The activity fees in our district were initiated in 2010, due in part to state caps on raising taxes and to push back from the community about using tax dollars for “extras”.
And yes we paid for field trips, for bus costs and I guess any entry fees. The PTO would pay for those kids that could not pay.
For sports and band, uniforms were included, but of course the kids had to supply their own footwear (even for band we had to buy the shoes) since those could not be passed down. My kids did not play lacrosse, but kids had their own sticks and may have used their own helmets. For band, the kid supplied their own instruments. However, almost any kid in band or a varsity sport at our HS was not new to the activity and had the equipment or instrument already. Some of the large or unusual instruments may have been supplied by the school through donations.
Hearing that sports are “free” at private schools reminds me how one of my kids was excited that laundry at a prospective college was “free” - included in the $50,000+ tuition/fees.
Our high school was $75/sport/kid. That added up with three kids participating in three seasons of sports each year. And it was when the economy was horrible and our business was suffering.
It’s $100 for high school sports (I had to look it up). I don’t recall fees for theatre. Some art classes have fees—$25 or so. Choir is $20 for uniform cleaning, and orchestra is $80 for section coaches, uniform cleaning and a few other small things. Both of those are unofficial fees paid through the booster clubs. There are a bunch of fees for optional things—choir and orchestra retreats, a suit for an auditioned choir, tours, all-state and regional audition and participation fees. It adds up. It can all be paid using a tax credit (up to $400 per couple). We use up the tax credit and more most years, and if you have good friends or relatives without kids in school you can get them to use their tax credit money on your kid’s activities.
Large public high school in Connecticut: 225 per sport, per athlete. No school imposed fees for any other clubs or organizations. Booster fees are another story.
Rural Midwest, public school. To participate in virtually anything you need an activity pass, which I think is $60. That also gets you into home games and some other stuff for free. One pass is good for everything all year.
I think most sports have some other not mandatory fee, but not much, along with a few shirts,etc that aren’t mandatory but most kids buy. I probably end up spending $100-150 per sport but could keep it to zero and I know some families do.
There is some fundraising too. Wrestling does more than the other sports we are involved with, but they also subsidize summer camps and some other things. I’m probably net ahead on that sport if I don’t count my time and my personal donations, which no one else on the team does to my level. I’ll probably spend 2 work days and a few hundred out of my pocket to take guys to preseason tournaments next month, but that’s my choice and I’ll probably be the only parent helping drive. (They will really miss me next year when S graduates.)
Cheer and dance I have been told are financial black holes, along with major sources of teen and parent drama. Fortunately I have avoided that mess.
Urban midwest public high school. Sport: $50-75 for uniform items which are kept by the player at the end of the season. Marching Band: $80 or so participation fee, plus assorted required uniform costs. Academic competition: around $75 participation fee, which covered competition costs.
Each activity also included parent fundraising/contribution expectations and, because the school is economically diverse, many families could not just write the $100 check to contribute to tournament travel costs etc. so those that could give comfortably often gave more.
On the topic of fundraising I just received an email from the high school band director that the band is moving to a new fundraiser this year. Selling mattresses. I am shocked, how many 14-17 year olds are going to go out and sell mattresses and who is going to buy a mattress from a kid door to door?
The theory behind it is every family knows someone that needs a new mattress so selling one per kid should be easy money. This is what I hate about these things, it has gone from kids learning a little something and earning the money to parents having to sell to family and friends. I am not about to approach anyone to sell them a mattress and I would be disappointed in anyone I know that would make a decent sized purchase sight unseen just because a school band director thinks it is a good deal.
Big public school district in Texas. No pay to play for sports. Of course, musicians have to have instruments. Most families pay to rent or buy them, but very low income families can get help. The schools have booster clubs and those help offset expenses that go beyond budget.
I went by a school the other day that had a sign that said ‘Mattress sale fundraiser.’ Must be a new thing. They also sell the discount cards and the family I was visiting was searching for one.
My sister is a teacher in an urban district and her budget is $2 per kid for a field trip. I don’t think she can ask kids for more as it is a pretty mixed economic group. They go to the governor’s mansion and to the state capitol and that’s about it.
On the other hand, my nephews live in a wealthy town. A dad just paid for two teams of 12-14 year olds hockey players to go to a tournament. Buses for 40 kids/parents, hotel at Gray Wolf Lodge (built in swimming park theme hotel), each kid got card with $90 for food and games, tournament fees.
I hope the dad at least got the frequent flyer miles.
When I say that private school sports are “free,” of course I understand that they are included in the general budget. I do pay the tuition bills! I should have said “fully subsidized” instead of “free.” (For students on full financial aid, though, they are essentially free. That’s about 1/3 of our students.) But I think it’s useful to distinguish those ECs that the school deems worthy of heavily or fully subsidizing from those that it does not. So the “free” activities are paid by everyone (regardless of whether one participates) through a combination of tuition, endowment, and grants from the parent association annual fund (our donations). (Our school bans all but the most small scale student-run bake sale fundraisers, but we are all heavily encouraged to donate to the parent organization that then doles out the money to different activities. For the most part, I prefer this to buying tons of overpriced wrapping paper, but I just wish they would spread the wealth more evenly.) What happens when one type of activity is heavily subsidized and another is not is that parents (particularly those for whom paying the tuition is a stretch and definitely for those on 100% financial aid) steer their kids away from the non-subsidized activities and toward the subsidized ones. That’s what we are seeing on our debate team anyway–lots of kids the first year but many of them say their parents said they can’t return the second year because it’s “too big of a commitment.” What a private school is essentially saying when it is willing to hire buses and pay hotel costs for a sports tournament but not a debate tournament is that sports are more important in their value system than debate. I think it’s fair to point that out, to examine the implications of that, and to try to change it.
Southeast. Suburb of a major city. One high schooler in public school, one in private, one college student went through private, and 2 in preschool.
Public school:
Drama is $100 per production you’re involved in. There are 3 productions a year; you can pay $200 up front to do all 3. Might be some incidental costume costs (stage makeup, shoes, etc) but most of those are things we can pick up cheaply at Goodwill or use something she already owns. Fundraiser options available (pre-sell tickets to the shows) but not required
academic teams are no charge. (if there’s a team t-shirt, you might owe for that. $10-$15).
never did sports or music programs, but I’ve heard some of those are big money charged (especially football and marching band)
Private school:
Robotics team is $100-$500 depending on which level of competition you do. (that includes hotel costs for out-of-state competition)
Athletics teams: you pay for the uniform parts that you keep (price varies wildly by sport. Swimming was about $40 for a men’s racing suit; cross country about $50 for the tank-type style shirt and running shorts; volleyball only pays for their spandex shorts and shoes, but I don’t know how much that costs.) There’s also an “athletic association” that we are “encouraged” to join which funds all other expenses for the sports. Can join at various “levels” ranging from $100 to $500 for the school year.
arts also has an “association” but I don’t know their “level” rates.
@iaparent : Our high school band has done the mattress fundraiser, too. They advertise as specific Saturday for people to come out to the school and buy a mattress. I always thought it was weird.
The problem with fundraising is (I think) related to the way our society has shifted. When I was a kid, I sold stuff door-to-door to my neighbors…because I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of people we knew who didn’t also have kids at my school. Because neighborhoods were a mix of ages. Now? My neighbors all have kids the same age, so we’re all selling the stuff. Because my neighborhood was targeted to “young families” and we all moved in at the same time. The few houses that don’t have kids the same age are the families we don’t know well enough to walk up and ring the doorbell. It’s sad. When I was a PTA board member for my kids’ elementary school, we actually told the kids not to sell door-to-door for safety reasons. (Stopped selling stuff while I was on the board; went to a sponsor-a-kid system instead.)
One of the things that is always unsubsidized as far as I know is attire for things like debate, model UN, etc. Kids have to get suits or similar for these ECs. They have growing bodies and may not fit said attire long.
S had the darndest time until he told H and H found his very vintage navy blue suit from when he was in college. It fit S like a glove and much better than any suits we could find out there. Fortunately, it looked okay, even though it was several decades old.
Of course there’s the thrift shop, consignment stores, discount places, etc., but it is another very real barrier and cost.
My oldest D played on the HS golf team. The first year was the most expensive because of the golf bag. The uniforms they had to buy every year and they had three different ones. Year 1 was about $400 then the following years were around $150 or so. Then there were all the other cost not really tied to the actual team but necessary if you wanted to make the team. Private coaching lessons, summer tournament entry fees, etc. Luckily, her private swing coach worked at the same course the school used for their home matches and he hired her to work at the course which gave her access to play when she wasn’t working so that saved me about $3500 a year in not having to pay for a membership.
Lol my kid’s orchestra has done the mattress fundraiser! It’s more like a mattress pop-up shop you can invite people to. My favorite part was seeing the kid on the corner dressed in a mattress costume. Looked like a piece of toast.
Wow I am shocked at all the public schools that have fees. What do your free and reduced lunch students do? We have 28% of the study body on free and reduced lunch so there is no way to institute a fee and not shut out over 25% of the school.
It was tried a few years back with a modest $50 per family but the administration of the fee cost as much as was raised.
“What do your free and reduced lunch students do?”
I know the fee is waived for students on free lunch, and I believe it is also waived for reduced lunch. But that doesn’t take away all the other “mandatory” costs.
One thing I did not mention earlier is that our school district actually charges everyone a $40 materials fee. If you don’t pay it, they won’t release your report card or transcript and you can’t attend any extracurricular activities (including prom). There’s nothing in our state law or state constitution that guarantees a free public education and school districts are free to charge whatever fees they want.