Judge: Aunt, uncle not liable for tuition

By Denise Dick

The judge said tuition should be paid by the Las Vegas school district where the girl’s parents live.

BOARDMAN — The aunt and uncle of a Las Vegas girl aren’t responsible for tuition costs to send the girl to Boardman schools.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled that Anthony and Katherine Grosso, the girl’s aunt and uncle, don’t have to pay tuition.

When the Grossos tried to enroll their niece, 16, in school last fall, they were told they would have to pay $800 per month in tuition because the girl is a nonresident. The district defined residency as where the parents live.

The judge ordered the school district to admit the girl and charge tuition to the Las Vegas, Nev., school district.

The Grossos, who live in the Boardman school district and have legal custody of the girl, filed court action last September asking that she be allowed to attend school tuition-free.

“I’m very happy for my clients because it means that she can continue to go to school,” said Atty. Matthew Fekete, who represents the Grossos.

The judge found that people granted legal custody of a child “stand in the shoes of the parents,” Fekete said.

The girl’s parents remain in the Las Vegas area school district.

“It’s just been a long battle,” Anthony Grosso said. “But it was one of those things where we knew we were right.”

His niece, who is a sophomore at Boardman High School, is now earning A’s and B’s in her classes and has enrolled in driver’s education, he said.

“She’s getting along real well now,” Anthony Grosso said.

Neither school district officials nor attorneys representing the district could be reached.

Mahoning County Juvenile Court awarded the couple custody of the girl last August. She’s been living with her aunt and uncle since April 2007 because of personal circumstances.

The school district had argued that failure to collect tuition would render the girl’s attendance unauthorized, and the school district would receive no state funds for her attendance.

There are only two ways in Ohio that a child may attend public schools tuition-free — when the child lives in the school district with his or her parents, and when the child is being adopted, the district’s attorneys had contended.

Judge Sweeney said in her ruling that the school district is in error when calling the girl a nonresident.

A child is a resident of the township in which his or her parent lives, the judge wrote.

“However, when a minor child is placed in the legal custody of another, the parent loses any and all of his parental rights,” the judgment entry said.

The legal custodian of the child is charged with the physical care and control of the child and may determine where and with whom the child lives, the judge wrote.

“Additionally, that person has the duty to protect, train and discipline the child and to provide the child with food, shelter and education,” Judge Sweeney’s ruling says.

The legal custodian assumes the role of ‘parent’ for purposes of schooling, the judge said.