Schools and other education institutes offer their services in return for fees and educational charges. The better education a school has, the higher the fee is. Parents understand the fee structure before they enroll their children and they accept these terms and conditions. Still, now and then, the school finds out that a parent didn’t make the fee payment on time. At this stage, the school administration or finance department can issue a notice letter to the parents of the student. If a couple of these letters goes unnoticed, it’s time to send the last notice to pay the school fee.
Importance of Last Notice to Pay School Fee:
If there are five hundred students enrolled in a school, the administration knows that all the parents won’t be able to make the fee in a day or two. Because of that, the parents are usually given the chance to make the fee till the 5th or 10th of each month. Still, some parents won’t be able to make the payment on time or they simply forget that the fee is still not paid. Now it’s the responsibility of the school to inform these parents that their kid’s fee is unpaid and they should transfer the payment as soon as possible.
Usually, when a parent receives such a notice, they instantly make the payment but there are certain situations or circumstances when a parent might not be able to make the payment i.e. they lost their job or there are on medical leave and won’t get their paycheck till next month, etc. Whatever the case is, the school just doesn’t rusticate the student in the first attempt but they try to cooperate with the parents till there is no other option but to show some consequences. The last notice to pay the school fee is the final letter that is sent by the school to the parents informing that they should make the payment immediately or they should prepare to face the consequences.
Key Elements of Last Notice to Pay School Fee:
Using official letterhead:
While writing a late fee or pending fee notice to a parent, it’s always better to send the letter on official letterhead. Your school or the institute must have a letterhead that is used for official documentation. This will ensure that your letter is taken seriously and in case you want to use it in the future, you have proof that you didn’t just send a generic warning letter.
Explain the circumstances:
The main part of this letter is where you explain the pending fees that the recipient needs to pay to the school. Your school may apply a late fee penalty which means the parent needs to pay the actual fee and the surcharge. It’s important to explain the total due payment because the recipient may not understand the added surcharges.
Enlist previous notifications:
Just for the record, you should mention if you have sent prior notification i.e. warning letters to the recipient. A parent might be angry to see this letter especially if it’s the first time they receive such a letter. It’s possible that even if you sent previous letters, they didn’t receive any so you should mention the dates on which you sent the warning letters.
Make a formal request:
After confirming the total overdue payment, you should make a formal request to the parent that they should make the payment within a specific period i.e. next few days or 1 week, etc. At this stage, it’s also suggested that you give a couple of payment methods to the parent i.e. they can make the payment in cash, or by check or online bank transfer and any method is acceptable for you.
Explain the consequences:
In the end, you should politely explain the consequences or results that an unpaid fee will have. For instance, you can explain that if the parent doesn’t make the payment at a specific time, the school will suspend the student or if they will rusticate the child at the end.
Sample Last Notice to Pay School Fee
Frank Glisten
Date: 15th December 2021
Subject: Last notice to pay the school fee
Dear Sir,
I am writing this letter on behalf of Little Heaven School System to inform you that the fee of your child Kathy is pending for the last three months and we respectfully request you to pay the sum of $450 at your earliest convenience.
As you know that the last date to submit the fee is the 5th of every month and when we didn’t receive the fee of Kathy for October, we sent you a notification stating that you haven’t paid the fee yet. Sadly there was no response from your side. Upon calling you after a week, it came to our attention that you lost your job and you requested some grace period to pay the fee.
Keeping your track record in mind, the school decided to give you some margin and we waited for the 5th of next month but still, there wasn’t any payment made from your side. We again sent you a polite reminder about the outstanding payment and it took us some time to get hold of you. Again, you informed us that you haven’t got a job yet and it’s been a tough financial quarter for you and your family.
It’s 15th December already and now there is a 3-month fee pending at your side. We strongly believe that communication and cooperation is the key to success in any relationship but we haven’t heard anything from you in the last 3 weeks. School administration has decided to give you a final warning before things take a turn for the worse. If we don’t hear from you within 1 week or the pending payment is not made within 10 days, we have no other choice but to rusticate Kathy.
It is not easy for us to tell you all of this but we have no choice. Our administration takes these cases very seriously and we usually don’t give this much time or consideration to any case. Because Kathy is a very bright student and we didn’t have any complaint from your side in the past, your case was given special consideration on my request but now things are out of my control and even I was given the warning to prolong rustication given the fact that 3 months fee is not paid.
I hope we hear soon from you and the whole situation is resolved.
Regards
Monica Bellwether
Admin Officer
Little Heaven School System
