Conference draft narrows eligibility for public tuition to approved independent schools, allows limited supplemental fee for secondary grades

Conferees reviewed a revised tuition section in the H.454 conference draft that changes eligibility for public tuition payments and adds a narrowly defined process for receiving schools to charge supplemental fees for high-school grades.

Under the draft, an approved independent school must meet multiple conditions to be eligible for public tuition: it must be located in Vermont, be an approved independent school as of the relevant cutoff date, be located in a supervisory union that does not operate some or all grades as of 07/01/2024, and have at least 25% of its student enrollment composed of students attending on a publicly funded tuition basis. Additionally, the independent school must comply with the bill’s class-size minimums or an approved waiver process.

The draft creates a new subsection (b) that would allow a receiving school to charge an additional fee for students in grades 9–12 equal to up to 0.05 times the base amount…