary schools the children attended violate Utah law by either failing to notify parents that waivers were available or refusing the waivers when parents applied. Often, families suffered embarrassment or haarassment when asking for waivers, said David Challed, attorney with the service.
When school officials publicly identify children as poor because they request fee waivers, the children can be greately affected, Challed said. In some instances, poor children leave school rather than suffer the embarrassment. Some districts require that children who receive waivers work out the fees.
State Superintendent Scott W. Bean said he does not want to comment on the suit until he had seen it.
Challed said the state board has been clearly derelict in fulfilling its constitutional and legislative mandate to ensure that districts abide by the law, which was passed in 1986.
The board has authority to impose penalties on districts that do not abide by relevant laws, including withholding state funding, he said. Utah Legal Services estimates that of the 195,000 students in Utah's secondary schools, 37,000 are eligible for waivers.
The 1990-91 state report on fee waivers, however, identifies only 24,120 children in junior and hgih schools who are eligible for free schools lunch, the main criterion used to determine waivers for all fees. The law allows for waivers for all fees. The law allows for waivers in individual instances of need even if the lunch criterion is not met.
The fee waivers have been a problem since they are instituted. Schools lose money when they grant waivers and have no recourse to recover the loss. For three years, the state board has unsuccessfully requested that the Legislature appropriate money to help offset the losses.
Bean estimated that if every possible waiver were granted, the loss to districts could be between $1.65 million and $2 million. The 1990-91 report showed that districts had lost $303,857 in waivers.
The districts charge fees because they are underfunded and plan on the income to help with the costs of educating students. In general, the state's neediest districts charge the highest fees.