Quaker Valley School District considering eliminating admitting tuition students
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Quaker Valley School District officials are considering terminating a policy that permits nonresident students to attend the district schools if they pay tuition.
District communities include Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Sewickley Hills, Leet, Leetsdale, Glen Osborne, Glenfield, Bell Acres, Edgeworth, Haysville and Aleppo.
Assistant Superintendent Andrew Surloff said many Allegheny County school districts do not accept tuition students.
Surloff said a recent change due process language by state Department of Education language spearheaded the review of this particular policy.
“The reason a school district typically does this is purely for revenue generation,” Surloff said Feb. 12.
The administrator explained a cost/benefit analysis showed possible financial detriments of continuing the policy.
”When you consider the burden that it puts on administration to process and go through and manage tuition applications and whatnot, coupled with accommodations you have to make for having more students in classes … you can end up with expenses that far exceed your tuition rate depending on a program that a student may qualify for,” Surloff said.
Quaker Valley elementary tuition is $16,265.
Secondary education tuition is $21,826 and tuition for special education is about $40,000.
“What your published rate is, is your published rate,” Surloff said. “If a student comes in under that rate and has additional needs that you’re mandated to pay for, that comes out of the local taxpayer funds. … The other piece is if you accept tuition students, you accept everybody. There’s also some element of having a little bit more oversight (of student admittance) that you don’t have when you have (tuition acceptance).”
Surloff said the district currently has four tuition students — all in secondary education. He declined to confirm if any were in special education.
Current tuition students would still be permitted to be enrolled through graduation.
The average cost per Quaker Valley student is about $33,300 using the formula of total school year budget divided by enrollment.
The district’s 2024-25 budget is about $60.6 million with total enrollment at about 1,820 students.
The first read of Quaker Valley’s policy change is this month. Its formal passage is scheduled for March 25.
Current procedures permit the district to disenroll a student immediately should a residency claim check prove it to be invalid.
The change states the district may not disenroll the student until the parents/guardians have an opportunity for a hearing to appeal the decision.
The policy is available for review at the district office and via the district website.
While Quaker Valley officials work toward removing their district’s tuition option, at least one other in the county is considering adding it.
Riverview School District officials have discussed accepting tuition students for several months.
Its board members tabled any vote on the move until their March meeting, at the earliest, after administration officials said the idea seemed to have more risks than benefits. And the board doesn’t seem inclined to pass it.
Riverview’s current policy, passed in 2012 and mirroring most other districts, allows nonresident students to attend the district only in special circumstances, such as court placement, change in guardianship or homelessness.
The new policy being considered would not have requirements for special circumstances.