schools in Phoenix (home, purchase, school districts)

[hamdollah]

hi
My daughter goes to primary school are schools free or we have to pay fees. one more question, we are coming in December do schools register her at that time of the academic year.

[lola8822]

All public schools are free, yes, as well as charter schools (but charter schools tend to get your money anyway through "extra's" which is rediculous) and you can register your daughter at any public school any time throughout the year. If you know where you are moving to you can pre-enroll her so that she is ready to go as far as her schedule and all of that other important paperwork such as birth certificates and immunizations so the only thing you will need to bring in when you get here is your proof of residency.

Originally Posted by hamdollah

hi
My daughter goes to primary school are schools free or we have to pay fees. one more question, we are coming in December do schools register her at that time of the academic year.

[khuntrevor]

Some of the Public Schools charge parents for thousands in extras every year--band trips, sports trips, uniforms, school supplies...........especially where they know the parents have money. Charter Schools are life savers for thousands of students in some school districts that have been terrible for decades.

[lola8822]

Originally Posted by khuntrevor

Some of the Public Schools charge parents for thousands in extras every year--band trips, sports trips, uniforms, school supplies...........especially where they know the parents have money. Charter Schools are life savers for thousands of students in some school districts that have been terrible for decades.

I think "thousands" is a serious exaggeration. I work in one of the largest school districts in the state and we charge 35$ for each sport....max that could be a year for parents is what.....70 bucks??? We also do not require students to pay for supplies....we send home recomendations for parents if they would like to purchase supplies due to their requests but they are not mandatory in any way and the student will recieve what they need if they do not purchase the items themselves. Band trips and field trips do cost, yes, but I beleive our most expensive trip last school year in my K-8 school was 50 dollars per student to attend, they are typically around 5 bucks for the regular field trips but the more elaborate field trips do run a bit more. So if we add that up we are looking at maybe 120 dollars a year per student which is far from "thousands" lol. We also hold a fund of emergency cash that we use for students who's parents can not afford to pay for field trips so no student is ever left behind. Charter schools, at least in the greater phoenix area and it's burbs, cost parents thousands a year in extra's plus, many of them unfairly reject students who are not up to thier standards by finding loop holes in the laws and.....i'm pretty sure they don't have petty cash for students who can not afford their demands.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by lola8822

Charter schools, at least in the greater phoenix area and it's burbs, cost parents thousands a year in extra's plus, many of them unfairly reject students who are not up to thier standards by finding loop holes in the laws and.....i'm pretty sure they don't have petty cash for students who can not afford their demands.

You seem to have an agenda against charter schools. Since you are an employee of a school district, I can understand. However, we had one son in high school in PVUSD and one at Arizona School for the Arts and I saw no significant difference in the amount of these "extras". In neither case did they amount to "thousands".

[lola8822]

Not at all....actually, they just opened a new charter school near my home which is supposed to be fantastic so I recomended my sister-in-law enroll her son there. I have nothing "against" charter schools, they just operate under more lenient conditions than public schools and they are not always fair to students or parents. For instance, charter schools are not legaly allowed to screen students and only allow them in based on their academics however, they find ways around that by testing students for "placement" and then if they do not meet their academic standards they say they are "full". This seems very unfair to me, personally, thus my hesitance when it comes to many charter schools. I'm not very familiar with the school for the arts however, I do know that academic charter schools do cost significantly more than Az public schools on average.