Arbor Preparatory High School, a public charter school, requires all students to take Advanced Placement (AP) courses as a condition of graduation. Although there is nothing wrong with that requirement, the ACLU of Michigan was notified that that Arbor Prep was also requiring students’ families to pay for AP exams.

In August 2014, we wrote Arbor Prep a letter informing them that under clearly established state law, the constitutional right to “a system of free public schools” means that schools may not require students to pay for mandatory services and activities such as tuition, books, and examinations. The school promptly revised its policy to clarify that students who completed AP course work could still graduate even if they did not take an AP exam.

(ACLU Attorneys Shana Schoem, Kary Moss and Michael J. Steinberg.)

View the full 2014-2015 Legal Docket.