The Franklin Park District 84 School Board has decided to stop collecting registration fees from students’ families.
The $75 fee went into the district’s general account, with most of the money going for after-school activities and ancillary programs.
The fee was only charged to families of students that could afford it. Like all districts, Franklin Park measures how many low-income students are in the district by how many qualify for free or reduced lunch prices. In District 84, that’s about 70 percent of students, according to Superintendent David Katzin.
“Only about 30 percent of families were supposed to pay,” Katzin said. “There were some that did and some that didn’t. The amount of manpower we spent trying to collect probably cost us more than we would raise in fees.”
The fees they ended up collecting were about $25,000, Katzin said. The total budget for the district for the current school year is $18.4 million, according to the district’s website.
“It’s certainly not going to cause us to reduce any programming,” Katzin said, adding that the fees could be a big deal even for families that aren’t classified as low income.
“When we’re talking about $75 per kid and a family has three kids, that’s a hit for a family,” Katzin said. “Let them spend it on something educational for their kids. Buy some books.”
The district still plans to charge fees for field trips and graduation.
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