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This article was updated with more information about state law and how CPS defines school fees.
Chicago Public Schools wants to standardize the fees that schools charge families for things ranging from sports uniforms and field trips to graduation.
The district also wants to tweak its student fee waiver policy by adding homeless students to the list, as required by state law, and creating a clearer appeals process for families whose requests for fee waivers are denied by their school’s principal.
District leaders proposed the changes Thursday to a new Board of Education finance and audit committee, one of a handful of new board committees that will review agenda items and decide whether to recommend them for the full board to approve. The full board’s next meeting is Oct. 22.
The committee voted 7-0 to recommend that the full 21-member board approve the proposed changes.
The policy change is meant to create a more equitable fee structure for all schools, said Crystal Dorsey, executive director of school support in the district’s Office of Network Support.
Currently, schools must establish fees at the start of each year, and principals must consult Local School Councils — as well as high school students — when creating them. They also must provide the fee schedule to families in their native languages and to staff. As part of the changes, a district-level student fee committee, led by the head of the Office of Network Support, would establish the standardized fees, which schools could request to alter.
CPS is still gathering data and working on the fees, and it will collect feedback from parent leaders, Dorsey said.
The district defines school fees as any payment tied to “a requirement for the student’s participation in any curricular or extracurricular program of the school.” School fees don’t pay for what CPS describes as “ordinary supplies” to complete school work, such as pencils, paper, and notebooks, but other items do count, such as textbooks or supplies for a specific class, such as art.
The district’s other proposed changes around fee waivers maintain the current definition of a school fee but removes examples of items that could qualify as a student fee that are in the current policy, such as textbooks or graduation caps and gowns.
Currently, fees can be waived for students who qualify for free or reduced priced meals and children of veterans or active duty military whose income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty line, or $66,000 for a family of four.
Waivers also apply to students facing extenuating circumstances such as severe illness or the impacts of a natural disaster. These appeals are granted by principals, whom the district says must base their decisions on documentation provided by the students’ families.
The district is adding students living in temporary housing to the list, whom Dorsey noted are protected by the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which enshrines certain rights for unhoused students or those living doubled up with others.
State law requires school districts to explicitly include homeless youth in its policies over whose fees can be waived.
The proposed changes include a clearer process for how families can appeal if their request to have fees waived is denied: They would have 30 days to appeal via a form submitted to the district’s Office of Network Support, which will make the final decision. Parents would not be required to pay fees during this process.
Angel Velez, board vice president who chairs the finance committee, asked Dorsey what share of CPS students are currently waived from paying fees. Dorsey said she didn’t immediately know.
About 69% of CPS students come from low-income households, defined as income within 185% of the federal poverty line, or about $61,000 for a family of four. Velez acknowledged the fees might help schools offset certain costs, but some families find it “super difficult” to pay.
“Why have it if, you know, 70-80% of our students, for example, can waive the fee?” Velez said.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
