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Class-action lawsuit goes after all Idaho public school districts and charter schools

A class-action lawsuit aims to stop schools from charging for courses, materials, extracurricular activities, and reimbursement of prior fees paid.

BOISE - Two families are going after Idaho public school districts and charter schools in a newly-filed class-action lawsuit.

The suit alleges that fees passed on to students and their families for courses, materials, and extracurricular activities like sports, are unconstitutional.

This lawsuit expands upon previous, successful litigation against the West Ada School District.

In 2015, a Fourth District Court judge ruled that fees the West Ada School District was charging for course credits were unconstitutional.

However, the ruling only applied to the defendant’s family.

This class-action suit seeks for all public and charter schools to stop charging fees, not only for course credits, but extracurriculars like sports, and seeks reimbursement for all affected families.

Attorney Robert Huntley, who is bringing this class-action lawsuit against all of Idaho's 115 public school districts and 55 charter schools, estimates these schools collect approximately $20 million in fees each year.

"If you take a course in French, it's $70 for a workbook, if you take a course online sometimes the charges are $125 per credit to $175 per credit," says Huntley.

Eric Exline, a spokesperson for the West Ada School District, says the district stopped charging for course credits after the 2012 decision.

"We dropped doing that two years ago after a lawsuit that was filed against us, it didn't require us to pay back any fees but it made very clear that charging them was for classes that a student needs to complete to get done with their senior year are unconstitutional," says Exline.

This new lawsuit would require West Ada and other schools that are charging students to pay them and their families back for all fees paid since 2012.

The lawsuit also calls for athletic fees to be eliminated and paid back.

West Ada still charges $110 for each high school sport and $90 for each middle school sport a student participates in, up to two sports.

"Some people have argued that some, that us paying for that is unconstitutional because it’s not part of a thorough system of education," says Exline.

Even though all of Idaho's public school districts are named in this lawsuit, not all schools are charging fees and therefore wouldn't have to pay anything back.

In a statement, the Boise School District says it does not charge for any courses or sports.

Both the Nampa and Middleton schools declined to comment and a spokesperson for the Caldwell School District was not available.

The public school districts and charter schools have 60 days to formally respond.

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