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Iowa law
states that a person between five and 21 years of age is of school age, and is
to be provided a tuition-free education and that "nonresident children shall
be charged the maximum tuition rate as determined in section 282.24(1)." Another state law prohibits districts from
rebating any portion of tuition.
"Resident"
is defined as a person who is physically present in a district, whose residence
has not been established in another district by operation of law, and who meets
any of the following conditions:
1. Is in the district for the purpose of making a home and
not solely for school purposes.
2. Meets the definitional requirements of the term
"homeless individual."
3. Lives in a juvenile detention center, foster care
facility, residential correctional facility or residential facility in the
district.
Public school officials face a dilemma upon
discovering (as sometimes happens) that enrolled and attending children are not
actually residents (nor did they use open enrollment). Here are the options available to school
officials:
1. First, always talk to the
family to point out the problem.
Sometimes families honestly do not know in which district their home is
located. But the family still must be
informed that the law requires it to pay tuition or transfer the children to
the district of residence...unless the next option is viable.
2. Try to work out an open
enrollment with the real district of residence.
Remember that under the open enrollment law, a late-filed open
enrollment application may be "granted at any time with approval of the
resident and receiving districts."
3. No one wants to punish the
student(s), but expulsion has been recognized by the courts as a legitimate
option.
4. Bring legal action against
the parents/guardians to recover tuition.
In the late 1960s, an Iowa
district determined that a family of four children were not actual residents of
the district and were therefore not entitled to free education in that
district. The local board's decision was
appealed to the State Board of Education, which agreed with the local school
board that the family did not reside in the district. The district then notified the family that it
owed tuition to the district. The family
complained all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court, which ruled that the district
had both the right and the obligation to recover tuition for the
children from the family.
References: Iowa Code
sections 282.1, 282.6, 282.18(16), 282.20;
Maquoketa Community School
District v. George, 193 N.W.2d 519 (Iowa
1972).
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