Question:
Our child attended a private Jewish day school. We provided post-dated checks at the beginning of the school year to be cashed by the school each month for tuition. In addition, we raised money for the school and brought in an additional $10,000 in donations. Our child has special needs (Aspergers) and it became clear to us that the school was not able to deal with him in a positive way and that his self esteem was suffering and he was not succeeding. We all agreed that the best thing for our child was to have him home schooled for the rest of the year. We asked the school for our remaining four uncashed tuition checks (approximately $1,100 each). They first said they had to check with their lawyer. They then said that it was something the board needed to vote on. They then said that the board voted to keep two of our checks. (We know from friends of ours who are on the board that no vote ever took place.) We went back and looked at the original school policy and see that it does say that it is school policy to retain the checks even for children who leave in the middle of the school year, which we had automatically accepted when we delivered the checks in the beginning of the year, although we were not focused on that at the time. We are not wealthy people and would really benefit from having those checks back. We would like to cancel the uncashed checks. Is this forbidden by halakha?
Answer:
Answer by Horav Y. Feishman shlit”a
It is forbidden unless the school misrepresented what its capabilities were at the beginning of the year e.g. if they said he can do fine and he can’t. Otherwise be happy they’re willing to return two. Maybe tell them your situation and appeal to them to have mercy.
Best wishes
