Parents Charged $36 Per Day When Children Miss School for Play

School officials in Scotts Valley, CA, are fed up with parents taking their children out of school for family ski trips or vacations to Disneyland in the middle of the school year. The school has begun billing parents $36.13 per day that students miss school. That is how much they estimate the district loses based on a state formula that distributes school funding according to daily attendance. If students are not present, the state does not pay the daily allotment.

It may not sound like a large sum of money, but over the year the missed earnings add up and impact the bottom line of the school budget. According to the Scott Valley school administrators, "elective absences," or days missed for reasons other than illness, cost the district $223,000 during the 2005-2006 school year.

Does the school district have the authority to require parents to pay for these elective absences? Not technically. The bills are simply a request for reimbursement but parents are not required to pay or penalized if they do not.

However, in the affluent community of Scott Valley many parents are sending in the money, perhaps to ease their guilty consciences caused by taking their kids away from learning for a private family holiday. On the other hand, many parents are refusing to even accept the bills, calling the idea offensive. In California, approximately $66 billion dollars per year, nearly half of the annual state budget, is allocated to education. Parents do not see a reason to pay more.

The Scott Valley school district has an attendance of 2,800 students. Most of the parents in the area are employed in high-tech industries or management positions and had a median household income of $72,000 in 2000. The school sent these parents a letter in January entitled "If You Play, Please Pay."

The letter posed these questions to parents, "Are the ski slopes calling? Is the beach beckoning? Are you taking the kids to Disneyland midweek to avoid the crowds? If so, we would encourage you to reconsider. When your child misses school, there are consequences for the student and the district."

School district representative Brenda Spalding reports that the district received $2,000 within the first two weeks after parents received the letter.

One Scott Valley parent, Stan Wilson, took his two children out of school for a week for a trip to Hawaii. Wilson gladly paid more than the requested amount because the family was able to save so much money on the vacation due to their flexible schedule. Wilson considered the payment a tax-deductible donation and a fair request from the school district.

However, Scott Valley school district parent Helene Handy received three bills and letters explaining the charge, one for each of her children. Handy states, "I tossed it. It’s a public school. I’m not going to be told to pay when I have my kids out." Handy also added, "We’ve got to have a better way to pay for our schools."

School officials claim that the idea behind the payment is not only to help them reclaim the money lost due to absence, but also to discourage parents to take their children out of school for extra holidays.

Charlotte Multer, a Scott Valley PTA member, feels that the request for reimbursement is fair. "Our schools are duct-taped together and they're in portables. It's a shame.