[BillyB]

And not so fast to you either: Independent school have definite defined boundaries for their district. Independent schools can, if they wish accept OOD students. However, County schools are also permitted to accept OOD students if they wish. I'm not sure how many do, but it's my understanding that many do.

It amazes me, after so many years and threads discussing the public private school issue, that a whole lot of people (not necessarily you) still think:

1. Independent schools are not public schools. Yes, they are. Their school boundaries, school board, administration and local tax system are just "independent" of the county school system. That is the only distinction from the other type of public school: the county school. Both are subject to the same rules and regs of the Ky Dept of Education.

2. All independent schools accept OOD students and no county schools accept OOD students. That's false. My guess is that most independents accept OOD students, but I have no idea if all do. There have been times when due to space limitations that Ft. Thomas did not accept OOD students. No state law obligates them to accept OOD students. It's the independent school board's decision. Some county schools also accept OOD students. Not sure how many, but as noted above, I believe many do. And it's not just county schools in the urban areas that accept OOD students. County schools are obviously permitted under the state education laws to accept OOD students if the county school board elects to do so. I know of no good reason why they wouldn't want to accept OOD students other than lack of space. If a county school district had 10 empty seats in each classroom, why not get the tuition from 10 OOD students that could be used to offset the fixed costs of heating the school building, paying the janitors and teachers, etc? As long as the 10 extra students didn't create more costs than the 10 tuitions generated, it's financial stupidity not to allow them to attend. If the County school you support via your taxes doesn't allow OOD, tuition paying students, you should be at the next school board meeting asking: Why not?

3. Independents and/or privates don't have to follow the same KHSAA rules that the publics do. That's false. The transfer rule and every other KHSAA rule apply equally to all member schools.

4. Third parties are permitted to pay the tuition of OOD students or students attending private schools. They are not. Recently a private school was sanctioned by the KHSAA for allowing need based financial aid to be provided by a third party. All need based financial aid must be provided through a system mandated by the KHSAA and the amount of need based financial aid must be determined by an independent company that is on an approved KHSAA list. All merit aid must be made available to all students in the school (not just athletes) through a competitive application and the selection of the recipients must be based on published objective criteria. The academic assessment or placement test used to determine who gets the merit aid must be approved in advance by the KHSAA.

5. A student can receive full tuition in the form of merit based financial aid. No they can't. It's limited to 25% of the cost of the tuition.

6. Every one attending a private school can receive merit based financial aid. Again, no they can't. Merit based aid is limited, in addition to the rules associated with the assessment and test mentioned in point 4 above, to the greater of 5% of the student body or 5 students.

If you hear of someone repeating those falsehoods, they are wrong. You can believe me. I was on the KHSAA Board of Control for two terms and only recently left the Board. I've got the dang rule book in front of me as I type this post.

Very informative post! Thanks for taking the time.