The Triton School Board started the process of looking at just what parents will be paying for textbooks this coming year during their regular meeting on Monday.
Superintendent Jeremy Riffle asked his board to approve the price of elementary student textbook rental fees, but what parents will actually pay for those rentals is still up in the air. Riffle’s request will simply set the total amount for what those rentals will cost. Just how much of that cost will be passed on to parents in the corporation is still up in the air.
Senate Bill 395, which passed Indiana’s 2023 legislative session, eliminates textbook fees for families and requires each public school in the state to provide books at no cost to each student enrolled.
The state already covers the cost of textbooks for students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. But starting in the 2023-24 school year, all Hoosier students enrolled in public schools will be included as part of the bill.
In the past, schools were allowed to charge extra fees for things such as labs or supplies for a particular course, those are no longer allowable. The loss of that “revenue stream” to pick up costs will have to be made up in another way.
Fees for non-educational or extracurricular activities are still allowable.
“There is a lot of confusion out there in the state. This action is so we know just what our textbook rental fees are,” Riffle told the board asking for the motion. “We will gather more information to determine what we are going to charge parents if anything at all.”
Riffle also reminded the board that much of the “textbook” costs were non-traditional, i.e., computers and it was unclear how those costs would be recovered by the schools.
Riffle told the board that the goal was to keep the cost of textbooks as low as possible for parents of students in the corporation.
“The unintended consequence that this will cause is for there to be more money taken out of the education fund,” said Riffle. “Our parents will be happy but in the end, the corporation will need to pick up the significant portion of those items that we can’t get reimbursed.”
Riffle said that discussions continue on just what expenses are covered in the bill. The state will provide some funding for the mandate. Schools will get that funding in a lump sum each December but just how much additional money will be available is still unknown.
“We’ll work it out,” Riffle told the board.
