Tuition refund for medical withdrawal?

[Anonymous]

Our daughter has been at the same school since kindergarten. This year, she became severely ill and was hospitalized four times. She is still not well enough to attend school so the school suggested we homeschool for the balance of the year.

The school insists we pay the balance of tuition minus a fairly modest amount. Our daughter was hospitalized starting in September so has - at most - attended only a month intermittently.

Has anyone successfully argued for more of a tuition forgiveness under these circumstances? Our medical bills are $$$ and we currently pay a $1k a month for anti nausea medication that insurance won’t cover, for example, but are necessary to prevent readmission.

[Anonymous]

Do you have tuition insurance?

[Anonymous]

Can you give a better sense of how much we’re talking about?

What is the tuition?
What is this modest amount they are deducting?

I’m sorry your child is going through this.

[Anonymous]

No advice, OP. Just wanted to say I’m sorry and hope your DD is stable and on the road to recovery.

I clicked on the thread because we are attempting a medical withdrawal for DC from a school activity in a much simpler set of circumstances — I have found the process surprisingly difficult. I hope you all get this resolved quickly.

[Anonymous]

Don’t you have tuition insurance?

[Anonymous]

So sorry, OP and I hope your DD is better soon. Unfortunately you’re on the hook for tuition, unless you have tuition insurance. Some schools require you to buy it. Maybe you can speak with the admin and negotiate.

[Anonymous]

We don’t have tuition insurance (the school doesn’t offer and I never thought to go look for it)
They are willing to credit almost $4k against tuition of around $34k. They do mention in their website they have an endowment for unexpected situations mid-year.
Our medical bills last year approached 50k. We hit out out of network and in network catastrophic max and had 30k still not covered by insurance.

[Anonymous]

I'm so incredibly sorry your child is suffering, OP. This is very stressful for all of you.

Unfortunately, unless there is a health withdrawal clause in your contract or you bought tuition insurance... I'm not sure you have the law on your side. But maybe if you contact a lawyer and they write a threatening letter, the school will offer a little more?

I pray that your child recovers.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry OP. Without tuition insurance, the school is well within its rights to collect. However, people do have hearts, and offering you 4K shows that they aren't totally cold-hearted, so what you may want to do is go back and say, we really appreciate your willingness to give us back 4K but with medical bills mounting would you be able to have us pay for the first day through winter break when DD was enrolled and then forgive the remainder of the year? In realize you are paying for a lot of days your child was not in school, but she was enrolled so this feels like a reasonable offer. Hopefully they'll accept. I hope your DD gets well soon.

[Anonymous]

If they are asking you to leave, they should forgive the rest of the year. If you were holding the spot, you absolutely pay from September till now as they couldn't fill it with another child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter has been at the same school since kindergarten. This year, she became severely ill and was hospitalized four times. She is still not well enough to attend school so the school suggested we homeschool for the balance of the year.

The school insists we pay the balance of tuition minus a fairly modest amount. Our daughter was hospitalized starting in September so has - at most - attended only a month intermittently.

Has anyone successfully argued for more of a tuition forgiveness under these circumstances? Our medical bills are $$$ and we currently pay a $1k a month for anti nausea medication that insurance won’t cover, for example, but are necessary to prevent readmission.

I've got no advice re: tuition, I'm sorry, but this line jumped out at me. If it's Zofran/ondansetron, please look around because you can definitely get it cheaper than the official sticker price. My insurance only covers 7 tablets at a time and I was prescribed a whole box (30), so I asked the pharmacist how much the box would cost out of pocket and it was only $12 - less than my copay for the 7 tablets! This was a Giant food pharmacy, but GoodRx seems to indicate that you can get it around that price at several other chains, too: https://www.goodrx.com/zofran . (If it's not Zofran, apologies - just had to mention it in case!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry OP. Without tuition insurance, the school is well within its rights to collect. However, people do have hearts, and offering you 4K shows that they aren't totally cold-hearted, so what you may want to do is go back and say, we really appreciate your willingness to give us back 4K but with medical bills mounting would you be able to have us pay for the first day through winter break when DD was enrolled and then forgive the remainder of the year? In realize you are paying for a lot of days your child was not in school, but she was enrolled so this feels like a reasonable offer. Hopefully they'll accept. I hope your DD gets well soon.

So sorry you are going through this and best wishes for your child. I would definitely have further conversation with the school about this like this person mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter has been at the same school since kindergarten. This year, she became severely ill and was hospitalized four times. She is still not well enough to attend school so the school suggested we homeschool for the balance of the year.

The school insists we pay the balance of tuition minus a fairly modest amount. Our daughter was hospitalized starting in September so has - at most - attended only a month intermittently.

Has anyone successfully argued for more of a tuition forgiveness under these circumstances? Our medical bills are $$$ and we currently pay a $1k a month for anti nausea medication that insurance won’t cover, for example, but are necessary to prevent readmission.

I've got no advice re: tuition, I'm sorry, but this line jumped out at me. If it's Zofran/ondansetron, please look around because you can definitely get it cheaper than the official sticker price. My insurance only covers 7 tablets at a time and I was prescribed a whole box (30), so I asked the pharmacist how much the box would cost out of pocket and it was only $12 - less than my copay for the 7 tablets! This was a Giant food pharmacy, but GoodRx seems to indicate that you can get it around that price at several other chains, too: https://www.goodrx.com/zofran . (If it's not Zofran, apologies - just had to mention it in case!)

One of my medications is cheaper at Costco with me paying full price vs insurance who also limits how many I can have.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry. I hope your daughter gets well, OP.

[Anonymous]

OP - I'm very sorry to hear you child and family are going through this. I wish your family the best.

If your child's school does not offer tuition insurance, then it almost certainly would not have been possible to purchase it at any reasonable price individually. That may help an appeal to the school for something more manageable, or at least some coverage from the fund. The school obviously sees the situation differently, but hopefully it realizes that you would more than happily have your kid at school, healthy, with your paying tuition.