The good news: The state has drafted a policy that says which students don't have to pay school fees and lists other ways they can work off the fees.
No news: The permanent policy is basically the same policy the state has been using for two years.The state is trying to settle a class-action lawsuit filed two years ago over the state's uneven fee policy. According to the suit, too many school districts weren't following the law on when and how to waive fees for low-income students. The state passed the law in 1986.
Shortly after the suit was filed, 3rd District Judge John Rokich issued a preliminary injunction ordering Utah school districts to alert families to the existence of fee waivers and to keep the waiver forms on hand.
Friday, attorneys for both sides hammered out a proposed settlement, nearly identical to the preliminary injunction. Rokich will hold a hearing on the settlement in July, said Douglas Bates, attorney for the state office.
Under the settlement:
- Schools must waive fees for any child eligible for a free school lunch, any child in foster care or in the custody of a state agency, any child receiving social security payments and any child from a family on welfare.
- Schools must display posters that tell youngsters and their parents whether they qualify for fee waivers and how to obtain them.
- All schools must keep fee waiver forms constantly on hand.
- If a school requires a student to do community service to pay for his fees, the service must include opportunities not connected with the school or commercial businesses. The student must have enough time to complete the service and each hour of service must be assigned a wage credit.
- If a school allows fund-raisers to offset student fees, all students involved in programs the fees will be used for must be invited to participate in the fund-raiser, not just those obtaining waivers.
- If a student asks to participate in a fund-raiser but doesn't raise enough money to cover all of his fees, the remainder of the fees will be waived. The criterion is whether a student tries hard, not whether a student meets a sales quota.
Schools that don't comply with the proposed settlement could lose state funding.