Pub. 7 2017-2018 Issue 2

15 School fees are a delicate subject, because schools often charge them for curricular activities like labs, field trips, textbooks or AP classes, and extra-curricular activities like choir, debate, cheer or spor ts. These fees can run into the hundreds of dollars per student per activity, which can translate into thousands of dollars per year in a family with multiple children in high school. For school year 2017, the State Board audit found that Utah LEAs collected about $71 million in school fees. the hundreds of dollars per student per activity, which can translate into thousands of dollars per year in a family with multiple children in high school. For school year 2017, the State Board audit found that Utah LEAs collected about $71 million in school fees. Moreover, post-secondary education opportunities – both admissions and scholarships – often depend on the extent to which students participated in these extra-curricular activities. With extra-curricular activities bearing so much weight, the fees schools charge to participate in them matter a great deal. Utah’s public education system (the courts have ruled that includes both curricular and extra-curricular activities) exists to provide opportunities for all Utah children, not just those whose parents are able to pay for them. The State Board’s audit identified 14 findings. These findings identified weaknesses at the State Board, LEA and school level. Some of these findings likely relate to questions regarding charter schools, such as non-refundable application fees (see pages 13-14) , fees for “’dress-down’ days” and fees for “break-the-rule” days (see pages 10-11). In other cases, it appears all of public education needs improvement. For example, Board rule 2 and a permanent state court injunction 3 require LEAs to report to the State Board the number of students receiving fee waivers, the number of students who worked in lieu of a waiver and the total dollar value of student fees waived by the LEA. In 2016-17, the audit found that none of the 147 LEAs they reviewed submitted this material. It remains unclear what steps the State Board of Education will take, let alone the steps it will recommend for LEAs and schools to take. The School Fees Task Force will address these issues over the coming months. In addition, the Legislative Auditor General is currently working on an audit of secondary school fees; UAPCS anticipates they will release that audit in the next several months. That legislative audit will be part of the deliberations of the School Fees Task Force. UAPCS will actively participate in this task force’s deliberations to make sure their recommendations reflect the circumstances of Utah’s charter schools. In the meantime, every charter board and administrative team should carefully review the State Board’s audit, and how well their policies and practices comply with relevant statute (including Title 53G-7-5 and Title 53G-7-6) and board rule, most particularly R277-407. UAPCS will discuss this audit and what charter schools need to do to better comply with our school fee obligations in future member meetings and trainings. 1 Utah State Board of Education, Internal Audit Department. (2018). School Fees. Report No. 18-02. Retrieved from https://schools.utah.gov/ file/746e31d4-b202-424c-9fa5-d0d652dc3616 2 Utah Admin. Code R277-407 (2018). Retrieved from https://rules.utah. gov/publicat/code/r277/r277-407.htm 3 Doe v. Utah State Board of Education, Civil No. 920903376 (3rd District 1994). Retrieved from ht tps://www.schools.utah.gov/ file/268da01d-d436-42ce-8f3d-78e2aa6cde1d