NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- The North Kingstown school district will lose some of its state funding because it withheld tuition to a local charter school over a dispute about charter enrollments.

The decision, by state education Commissioner Ken Wagner, said, "School districts must make full payment of tuition....(to) charter schools when due. We therefore shall order the withholding of state education aid from North Kingstown in the amount of tuition that is currently due and direct such sum to be paid to Kingston Hill."

The decision did not say how much North Kingstown owes to the Kingston Hill charter school.

North Kingstown pays approximately $700,000 to Kingston Hill for students from the district who enroll in the charter school. At the beginning of the school year, Kingston Hill gives the district a list of names and addresses of students enrolled in its school.

The district had requested additional information, including information on applications, waiting lists and acceptance letters.

Kingston Hill refused to provide "blanket access" to the information, saying that the district is trying to be "the arbiter of Kingston Hill's admission process."

The decision said that North Kingstown wasn't challenging the residency of any charter school students.  The district was only trying to avoid billing errors which it had found with another charter school and later corrected.

Wagner, however, did conclude that the district deserved to get limited access to charter students' applications, lottery results and acceptance letters because North Kingstown spends such a large amount on its per pupil tuition to Kingston Hill.

lborg@providencejournal.com

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