An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 13 - Student Applications And Enrollment Contracts

student’s tuition. For example, the parents may separate or divorce during the school year and dispute who is obligated to pay the tuition. Requiring both signatures would also bind both parents or legal guardians to any consent, waivers, releases, or indemnification provisions contained in the enrollment contract. If only one parent signs the agreement, and a student is injured during a school activity, the other parent may attempt to argue that he or she did not waive any rights to pursue damages against the school for the student’s injury. It may also help to avoid mid-year disputes regarding the attendance of students at the school. 2. E LECTRONIC S IGNATURES Many schools are implementing online versions of enrollment contracts which parents or legal guardians must sign electronically. Electronic signatures are acceptable in California 2054 and a signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form. 2055 An electronic signature may offer many benefits to the school and parents or legal guardians, including ease of use and minimized environmental impacts. However, there is a dearth of case law related to electronic signatures and issues may arise related to the authenticity of the electronic signatures. The safest and most conservative course of action is to require parents or legal guardians to sign a hard copy of the enrollment contract. This will limit the risk that the contract might be alleged to be unenforceable as the parent or legal guardian actually signed the contract rather than checking a box or typing in their name from their computers. If a school does not require handwritten signatures and uses an electronic signature method, it should still allow parents and legal guardians the option of printing out the enrollment contract and signing it by hand. Electronic signatures can be enforceable if the parent or legal guardian consents to sign the contract electronically and the school is able to verify that the signature was actually applied by the person whose name was signed. 2056 Initially, both parties must agree to conduct the transaction by electronic means. 2057 A party’s agreement to conduct the transaction by electronic means can be inferred from the context and surrounding circumstances, including the parties’ conduct. 2058 The simplest method is to explicitly ask for the parent or guardian’s consent to conduct the transaction electronically. A school should be able to confirm a parent or legal guardian’s agreement to conduct the transaction by electronic means if that individual electronically executes the contract. A school may be able to accomplish verification by providing each parent or guardian with a unique and personal log-in username and password or pin number used when viewing and signing the contract. 2059 LCW Practice Advisor Both parents should have their own unique usernames and passwords. Another method is to use a third-party authentication service to obtain and manage electronically-signed documents. Authentication services verify an electronic signee’s identification and provide electronic signature consent forms in compliance with the U.S. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.

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