2009-2010 Private School Tuition Rates

INFORMATIONAL LETTER: 62
POLICY CODE: DB

TO: Superintendents of Schools
Secondary School Administrators
FROM: Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner
DATE: December 30, 2009
RE: 2009 – 2010 PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION RATES

Computation of the private school tuition rates for the 2009-2010 school year have been published to the Department of Education’s website: http://www.maine.gov/education/data/tuitionrates/tuitrate.htm

In order for a private school to be approved for tuition purposes by the State of Maine (per Maine statute, 20-A M.R.S.A. section 2951), the school must meet the following requirements:

Meet basic approval requirements (20-A M.R.S.A. section 2901 et seq.);
Be a non-sectarian school;
Be incorporated under the laws of the State of Maine or the United States;
Meet all other requirements of this subchapter of Title 20- A including the requirements pertaining to financial audits, student assessment, and student records.

Calculation of Private School Tuition Rate for Elementary (K-8) Students

20-A M.R.S.A. section 5804, subsection 2 states: “The tuition payment to a private school shall not exceed the average per student cost in all public elementary schools in the State for the previous year as computed by the commissioner.”

Calculation of Private School Tuition Rate Secondary (9-12) Students

Current statute (20-A M.R.S.A. section 5806) establishes the method of calculating secondary tuition rates for any secondary student attending a private school approved for tuition purposes per 20-A M.R.S.A section 2951. Section 5806, subsection 2, requires that the tuition for any secondary student attending a private school in 2009-2010 may not exceed the sum of A and B:

A. the lesser of:

1.   the per pupil expenditure in that private school (for allowable expenditures) in 2008-09 after an adjustment for inflationary increases; or
2.   the statewide average public secondary per pupil expenditure (for all allowable expenditures) in 2008-09 after an adjustment for inflationary increases; and

(Please note: for FY2009-10 only, pending legislation (the supplemental budget for FY2010 and FY2011 LR2528) will reduce the rate allowed in A (2) above by 2%. That reduced rate becomes the school’s legal rate for the calculation of the insured value factor in section B below.)

B. an insured value factor (computed as 5% of the insured value of the school buildings and equipment divided by the average number of pupils enrolled in the school on October 1, 2008 and April 1, 2009) which is limited to 5.0% of a school’s legal tuition rate per student in any one year, unless the legislative body of the sending school unit votes to give the school board authority to pay a higher rate, not to exceed 10% of the tuition rate.

20-A M.R.S.A section 5806, subsection 3 sets forth those instances when a private secondary school may charge a tuition rate above the allowable maximum.

For questions regarding private tuition rates, please contact Karla Miller of General Purpose Aid Support Service via email at karla.miller@maine.gov