The most difficult conversations you have with families probably focus on tuition. For parents who want their child to have the best educational experience possible, it's easy to overestimate what the family budget can handle. Unexpected changes in financial stability or life events happen all the time. Regardless of the reasons a family falls behind on payments, tuition discussions can be uncomfortable for all parties.
Fortunately, there are ways that your school can navigate these topics while protecting its interests. There are also many ways that your school can help prevent these situations from arising.
Make Sure Your Payment Policies Put Families First
First, review your payment policies to ensure they are set up correctly and best serve all the groups involved. Requiring families to make their first payments before the education period begins provides tuition dollars to cover expenses for the first few months of your program.
Unexpected hardships can happen
Sometimes nonpayment is understandable. Divorce, death, unemployment, sickness, and other unpredictable circumstances can happen at any time, making a dent in family finances and putting a family behind on tuition. Making exceptions for these situations is absolutely appropriate. Don’t be afraid to think through each situation and attempt to work things out if you feel it’s best to do so.
For families who have fallen behind in tuition payments and already receive financial aid, you may want to conduct an internal review. You may discover that the aid package in effect might not have been enough to cover need.
Parents who desire the education your school offers for their child really want to make it work.
When using a program to calculate financial aid, such as FAST, you still want to review what the calculator suggests to determine if it is fair for the family. Don’t set families up for failure by either giving less than the calculator suggests or not making your own adjustments for the family’s unique circumstances.
Tune in to live webinars every Wednesday during the school year to get specific, research-backed insight you can immediately apply at your school.
Be prepared to make tough decisions
When all avenues of aid and possible exceptions have been exhausted, there comes a time when you may choose to actively engage in collections to recoup unpaid tuition.
It is up to you how you want to proceed. There are many options, depending on your resources and the size of your community. The most important thing is to decide how to handle collections and handle every scenario in the same fashion.
If you ignore unpaid tuition with one family, you are forced to ignore it with everyone.
Collecting unpaid funds is simply good business practice. If you are ever in doubt as to what your course of action will be, enforce your contract. That’s always the right answer.
Adhering to these policies works to prevent families from falling behind and protects your school’s interests.
