Wait Listed for School Enrollment But Not Notified of Problems With Application

[chow_aaron]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California

My child attends a local kindergarten. This school has a sister school where the students can go for elementary school. We have been told that all kindergarten students have a place held for them if they choose to attend the sister school. Four weeks before the deadline we submitted the application and a non refundable application fee to the school. The school never cashed the check. One day before the deadline the school contacted us and asked if we can re-submit the application and payment in their new online system. We immediately completed the request and have proof they debited us the registration fee before the deadline. On that same call we were never told there was any issue with our original application or anything further was required. A few days ago we got an email from the school stating our child was on the wait list as the class was now full. After further investigation we found out that after the deadline the school signed up students that did not attend the sister kindergarten school. When we contacted the school we were told our child was not accepted because the application was missing a report card. They also said they told our child's current teacher to inform us it was missing. We were never formally informed of the missing item nor did the teacher tell us anything.

My question is can the school be legally head responsible for allowing my child to attend since they accepted our payment. Also if my child doesn't attend should the school refund my application fee since my child was not admitted due to something that we were never informed of.

Thanks

Aaron

[Mr. Knowitall]

We're talking about private schools, then?

Why didn't the school process the original check? What happened to that check and the original application?

You completed a new application online - why does the original application remain relevant? If you had correct information on the new application then the original application should be irrelevant.

When you spoke with your child's teacher about the missing report card, what did the teacher tell you? Did she confirm that she had been notified that it hadn't been sent? And that she did nothing in response?

I cannot read your contract from here, but I expect the application fee is for processing the application, not for holding you a space - and even less likely for holding you a space if your application is not complete. Read the applicable contract provisions and tell us what they say.

[chefcolby]

we need a lot more information then what was provided, like if it is a private or open enrollment school, if its an open enrollment then you might have something if its private then you don't. also you need to contact them about the original application, if the original app was submitted when there was spots open and they at least received the info then there should have been a spot waiting.

now that fee first off it was a non refundable fee, this most likely means it wasn't a fee to hold a spot, the fee was for processing, when you called the school and informed you of their decision they completed the contract on that part, they processed the paperwork, they where payed for the service they did, now unfortunately that doesn't guarantee anything (in my opinion it should)

about the error with the application, that was truthfully on your and the teachers head, the schools job was to process the application which is what they did, it was your job to verify that everything was going through, if you would have followed up in a reasonable amount of time after submitting the application this would have most likely been corrected before anything happened.

trust me, im currently going to college with financial aid and its still a pain, i have to verify every year that i was re enrolled for the semester, even though its open enrollment and is supposed to be auto updated its not and i have an issue ever year, this is only one percent of the battle because then i have to fight to make sure financial aid goes through (i believe so deeply that getting into to college and enrolling and signing up for class and financial aid is the hardest part of college, if it was simpler i would go to college for the rest of my life)

[chow_aaron]

Thank you both for your answers. Yes this is for a private school and the fee was for the processing of the paperwork. The issue I had is with the manner in which they handled the entire process. I felt they should have held a space as it was clear the intent to have our child attend the school and the principal told all of us in person "Don't worry you are all held a space." We are still on the wait list but after discussions with my wife if this is the issue we are having just getting enrolled what problems are we going to have with this staff in the future. I was hoping if there was some legal backing I could use as leverage they might change their mind. After thinking about it we decided to go to another school which is more than happy to take our student and our tuition for that matter.

Thanks

Aaron