All-Day Kindergarten

District responds to Attorney General's opinion on All-Day Kindergarten

Last month, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann stated that schools in Ohio should not collect tuition from parents for an all-day Kindergarten program.

“After consulting with our legal counsel, we have made the following decisions regarding the issues that stem from the Attorney General’s opinion,” said Superintendent Dr. Russell D. Jones.

1. The Ohio Attorney General’s opinion is just that, an opinion. His opinion is not law nor does it require any district to take action or change policy. His opinion is “Persuasive Authority” in a court of law but does not compel a district to take any action.

2. Lacking any directives from the Ohio Department of Education or the State Legislature regarding the Attorney General’s opinion, we will suspend collecting tuition for all-day Kindergarten beginning October 1, 2007, until further clarification is provided from one of these entities.

3. We will continue our commitments to offer all-day Kindergarten for the remainder of the 2007-08 school year. We will meet our obligation to these students and families despite the significant cost to our district.

4. Within the Attorney General’s opinion, there is no statement offered regarding reimbursing tuition collected this year or from previous years. Parents who currently have a child in the all-day program and have made the first payment will not be billed for the second payment at this time. The district will not be reimbursing any tuition already collected unless directed to do so by the Ohio Department of Education.

5. Students who are currently enrolled in our half-day Kindergarten will not be given the option of switching to all-day Kindergarten now that we have suspended the collection of further tuition. The Kindergarten programs have been staffed according to the registration information collected months ago. A change at this point would require not only hiring several additional teachers but also the necessity to find much more additional classroom space. Accepting a potentially massive influx of all-day Kindergarten students in October of a school year is an unrealistic expectation. In our opinion it would be a fiscally-irresponsible move.

Jones said the district will “review the future of the All-Day Kindergarten program in our district and announce our plans in the Spring of 2008.”

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