Private School Contracts & Deposits
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Private school deposit while waiting for public school lottery?
Dec 2007
I am assuming it is a common problem: You aren't sure of getting into a good public, so you choose a private school that accepts you, you make a promise to have your child attend, and you pay a deposit. Then, if you get lucky enough to get into a public you feel good about, you have to renege on your agreement with the private school. I am sure the privates must be all-too-familiar with this scenario. How do you ethically and logistically navigate around this problem? Obviously, you lose your deposit, which makes sense, but can they hold you captive for more than the deposit? I believe many privates require you to sign a vow, essentially, that you commit to paying for the entire year. How do people handle this delicate situation? I would like to hear people's experiences. Perhaps certain schools are more laid-back than others. I heard through the mill that someone just had to pay for their kid's entire school year tuition, even though their child got into a public in the first month or so of the school year. Pray tell. Thanks.
My Daughter went to private schools and my experience was that I had to sign a contract stating that I was responsible for the entire years payments. I also found that unlike preschool where you make a deposit when accepted and then make monthly payments after they start in the fall. In private schools you start making the monthly payments in the spring/summer(May I think), so by the time school starts you have paid for a large chunk already. Anon
Private schools are very clear about the timeline and financial penalties for making a commitment. The closer you get to the beginning of the school year, the greater the payment. This is purely a business proposition for the private school (and I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just reality). The school has X number of spaces in kindergarten to fill, which will bring in Y tuition dollars. If you tell them that your child is enrolling in September, then the school holds that place for her and turns down other students. If, later on, you decide not to enroll, then the school has to spend time and resources to fill that space, or else forgo the tuition. The reason for not enrolling your child -- whether it is to go to public school, move to a new city, or a change of mind -- doesn't make a difference.
If you think you might want to hold a space that you might forgo if you get into the public school you want, you should make sure you are aware of the deadlines for deposits and tuition. Anon
When you accept a place at a private school, you are signing a contract. As with any other contract you sign, you should be prepared to honor its terms and perform your side of the bargain. How would you like it if you did NOT get into a ''good public'' but the private school then said, ''Gee, we've changed our mind about your child?'' That said, some schools are reportedly more relaxed than others -- mainly because they have a sizeable waiting list and have no problem filling the place. In that case, it would be improper for them to require payment for something that they were then ''selling'' to someone else. That is, they would have no damages from your departure. From your post, it sounds as though the people who had to pay the full year's tuition had used the private school for a month. Might have hard for the school to find a replacement at that point. Read the contract(s) carefully; some offer tuition insurance in case you want/need to pull out. There are also private tuition insurance companies that you can use for your protection.
Here's your cautionary tale from the school's perspective: they gave a spot to this child, and they may well have turned away another applicant to do so. After the school year had already started, they were informed that the child would not be attending after all. At that point they had very little chance of finding another child for that spot, but they had already made all their staffing decisions for the year and were locked into those costs. The rent and the teachers' salaries remain the same whether or not that child is in the classroom. So while I'm sure it was an unpleasant situation for that family, from the school's perspective it's pretty understandable. Most private schools are nonprofits, I should add.
Different schools have different policies about parents' liability beyond the deposit, so my advice is to read any contract very carefully before you sign it and assume that you will be held to the terms. You can always plead your case with the school, of course, but if you think you may need to be released from the contract then your safest bet is to purchase tuition insurance. (I know, it seems silly, like health insurance for your pet or something, but it's one way to ensure that neither you nor the school takes too much of a hit financially.) Private school administrator
Short answer: yes, you sign the contract and put down the deposit if that is your backup plan. If you expect that your school won't be fully enrolled, you can gamble and see whether there's space if your child doesn't get offered a spot elsewhere. If you really don't want to stay at your current school, though, I'd skip the deposit and put in a late application to public school as your backup instead. Good luck with the process!
Hi! We were in this EXACT scenario a few years back. Our deposit ($1000) was due two weeks before we would hear from schools that we had applied to for our daughter. We ended up paying the deposit, and two weeks later when she was accepted at another school, we decided to transfer her. I called school #1 and asked for a refund of the deposit (ha!) knowing they could fill her spot 10 times over (we were also on financial aid and I played that card, too.) I called them during the "quiet week" when I knew they could easily get someone off the waitlist. Of course they would not refund the money. I even went to friends with spouses on the Board, asking if they would help us get the deposit back and they said it was a lost cause. I did finally convince the school to let us call the deposit a "donation" as we were no longer "receiving goods or services" for the money. We ended up calling the $1000 a write off. Groan. I'm also a teacher in a private school (not related to my daughter's schools) and every single year there are families who don't pay the deposits on time for a variety of reasons. The school NEVER EVER kicks them out or takes away their spot. It makes me think of our situation years ago and wonder whether we could have held out on paying the deposit and still kept our daughter's spot at school #1 if we had wanted it. A definite gamble, but I think it happens way more than we know. All this to say, it may be worth a talk with your current school about an extension (maybe you don't give the exact reason if you don't want to....just say you need some more time to get funds etc.) Good luck!
We had a similar issue. We can't swing two private school tuitions now. My older son is in private school and younger in public. However, next year we applied to a private school for our younger son. I did not sign the contract for my older son because it would have locked is in for a year. Sadly, that means we lost the aid we were getting. However, we did not lose his spot as there are spots open but that's what we had to do. I believe some schools offer insurance in case you need to back out of a contract but I'm not sure all private school do. I did enroll both sons in the public school we're zoned to just in case, however. If you have that option, you may want to explore if that's something that's a possibility.