The Indiana General Assembly passed legislation essentially eliminating most book and other fees for students and parents.  When that happened, local school districts wanted to know whether the state would pick up the tab on the extra expense at the local level.  The answer was, sort of.

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School board was briefed by staff Wednesday night on that situation, and discovered a deficit of just under $1 million.  The student fees invoiced in the 2022-2023 school year totaled roughly $4.1 million, with estimated fee reimbursement from the state to be about $3.2 million in the coming school year, leaving a local deficit of a bit below $1 million.  The student fee amount is from the previous school year and the amount of state support is estimated, so the actual numbers are not known at this time.

The official student count will impact the state fee reimbursement, with the state paying $151.88 per student.  The official student count is submitted to the state in October.

School districts may charge families for some fees under the state guidance, including  Field trips, Preschool materials, Lost or significantly damaged materials, Dual Enrollment course materials and Dual Credit and Advanced Placement (AP) testing fees.