Thoughts on Schools requesting financial information?

[Kosmik]

So, applying for a second child to attend the same school as the first and the school now wants either 3 months bank statements or copies of payslips. I don't see why the would need access to such sensitive information. If they need a bank confirmation letter or letter of employment, that's one thing ( again why? ) but to have the figures disclosed to third party for no reason seems obscene. Particularly when they are not a financial institution with the required safeguards by law.

Of course if one was applying for exemption or a loan etc. then yes but I personally don't and haven't shared such information with anyone besides my bank.

Thoughts, opinions?

 

[Herr der Verboten]

Send them a urin and stool sample?

 

[Cius]

So, applying for a second child to attend the same school as the first and the school now wants either 3 months bank statements or copies of payslips. I don't see why the would need access to such sensitive information. If they need a bank confirmation letter or letter of employment, that's one thing ( again why? ) but to have the figures disclosed to third party for no reason seems obscene. Particularly when they are not a financial institution with the required safeguards by law.

Of course if one was applying for exemption or a loan etc. then yes but I personally don't and haven't shared such information with anyone besides my bank.

Thoughts, opinions?

Is this for a public school? Fee paying I assume? If Private its part of an affordability check but for a public school that sounds fishy. Definitely a requirement for applying for exemptions but as an up front requirement it seems invasive.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Probably to assess the parent's ability to pay. It's understandable with private schools, if they don't get paid, they can't pay the staff...

 

[Blu82]

It may be some sort of affordability check. Having the amount of unpaid fees some schools have to deal with is astronomical.

 

[Cius]

So I checked the act and a public school even if fee paying cannot deny you access based on affordability. That is against the law. Bank statements and salary slips can be requested as part of exemptions applications but documents have to be stored in accordance with the POPIA act. They should not be required for admissions with the possible exception of foreign nationals. As they do not qualify for exemptions the school may do an affordability check before granting the spot as to get a slot in the school they have to sign a document saying they will pay in full.

 

[bwana]

So, applying for a second child to attend the same school as the first and the school now wants either 3 months bank statements or copies of payslips. I don't see why the would need access to such sensitive information. If they need a bank confirmation letter or letter of employment, that's one thing ( again why? ) but to have the figures disclosed to third party for no reason seems obscene. Particularly when they are not a financial institution with the required safeguards by law.

Of course if one was applying for exemption or a loan etc. then yes but I personally don't and haven't shared such information with anyone besides my bank.

Thoughts, opinions?

Unusual for a second kid if they’re going to be there simultaneously. Have you had problems paying in the past?

 

[Cius]

It may be some sort of affordability check. Having the amount of unpaid fees some schools have to deal with is astronomical.

Does not work that way. If you are say a domestic worker living in fourways right next to fourways high and your child lives with you that child is entitled to go to Fourways high and if you cannot afford the fees the school is obligated to grant you a full or partial exemption according to the schools act. Public schools that take fees cannot exclude the poor by law. Private schools obviously different but all fee paying schools will have a percentage of kids who have full or partial exemption. Yes that means those who can afford the fees are charged more and subsidize those kids. It is the law though.

 

[airborne]

Probably to assess if you can afford the fees, I don't know whether it’s legal or not but schools have huge issues with parents that don't pay school fees. Is it a private or government school?

 

[My_King]

I can't recall the Bakgat line but...

They probably want to see if you can sponsor the next lapa and make your kid head boy/girl.

 

[Tomtomtom]

Unusual for a second kid if they’re going to be there simultaneously. Have you had problems paying in the past?

Ja this is the thing. If you have a history of paying in full and on time then the second kid should be easier to get in.

So either there's history here, or the school has a new policy (illegally, if it's a government school) and is being dumb about applying it as well.

 

[Cius]

The odd thing is the school has little to do with placement. The Department of Education took over that role years back. You now apply via the online portal, and yes drop some docs at the school for verification but if you get in or not depends on the department. I wonder if the schools have found a way to jippo the system by then saying to the department these people did not provide the necessary docs, so perhaps they went to a different school and hence con the department of education into not placing the poor kids in the school. Very odd.

 

[Sepeng]

It's an odd one.
I mean we've just been through the process of applying at a few schools and not one asked for this.
Look it's not something I might fight them on if it's a school I like but yeah, a bit odd.
One reason might not be to see if you can pay, but say it's a government school and they've got too many applications, they might use it to argue you can send your kid to a more expensive private school.

 

[Tomtomtom]

Does not work that way. If you are say a domestic worker living in fourways right next to fourways high and your child lives with you that child is entitled to go to Fourways high and if you cannot afford the fees the school is obligated to grant you a full or partial exemption according to the schools act.

This stuff is very interesting. You get fee-paying public schools in the leafy suburbs that are for all intents and purposes private in terms of how exclusive the admissions are. The surrounding property prices have a lot to do with that.

But then you have the catchment area thing. I'm still not sure what the actual status is but I'm hearing it's also illegal to discriminate on that.

So then in theory it's only transport costs that stops elite public schools being flooded with people who can't pay. But I have a feeling there's a lot of grey-area or outright-unlawful stuff that goes on in practice to hold their numbers down to a level that cross-subsidy can support.

And is it a bad thing? The equilibrium that results from non-paying parents dominating admissions to high-quality public schools is simply no more high-quality public schools, and kids travelling long distances for no reason.

 

[W@P]

I can't recall the Bakgat line but...

They probably want to see if you can sponsor the next lapa and make your kid head boy/girl.

Fokken presies dit.

They tried that with me as well.

I just ignored them,

 

[Nerfherder]

So, applying for a second child to attend the same school as the first and the school now wants either 3 months bank statements or copies of payslips. I don't see why the would need access to such sensitive information. If they need a bank confirmation letter or letter of employment, that's one thing ( again why? ) but to have the figures disclosed to third party for no reason seems obscene. Particularly when they are not a financial institution with the required safeguards by law.

Of course if one was applying for exemption or a loan etc. then yes but I personally don't and haven't shared such information with anyone besides my bank.

Thoughts, opinions?

It sucks but a lot of people apply to these schools saying they can pay fees but then immediately apply for consessions.
Its a problem for these governing body schools who rely on a big chunk of their income from fees.

For a private school, its a business. They need to know you can actually pay before they give you a spot.
For government schools, they need to know that they are accepting a certain percentage of learners who can pay fees.

Its a bit of a hustle but not supplying that information would probably count against your kid getting in.
I'm going through the same thing with my daughter at the moment going into high school. Its flipping stressful.

 

[Nerfherder]

This stuff is very interesting. You get fee-paying public schools in the leafy suburbs that are for all intents and purposes private in terms of how exclusive the admissions are. The surrounding property prices have a lot to do with that.

But then you have the catchment area thing. I'm still not sure what the actual status is but I'm hearing it's also illegal to discriminate on that.

So then in theory it's only transport costs that stops elite public schools being flooded with people who can't pay. But I have a feeling there's a lot of grey-area or outright-unlawful stuff that goes on in practice.

And is it a bad thing? The equilibrium that results from non-paying parents dominating admissions to high-quality public schools is simply no more high-quality public schools, and kids travelling long distances for no reason.

Catchment area is becoming less and less of a thing. Government schools need to include some learners outside of the area

 

[Tomtomtom]

The odd thing is the school has little to do with placement. The Department of Education took over that role years back. You now apply via the online portal, and yes drop some docs at the school for verification but if you get in or not depends on the department.

In the Western Cape at least this not quite true. While the WCED has centralised the application process, the school still makes the decision on admissions. They also apparently have been told they cannot conduct interviews with kids/parents, but some schools openly defy that. I guess the idea was to try to limit the information the school has access to and can discriminate on, but it just doesn't (and probably shouldn't) work in practice.

Partly because of the completely broken ranked-choice system the WCED uses, the actual admissions only really get underway after the initial acceptance letters are sent out. Parents who got accepted (stupidly) into 2 or 3 of their choices, select one and cause huge numbers of places to open up again. Then parents who didn't get their first choice start making phone calls.

There's also the fact that these schools can't take deposits. So private-school parents who have no intention of going public nevertheless choke the public school admissions with their backup plans.

 

[W@P]

By my kids public school they have this special braai for al die manne at the start of each year.
All that it is a dick swinging fest. Who can shoot the most money on BS at a stupid auction.

 

[Kosmik]

Unusual for a second kid if they’re going to be there simultaneously. Have you had problems paying in the past?

Nope. Always 1st of the month via stop order. Apparently its a new thing by the SGB.