Is your school discounting/refunding tuition due to online learning? Have you considered withdrawing your children if the tuition is the same or higher next year? My youngest is in a small private high school. We get maximum financial aid, and the public school in our district is pretty bad, so we haven’t thought about withdrawing. A lot of parents say they will withdraw if there is distance learning again in the fall, because they don’t want to pay “to homeschool” (parents with younger kids) or “for online school.” Obviously there is a lot of discussion here with respect to college, but what about for high school (or younger) kids? Are most schools keeping tuition the same, or are most refunding/discounting?
Some universities charge more for online classes. There is a lot of potential with true online classes in terms of multimedia and other resources, and many classrooms are already operating like that in person, without the “sage on the stage” model.
Our local high school joined a virtual high school (I helped fundraise after my kids loved online classes) so that 25 kids can take classes online. They are incredibly popular.
I would try to work with your school and see what they are doing for online classes. The emergency remote versions of in person classes was inferior and didn’t show the real potential of online classes.
Agree…there is a difference between courses designed to be online courses, and online/distance learning transitions from in class instruction (which is what is being done now).
If courses are online in the fall, I would hope they would be well designed online courses. These can be very beneficial if done well.
I would not expect them to cost less.
With students still in need of instruction, and there being no interruption of meals and boarding for students who attend day school, is the greatest challenge to your school community that of the norm being interrupted?
There are losses, for certain: sports and school-based clubs and activities which require hands-on work which is done in-group are not able to proceed as usual, and the bonding, teamwork and camaraderie which take place during the students’ time together is interrupted. Music programs and instruction are, of course, similarly changed in the way instruction is delivered, but I imagine for many this could still happen virtually.
Access to virtual instruction has challenged many families, and perhaps that has been an issue in your community and at your school for some students, though clearly it is not at issue among the families you speak of who have taken a stance against online instruction, with the resulting expectation that tuition costs be reduced if instruction must remain online for next year.
Each school will make its own decision regarding the reduction of tuition costs if classes and instruction absolutely cannot happen in person during the next school year. Each school will have its own pressures and financial concerns which it uses to make those decisions.
In this year, 2020, during the time of Covid-19 and the massive school closures and move to online instruction, the private school my son attends has not even broached the idea of reducing or refunding tuition for the present school year. As I can tell, there has been no outcry or call from parents to do so, either. The school has, in fact, asked parents to please continue to support the school in supporting those families who found themselves struggling even more during this time of school closure and loss of the ability to continue showing up at their place of employment.
For students who have continued to receive online instruction and finish out the school year with their cohort and regular teachers, the essential difference (notwithstanding those mentioned above) has been having the instruction take place in the student’s home, not actual loss of instruction.
As such, the teachers delivering the instruction are still in need of, and have every right and expectation to receive, a paycheck. The parents have continued to partner with the teachers and administration and have their child log-in on time, and attend virtual meetings when called to do so. Clubs and activities which did not require hands-on work done in-group have also continued to meet during this time, online.
Has the community of parents at your child’s school expressed or demanded a partial refund or reduction of tuition for the current school year? If so, that is a very different response than any I have seen for the day school student.
My great nephew who attends private school isn’t getting any refund for the school OR the tennis lessons after school where they listen to instructor read a story online. The kid’s parents are unhappy. Ditto private summer school, which they paid for in March and will also likely be online. :-(. Great niece isn’t being offered a refund from her preschool either.
Believe nephew is getting tiny refund for uneaten food from March to end of school year from Norte Dame but that’s it.
For some prestigious private schools, no parent would think of withdrawing their kid for fear of losing the spot (unless they couldn’t afford it). This pandemic is not going to go on forever. In a year or so things will go back to normal, therefore I do not believe people would give up their spot at those schools. Same with higher ranking colleges.
OP - of course you wouldn’t consider to withdraw because you may not be able to get the same financial aid later.
This is being discussed on the prep forums:
Some of the boarding schools have already made refund decisions for the loss of this last semester, and there is a lot of uncertainty regarding what they will do in the fall.
My son is a senior at a rigorous private day school. They have had live Zoom classes since 3/19. Last day of school was 3/13, then they took three days for teachers to regroup and get set for online instruction. By contrast, our very, very good local public school also closed on 3/13 and did not start school which “counted” until. April 27th. Of course, it is part of a large urban school district. There were no refunds of tuition, the students are still being graded, and the school just held a virtual fundraiser, which supports financial aid. If my son was not graduating, I would absolutely send him back.
I have a middle schooler in a private day school. No refund is being given, nor would I expect any. The school still has to pay the teachers and staff. It is an unfortunate situation but the schools are hurting as well. Since we had planned on paying the money and the school is having online instruction, we will not be asking for money back. The school has already said that they will not be increasing tuition next year.
Does “maximum financial aid” mean the aid covers 100% tuition?
I was just with a mother/foster mother who put her kids on a waiting list for private school in the fall. The private schools are trying to hold in person classes where the public schools have announced that they will definitely have a mixed set up in the fall. The mom has to go to work (at the school) and just can’t have kids homeschooling without supervision even 2 days a week. Right now she has a 13 year old who is helping homeschool the 2nd and 3rd graders, but that’s for a week, not for a semester.
We’ll see, but I think the private schools will figure out how to have the kids in school even if some are in the library working on computers for part of the day.
My daughter goes to a very expensive private school. It is good and it is an independent school. I wouldn’t withdraw her from there (granted she is a junior and it is her senior year next year) so I see no point. Our school refused to refund. Their argument was that the teachers were working just as hard on the distance learning as they did in regular classrooms. In a way, I agree because at my d’s school they have online lessons and assignments almost like Khan Academy. Not sure if this is true but if there were a refund, the teachers might get a pay cut, which is why I think it’s fine that the school won’t refund. I’ve heard most private schools are not refunding. In general, we are holding out hope that the fall semester won’t be online because I know my d will be very depressed that her senior year was canceled.
No, it is not 100%. (They cap it at a certain percentage, and we receive the max.)
I wouldn’t consider withdrawing unless our situation changed, and I also have no expectation of a refund, for the same reasons some of you have mentioned. The school closed on a Friday in mid-March and distance learning started the following Wednesday. I can’t speak to the lower grades, but at the high school level the quality of teaching has remained excellent. I was trying to understand what these parents are so upset about and why they think they should get a tuition refund (the school did refund sports fees, lunch fees, and things like that), so I wondered what the environment is like at other private day schools.
I suspect that people are just under a lot of stress and are looking for a target for their frustration. No one I’ve spoken with has had a significant change in finances at this point, but I’m sure people are nervous about the future. When I mentioned that I didn’t think most schools were giving refunds, I was accused of being out of touch with reality. So, I thought I’d try to find out what the reality is.
My relatives were disappointed that after school tennis absolutely refused to refund tennis, tho no instruction. They’re not sure whether summer school will be online as well and since the kid is 7 or so, doesn’t get all that much from online classes. Fortunately the grandparents are taking turns watching the kids so the parents can keep working.
@BirdintheHand : “When I mentioned that I didn’t think most schools were giving refunds, I was accused of being out of touch with reality. So, I thought I’d try to find out what the reality is.”
Reality within an unreality (the time we are in), perched on a limb where the waters may not rise enough to do catastrophic damage. (smile)
There will always be camps of parents who will voice displeasure and threaten to take aim at the administration and its policies. In my experience, many of those parents are blowing off steam, waiting for others to take the first step, or plain old posturing. Some parents, nearly always the same few, will take the reins and move forward requesting conference, establishment or change of policy.
Obviously things can vary wary school by school. Hope you heard a few things which settle you.
We have a 10th grader in private school. No discounts or refunds offered or expected. We have been incredibly pleased with their level of online engagement, classes and support.
My child has plans to take a summer class thru her HS which will now be offered online. It was supposed to be a M-F, 9:00-3:00 class. Obviously they won’t keep the same hours online so I am curious to see how if the cost has changed.
No discount or refund offered for our S21 in a pricey private high school. Our only gripe really has been the cost of lunch - it is included in tuition but no refund was offered when school went online. It is amazing how much a 16-year old boy can eat!
Ours is now going to take a single summer course to fulfill a requirement. Last year, the course was offered for about $1300, and met for 2 hours a day for 15 days. This year it is all online, cost will be about $1000 and it meets online 1 hour a day for 9 days total. In both cases the course is for 3 weeks total.
I think the replies here are pretty standard for secondary private school, OP, but I have friends and relatives with much younger children (pre-K and grades 2-3 I think) and they are talking about switching to public school next year because it’s so unclear what the benefit would be for the private school program. This is in Illinois, where I gather the daily school hours requirements have been lower than they are in my home state (MA). Even those people, however, are not demanding refunds for this year.
I have a freshman in a coed private high school and a junior in an all boys private school.
If there was ever a time when I was so thankful my kids are in private school, it’s right now. Both of their schools actually prepared ahead of time, as they foresaw that school was most likely going to close and they would need to be prepared for online learning. The teachers are required to have live class a minimum of 2x/week, there was a set schedule every day, they had to check in with teachers every day, etc. It was interesting to see that both schools handled it much the same way. For grading, normally finals count for a certain percentage of their grade. They decided to drop finals, but teachers are still allowed to give a cumulative exam, it just doesn’t count as a separate percentage of the grade, but has the same weight as a regular test. Neither had any time off - announcement on a Friday that schools were officially closed starting the following Monday, and my kids both started right up with online learning that Monday.
Our public schools? Huge debacle. Now I realize they had a lot more hurdles to jump, but they were basically closed for at least three weeks (meaning zero online instruction). My neighbors have a daughter in the public h.s. while their son goes to the private all boys h.s. with my son. Their frustration comparing their kids COVID education was high. Their daughter has basically learned next to nothing. On top of that, they switched the grading policy to satisfactory/no grade for the fourth quarter. Anyone getting a “satisfactory” grade for fourth quarter will be given a FINAL grade of one letter grade HIGHER than their third quarter grade. So essentially, if you had a B third quarter and you do the minimum to pass, you will end the year with an A. So no incentive for kids to do much fourth quarter. And those kids who worked their tail off pre-COVID in 3rd quarter will end the year with the same A that the B students will get. Anyway, I digress…
My point is, the two private schools have continued to provided the best possible education they could, given the circumstances. For the most part, their teachers were all working just as hard, if not harder, to make sure the kids were getting through the curriculum. I definitely would not expect a refund or lowered tuition for the past few months.
As for next year, absolutely no way would I remove my kids from their schools after seeing how the public schools handled the past few months. No way! While it stinks to not get the in-school education we are paying for, it is worth it, for us, to keep them where they are. One of the schools had notified us of a tuition increase in February, but they have since indicated they will keep tuition the same for next year and not raise it. My son’s school has not mentioned anything. I would assume that both schools will reduce certain fees if they continue online in the fall (activity fees, etc).
As for K-8, I haven’t heard from any of my friends with younger kids that they would remove and send to public school next year. I know my kids K-8 private school was doing a lot of online teaching of their young kids. I would imagine tho, for anyone who may have a loss of income, it would be hard to justify paying full tuition for the younger grades, like K-3.
No discounts being offered for my kids’ schools from what I’ve been hearing. Mixed bag on reactions. Some parents who were really stretched financially in paying the private school tuition then got hit with the problem of having kids at home and additional expenses, as they still had to go to work, some at reduced pay. Can’t afford another year of that. At least if the kids are in public schools, there isn’t that tuition payment drain, and those funds could be used to to offset expenses
And then there are the financial uncertainties of whatever jobs and businesses that the parents need to assess. One family I know in the restaurant business has taken a heavy hit and, they strr Ed by going to be able to afford private school tuition for the next school year.