Pay to Play

[doberbrat]

No fees for us. The exception is an out of state chorus competition that is $1300 for flights, hotels etc

[smilequeen]

We pay quite a bit because he plays 2 sports that are club sports in our state (hockey and lacrosse). I don’t think there are fees for state sanctioned sports (private school)…but I’ll have to check. One of mine wants to try football next year. Edited…DS1 said that no…football, soccer, baseball, etc. don’t have fees to play. Only hockey and lacrosse…just my luck

[chlobo]

Public high school and yes, there is a fee. The fees range between $200 and $630 per sport. Most of the sports are in the $300 range. Ice hockey and skiing are the most expensive. $50 sounds like a bargain to me!

I went to public school in the same state and there was also a fee back then to play high school sports.

Agree that $50 is a bargain. Sports here are $300, with a cap on $900 for the year so if multiple kids in multiple sports you do stop paying. However, no one is excluded from playing a sport if they don't have funds as there are scholarships available. Our kids get bussed everyday to the local cross country ski center so I assume the fee pays for that.

[khm]

Midwestern public school here too. I am not sure if football has a fee, but it wouldn't surprise me as they do have a spectacular kit they get - practice uniforms, very nice new pads, very up-to-date uniforms (home and away), top notch helmets, giant bag, etc. Nothing ever gets too old or worn out. Even the middle school set up is very nice.

My kids did track, tennis, soccer, dance team and cross country and there were no fees for those, and the uniforms are far, far more basic - no flashy bags or practice gear, lol.

All sports have required sales of a fundraiser card for each sport. I think they are supposed to pay if they don't sell 10, but I don't know if they hold the kids to that or not.

My son does percussion in band, so the instruments are all the school's. He does pay a small percussion fee. And, there are small rental fees for their marching band uniform and concert attire. Still FAR cheaper than middle school where we had to buy the concert attire (a tux).

Fees are waived if the family cannot afford it. I assume it goes off the reduced lunch list for sure, then if a family asks for assistance.

Last year when the band went to NYC that trip cost $1200ish. A few weeks before they were to leave an email went out that a handful of families had come upon financial issues and weren't able to make their last payments. The school asked for donations and quickly got them. The fine arts boosters also gave each and every kid $70 for meals and I'm sure kids were given a bit more if they needed it, though $70 was plenty as many meals were covered as a group meal.

[dogmom]

I don't know about athletic fees, since my kids didn't do HS athletics. I had to pay fees for ANY activity when I was in HS, even the D&D club. For reference this was in 1980.
I don't have a problem with a nominal fee for athletics. (With needs testing.) Lots of kids cannot participate in HS athletics, it tends to be fairly costly for many of these programs to run, and it benefits such a small percentage of the students. If the system were different, I would support it more. But the reality is many, many sport students have no chance in participating at a HS level unless their parents have the time and money to spend on travel teams, sports clinic, etc. It's such a rigged system. It surely benefits some kids, with scholarships and the like. But in my area what I see more often a kid gets a leg up on admission to a lower division school and gets into a competitive academic school they wouldn't have gotten into otherwise. I have a friend whose daughter plays softball. She is being recruited into Carnegie Mellon, which is really hard to get into. She isn't even interested in a STEM career. So she is going to get in, but the kid that wants to be an engineer, is on the robotics team, took all the AP science courses, is not going to get in so she can play softball? It makes no sense to me.

[ahisma]

$250 / sport / season for a public school in Michigan. Total madness. Club sports and travel teams are quite a bit more. We're getting $$$ fees for clubs now too (Model UN, robotics, etc.)

[jenmcadams]

Yes, there is a fee to play high school sports here. It tends to run about $180/sport. There is a considerable discount for those who qualify for free or reduced lunch. I had no idea this type of fee was so unusual.

very similar to our district

[Percycat]

We pay a $40 activity fee per child if the child participates in any extra-curricular activity -- this is district wide and in addition to any fees that might be assessed by the particular activity. We paid a couple hundred dollars for my son to participate in marching band --- I think there was money available to help families who could not afford the fee. We also paid a fee to participate on the robotics team -- although kids could participate in fund raisers to offset the fee. My daughter's drama club attends a yearly convention and we pay fees for her to participate in that too. The district has a restrictive bus policy --if a location is within so many miles of the school, busing is not provided. So, if kids go to an aftershool meet, the bus will get them to the meet, but not get them home or back to school where the students' cars are parked.

[nfceagles]

We pay $110 per sport with some sort of cap for families. And of course there are exemptions for families who need help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kindra178]

I don't know about athletic fees, since my kids didn't do HS athletics. I had to pay fees for ANY activity when I was in HS, even the D&D club. For reference this was in 1980.
I don't have a problem with a nominal fee for athletics. (With needs testing.) Lots of kids cannot participate in HS athletics, it tends to be fairly costly for many of these programs to run, and it benefits such a small percentage of the students. If the system were different, I would support it more. But the reality is many, many sport students have no chance in participating at a HS level unless their parents have the time and money to spend on travel teams, sports clinic, etc. It's such a rigged system. It surely benefits some kids, with scholarships and the like. But in my area what I see more often a kid gets a leg up on admission to a lower division school and gets into a competitive academic school they wouldn't have gotten into otherwise. I have a friend whose daughter plays softball. She is being recruited into Carnegie Mellon, which is really hard to get into. She isn't even interested in a STEM career. So she is going to get in, but the kid that wants to be an engineer, is on the robotics team, took all the AP science courses, is not going to get in so she can play softball? It makes no sense to me.

I have been thinking about this post since I read it earlier. A few thoughts - around here, drill team, theater, various choirs and bands require significant outside commitment. It is super hard to make all the things, not just sports, without so much help. Just the downside of a huge high school with deep sports and tremendous commitment to the arts.

Re: Carnegie, it’s a d3 school. The vast majority of D3 schools do not reduce admission standards in any meaningful way to accept athletes. We and other friends are dabbling in this world a bit - coaches set forth specific and stringent ap and gpa requirements. Put another way, from what I’m seeing and hearing, a wanted athlete at a moderate to strong d3 school has a leg up no different than any other kid with a standout activity. You still need the grades.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains