Confusion Spawns Array of Fee Policies at Schools

In the Irvine Unified School District, students on sports teams who can afford it must pay $195 to cover transportation costs.

Fifty miles away, nervous officials in the Bonita Unified School District are returning money that was collected for the busing of students to extracurricular events over the last eight years because of fears that the practice is illegal.

Such differences showcase the confusion over a clause in the California Constitution and a state Supreme Court ruling that prohibit public schools from charging students to participate in extracurricular activities.

In Pasadena, three parents filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court last week, challenging such fees and demanding a refund of money paid for student identification cards, athletic clothes and notebook organizers.

While some schools are eliminating fees, many others are tapping parents for everything from $5 organizers to $1,000 cheerleader outfits.

Some schools are flouting the rules even after district or state officials have warned them that the fees are illegal.

That’s because the state Department of Education has no power to enforce the law, said Roger Wolfertz, the department’s deputy general counsel. Parents’ only recourse is to sue, and few have been willing to take that step. Compounding the problem, the Legislature has passed few statutes clarifying what is acceptable, leaving many areas open to interpretation.

“There are districts [that] know the law and apparently ignore it,” Wolfertz said. Others, he said, don’t understand it, and some defend their fees as legal.

Officials at Irvine Unified, for example, say they feel comfortable charging athletes a transportation fee because courts have found that it is legal to charge students for bus service between home and school.

“That is our interpretation,” said Irvine school board member Michael B. Regele. “There is a certain ambiguity around the law.”

Wolfertz, however, said Irvine’s fees for transportation might be illegal. “Football players can’t play unless they get to the stadium,” he said. “That smells like a participation fee, and, if that’s the case, that’s not legal.”

In the Bonita district, officials had long followed the same practice as Irvine, but recently reconsidered.

“The school board made the decision to reimburse parents because it might not be legal,” said Jerry Kurr, interim assistant superintendent for business services. So far, the district has refunded $73,000 to parents.

A clause in the California Constitution entitles students to free education in public schools. The state attorney general has long interpreted that to mean that schools may not levy fees for classes or supplies and may not require deposits for lockers, materials and other equipment required for a class.

In 1984, the state Supreme Court expanded the definition of educational activities to include all extracurricular programs, such as sports and music. The ruling outlawed fees for such programs.

The court decision came in a suit filed by parent Barbara Hartzell, who challenged the Santa Barbara High School District’s $25 fee for participation in each extracurricular activity.

The Education Code spells out a variety of fees that are permissible. For example, schools may charge for camps and field trips, lost textbooks and materials for shop class. In many instances, however, fees must be waived for families that cannot afford to pay.

Many school districts defend their fees by saying no child who cannot pay is ever denied access. But Wolfertz said making allowances for such students doesn’t make the practice acceptable.

“Just letting poor kids off the hook doesn’t make the fee legal,” he said. “The fee is still imposed on parents who can afford it.”

Rene Amy, one of the parents who filed suit against the Pasadena Unified School District, said he became aware of the issue because of a fight in the nearby Temple City Unified School District. Last year, Temple City parent Rick Griffith said he was told his daughter would not graduate from high school unless he paid the $725.96 balance on the bill for her $939.76 pep squad uniform.

Griffith, who estimates that he paid $6,700 for cheerleading outfits and trips over four years, said he then called Sacramento and learned about the state Supreme Court ruling.

Griffith contacted Wolfertz, who then warned Temple City’s superintendent that the district should stop charging such fees. The district now asks only for donations, said Lynne Bretz, a district spokeswoman. Griffith’s daughter was allowed to graduate.

Many schools avoid fees by raising donations, often through booster clubs. Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, for example, has 114 such clubs. Both donations and booster clubs are legal.

Last week Pasadena Supt. Edgar Z. Seal said he has begun investigating fees charged by schools in his district. A workshop in August for principals was intended to clarify the matter, he said, “but evidently we have some [fees] that haven’t been cleaned up.”

Many parents have no idea that activity fees are illegal and tend to perceive requests for donations as requirements. Some say they are reluctant to resist paying for fear of embarrassing their kids or incurring the displeasure of a coach or teacher.

Others say they don’t mind paying to support programs that might otherwise be trimmed or eliminated.

“If they say it’s unconstitutional to charge us fees, then it will reduce the program dramatically,” said Christine Kloezeman of South Pasadena.

This year she paid $1,000 for custom-made junior varsity cheerleading outfits for her ninth-grade daughter, Kristen, who attends South Pasadena High. (Assistant Principal Mark Mercado said $250 of that covered a nearly weeklong “spirit camp” during the summer at UC Santa Barbara.)

Ralph Punaro, athletic director at South Pasadena High, said the school this year stopped soliciting a $75 “donation” for each activity.

“Ours was for transportation,” he said, “but a decision was made at the district office” to discontinue the practice.

The school, like many others, also charges $5 for a combination student identification card and planner.

“That’s the only mandatory purchase we require of all students,” Mercado said, acknowledging that, “by the letter of the law, we’re not fully in compliance.”

At Fountain Valley High School, families pay hundreds of dollars so their children can participate in the band. The money covers trips to concerts and competitions as well as supplementary instructors. Parents who can’t afford the fees must fill out financial hardship forms, said music director Gary Wampler.

“All you need to do is put it in writing that you have a hardship and that you’re going to make payments if possible,” Wampler said. This year, just two of more than 150 students asked for financial aid.

Wolfertz said band concerts might be classified as field trips, in which case it would probably be all right to charge transportation fees. However, he added that he believes field trip charges are vulnerable to a constitutional challenge.

But other charges unrelated to field trips, such as tournament fees and photography fees, probably are illegal, Wolfertz said.

For his part, Wampler said he believes that what his district is doing is legal. Students who can afford fees but don’t want to pay them can choose to play only in activities at school, and not participate in tournaments.

He also said students would not get good programs without fees.

“The parents have to understand that . . . these band programs give students more than the school district can afford,” he said. “Where is that money going to come from? The school’s not paying for it.”