A bill has been introduced in the California legislature that, if passed, would make illegal for local school districts to send unpaid school-related debts to collection agencies.
The bill was aimed specifically at the San Diego Unified School District’s policy of using a collection agency in attempts to recover unpaid school bus fees from parents. Parents who do not qualify for free busing must pay $500 per year for the service. There were about 380 accounts in the 2014-15 school year that were placed with an agency for debts ranging between $10 and $500.
The school board in San Diego voted last week to end the practice of using debt collectors, something which it has done since a budget crisis forced the board to take drastic measures back in 2011. The board has contracted with Transworld Systems for the service. The contract had been renewed three times since it was originally signed in 2011.
The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher [D-San Diego], would make it illegal for school districts to use debt collectors for any school-related fees, such as busing and unpaid library fees. Schools would not be able to withhold diplomas from students with unpaid debts.
“In the vast majority of cases, parents fall behind on their kids’ school-bus fees because they’re struggling financially,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez Fletcher said in a statement. “It only makes matters worse when a school sends a past-due bill to a debt collector. It impacts the parents’ credit rating, which creates all sorts of other hardships. It’s totally counterproductive.”
