KSBA eNews Service, Frankfort, Oct. 25, 2016
KDE: Care, consistency must be taken when district leaders decide on early enrollment tuition charges
Staff report
The Kentucky Department of Education has issued an advisory for districts in handling requests for early kindergarten enrollment under legislation passed by the 2012 and 2015 General Assemblies. The point of the “clarification” addresses the circumstances under which districts may charge tuition for students whose families make such requests.
In the agency’s Oct. 24 Commissioner’s Monday Memo, KDE staff noted that the 2012 legislature changed the initial admission to public schools in Kentucky from Oct. 1 to Aug. 1, while leaving an “early enrollment option for those students not meeting the birthday deadline.” Earlier this year, the legislature also adopted language authorizing districts to charge tuition for early admissions and for those students to be counted toward a district’s average daily attendance numbers factored into the SEEK funding calculation.
However, questions about those changes have led to a need to clarify the rules on charging tuition for those early admission students.
“The district is allowed to charge early admission students, admitted under the district’s policy, only the same amount of tuition that the district charges students who meet the age requirements for enrollment. Therefore, if a district does not charge tuition for resident students who are 5-years-old by the cutoff date, then the district cannot charge tuition to resident students who are admitted under the early admission policy.
“Similarly, if the district does charge tuition for non-resident students who are 5- years-old by the cutoff date, then the district can only charge the same amount of tuition to non-resident students who are admitted under the district’s early admission policy. Early admission students can be counted in the district’s ADA for the calculation of SEEK just like age-eligible students. Those students who attend as resident students, non-resident agreement students, and children of district employee students, can be counted in the district’s ADA if they are age-eligible or early admission students admitted under the district’s policy.
“Finally, if a student is eligible for free/reduced price lunch, then the district is required to waive the tuition fee for that student pursuant to Kentucky statute KRS 158.108 and Kentucky regulation 702 KAR 3:220 found at http://www.lrc.ky.gov/kar/702/003/220.htm,” according to the email advisory.
Additionally, KDE informed local officials that:
* Districts can only charge early admission students the same tuition that the district charges students who meet the age requirements in KRS 158.030.
* Districts cannot charge free/reduced price lunch eligible students any tuition, pursuant to 702 KAR 3:220.
* Districts can count early admission students, admitted under the district’s policy, in their ADA just as if the students had met the age requirements in KRS 158.030.