Lawsuits when you don't attend

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Most of the private schools in the DMV do not have large endowments like Sidwell. Rather, their operating budgets are composed of tuition dollars with a small chunk coming from their annual fund.

And ironically, relative to its peers, Sidwell's endowment is very, very small. It will take another 50 years to get anywhere close to on par, and those other schools endowments will continue to grow all the while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Surprised people just focusing on Sandy Springs. For the Landon lawsuit in the article it read as though the family was encouraged by the school to hold a spot for their son even though the school knew the family wouldn’t know if he was going to the baseball training school until after June 1 and then school sued for full tuition when the family decided on baseball school June 12.

I feel bad for the woman. Not the Landon parent. He had been at the school as parent for years. He understands how the enrollment contract works. He was juggling Landon and the IMG school to figure out which he wanted. This is exactly why schools have enrollment contracts.

Agree. The Landon parent knew exactly what he was doing.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Most of the private schools in the DMV do not have large endowments like Sidwell. Rather, their operating budgets are composed of tuition dollars with a small chunk coming from their annual fund.

And ironically, relative to its peers, Sidwell's endowment is very, very small. It will take another 50 years to get anywhere close to on par, and those other schools endowments will continue to grow all the while.

Its peers are other DC privates of which only STA is equivalent.

If you are referring to NYC schools or boarding schools, not sure how it’s relevant. Around 50 US boarding schools have higher endowments, but I doubt anyone decides to send their kid to boarding school because of the size of the endowment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A class action? You mean a law? A rule? None of that would be legal.

They could adopt the policy and even agree to a standard, but these are private businesses without federal funding.

Not a law...a lawsuit that names every top private school in the DMV and claims that having a policy whereby you can force someone to pay tuition when you are easily able to backfill that spot (at least for the top privates), or when you never paid the deposit, is no longer enforceable.

Some of the top privates have endowments in excess of most private colleges.

Sidwell's $80MM doesn't sound like much, but the median private college endowment is only $42MM.

I can tell you it is not as easy as you think to fill a spot mid summer when all of the waitlisted applicants are now contractually obligated to another school. You can’t just pluck a random child off of the streets in July—there is an admissions process that takes time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A class action? You mean a law? A rule? None of that would be legal.

They could adopt the policy and even agree to a standard, but these are private businesses without federal funding.

Not a law...a lawsuit that names every top private school in the DMV and claims that having a policy whereby you can force someone to pay tuition when you are easily able to backfill that spot (at least for the top privates), or when you never paid the deposit, is no longer enforceable.

Some of the top privates have endowments in excess of most private colleges.

Sidwell's $80MM doesn't sound like much, but the median private college endowment is only $42MM.

I can tell you it is not as easy as you think to fill a spot mid summer when all of the waitlisted applicants are now contractually obligated to another school. You can’t just pluck a random child off of the streets in July—there is an admissions process that takes time.

Aren't there kids on the waitlist who are set to go to public school instead? I know that was our situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Most of the private schools in the DMV do not have large endowments like Sidwell. Rather, their operating budgets are composed of tuition dollars with a small chunk coming from their annual fund.

Also, Sandy Springs and must of these schools don’t have rolling admissions so back filling is not often possible. The DMV independent schools (Sidwell, Sandy Springs, Burke, Landon, Washington International School etc.) are a part of the AISGW and all operate on the same schedule. The admission seasons starts in the Fall. Applications are due in early January and decisions are out in Mid-march and families can withdraw by May 31 and contracts are binding on June 1st. From Sept to Match there are open houses, webinars, and private school fairs that spell out this information. Not to mention in the interview process they generally walk you through the timeline. This mom had many opportunities to ask questions and gain and understanding of the process but for whatever reason that didn’t happen.

I recently applied to a number of private schools this past fall. As many of you on this board know, there is a ton of gaming and trading that happens once decisions are out. Waitlist change or don’t change but there is a ton of outreach to accepted families making sure they know the timeline. The June 1st deadline gives schools clarity regarding their budgets and if they’ve fallen short they have two month to plug the enrollment hole. If they’re lucky they may have a waitlist but they still have to work through the list to see if anyone hasn’t committed. Of course schools like Sidwell will have a full list but not every school will. The list may suddenly shrink as the 2nd/3rd/4th applicant choices have moved on and chosen a different school.

While I ultimately the Sandy Springs decision was illogical, I also think that this mom failed to read anything, she also failed to ask questions and do any research on how private schools worked. She made assumptions knowing that she was not familiar with these institutions. Luckily, the new administration did the right thing.

What would “research on how private schools work” look like? It’s not like she could call her extensive network of friends and family members for guidance, and the policies of other private schools probably wouldn’t have been helpful in this situation.

SSFS did know that she hadn’t paid the deposit. Would it be common for someone from the school to contact the parent to ask about that? I can understand the parent thinking that because she hadn’t paid anything, the admission wasn’t finalized. I can’t understand the school not contacting the parent to clarify the situation — once they realized they had a signed contract but no payments for a family that was new to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heck if I know, but this is the US and people sue for anything. The point of the suit is to draw widespread attention to the practice, which then may or may not result in very wealthy schools deciding its better to just adopt a rational policy than be drug into the court of public opinion.

Translation: I've never practiced litigation law before and have no clue about how things work.

Yet…there are a gazillion lawsuits in this country for lesser reasons. Somehow they exist.

And get dismissed via dispositive motions well before they would end up on the court of public opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

SSFS did know that she hadn’t paid the deposit. Would it be common for someone from the school to contact the parent to ask about that? I can understand the parent thinking that because she hadn’t paid anything, the admission wasn’t finalized. I can’t understand the school not contacting the parent to clarify the situation — once they realized they had a signed contract but no payments for a family that was new to the school.

Yeah, that seems in bad faith for the school to hold her to the contract but not reach out re non-payment.

We can’t even sign our contract without paying the deposit, and even for renewals, we get the “reminder your spot is not reserved after X date unless you have paid the deposit” emails.

Seems fishy that they didn’t reach out before June 1. If mom didn’t have the $$ for the deposit, wouldn’t that make them wonder if she wld maybe not in fact be able to pay the full year?

[Anonymous]

The "duty to mitigate" case law seems to suggest that the school was legally entitled not to reach out, but ethically and optically it was definitely fishy.

[Anonymous]

I work for an independent school. We take the enrollment contract seriously. We base our faculty hiring on it. When you accept a spot and sign the contract, it means that we're declining other applicants. If you decided after June 1 that you want to withdraw and we just let you opt out, it is basically permission for anyone else to do likewise. That creates instability.

All that said, having read the article, these are exactly the rare circumstances in which we'd release the parent from her obligation. (The Sandy Springs parent, not, definitely, the Landon parent.) There is nothing to be gained by pursuing this woman for tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for an independent school. We take the enrollment contract seriously. We base our faculty hiring on it. When you accept a spot and sign the contract, it means that we're declining other applicants. If you decided after June 1 that you want to withdraw and we just let you opt out, it is basically permission for anyone else to do likewise. That creates instability.

All that said, having read the article, these are exactly the rare circumstances in which we'd release the parent from her obligation. (The Sandy Springs parent, not, definitely, the Landon parent.) There is nothing to be gained by pursuing this woman for tuition.

Yes this —there is some discretion by the school about what cases to pursue but overall, a school needs to be able to plan for the next school year knowing their budget and class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anybody know what this new case against ssfs is about? It says it’s a child victim case. What is happening now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know what this new case against ssfs is about? It says it’s a child victim case. What is happening now?

What are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

It is silly at best to pursue a parent who simply has not got the money and cannot pay. Doubly silly when the school knew a priori that they needed financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know what this new case against ssfs is about? It says it’s a child victim case. What is happening now?

What are you talking about?

Court System: Circuit Court For Montgomery County - Civil
Location: Montgomery Circuit Court
Case Number: C-15-CV-25-002294
Title: E. L. vs. SANDY SPRING FRIENDS SCHOOL, INC.
Case Type: Tort - Child Victims Act
Filing Date: 05/08/2025