## Facts

- A public school corporation imposed a mandatory $20 “student services fee” on all K–12 students for the 2002–2003 school year.
- The fee was adopted to address budget deficits and was deposited into the school corporation’s general fund.
- Proceeds supported system-wide services and programs available to all students, including student services administration, nurses, media specialists, alternative education, counselors, a police liaison program, and activities such as athletics, drama, and music.
- The fee applied to every student, including students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and textbooks.
- Nonpayment triggered collection threats, including potential attorney’s fees up to $100 regardless of whether legal action occurred.
- Parents filed a class action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging violations of Indiana’s constitutional guarantee of tuition-free common schools and federal due process.

## Issues

1. Whether a mandatory $20 per-student “student services fee” imposed as a condition of enrollment violates Article 8, Section 1 of the Indiana Constitution requiring common schools where “tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.”

## Decision

- The Indiana Supreme Court held the mandatory fee unconstitutional under Article 8, Section 1.
- The court treated the fee as impermissible “tuition” because it funded elements of the public educational program provided to all students and was imposed as a condition of enrollment.
- The court resolved the case on state constitutional grounds and did not reach the federal due process claim.
- The judgment upholding the fee was reversed, and the case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.

## Legal Principles

- Article 8, Section 1 prohibits charging “tuition” for public education; the prohibition extends beyond basic classroom instruction to the core educational services the state has undertaken to provide.
- A public school may charge some fees for optional, ancillary, or non-core items, but it may not impose mandatory, enrollment-linked charges that function as payment for access to the publicly provided educational program.
- Uniform imposition of a mandatory fee, coupled with collection measures, may burden access for economically disadvantaged families and conflicts with the requirement that common schools be “equally open to all.”
- Fiscal shortfalls do not justify shifting the cost of core public education to students through tuition-like fees.

## Conclusion

Indiana’s free public education clause bars a school corporation from imposing a mandatory per-student fee that funds core, system-wide educational services provided to all students; such a charge constitutes unconstitutional “tuition” even if modest and enacted to address budget deficits.


Nagy ex rel. Nagy v. Evansville-Vanderburgh Sch. Corp., 844 N.E.2d 481 (Ind. 2006)