Roanoke County schools have scrapped almost all student fees next year after a study by a legal aid group raised questions about school fees statewide.

Getting rid of the fees is likely to ease the burden on the county's public school parents at a time of rising grocery and gasoline prices, even though it will cost the school system almost $427,000 next year. The decision in Roanoke County, where some high school parents pay hundreds of dollars in annual fees, also represents among the first of several possible revisions to fee structures in districts across Virginia.

"These fees have been around for years and years and years," said Superintendent Lorraine Lange. "Once it was called to our attention, we responded to it right away."

State law guarantees a free public education and free textbooks to students. But the law allows school systems to levy nonacademic charges such as parking fees for high school students.

Last month, a study by the JustChildren Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville found that many school districts charge for such items as equipment for science labs and physical education uniforms. Students who take certain electives are also often charged for supplies. And high schools frequently impose school dues to cover student activities such as class picnics or graduation caps and gowns. In many cases, the bill gets progressively higher as students get older.

Legal aid lawyers who worked on the study say some of these fees force parents to pay for educational services that the Virginia Constitution guarantees for free.

"It's a lot of money that was being generated by parents of children in public school that really shouldn't have been because the Constitution says that public schools are free," said David Beidler, a lawyer with the Roanoke Legal Aid Society. "There's been this huge disparity between families of children able to pay and those not able to pay."

The study has prompted school districts to rethink their fees. State education officials are also considering updating their rules about student fees, said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education.

School fees started receiving attention a few months ago when a single mother of three Roanoke County students approached legal aid lawyers saying she had to take out a car title loan to afford the $195 the school system was charging her.

Beidler said he spoke with Roanoke County school officials on her behalf. That meeting led the county to overhaul the fee structure. The mother could not be reached for comment.

"I think it's extremely commendable that they are taking dramatic steps to address it," said Angela Ciolfi, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Justice Center of Charlottesville.

Roanoke County assessed more fees than other school districts in the study, Ciolfi said. County students pay for such materials as pens and construction paper. High school students this year also paid dues ranging from $5 to $50 to help pay for homecoming ceremonies, prom, class picnics or caps and gowns for graduating seniors. Students who took their school-issued laptop computers home with them also paid a separate $85 insurance fee.

Dues at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke range from $30 to $50 and from $25 to $50 at William Fleming High School. While it doesn't have school dues, Salem charges $10 for gym clothes and $10 for high school lockers, among other fees.

"They're feeing you for everything from lockers to towels and P.E. suits and everything you could possibly imagine," said Carlton Mabe, whose daughter graduated from William Byrd High School last year. "Every time you turned around there was something that they had sent home a note for: lab fees in science, fees for the foreign language class."

Mabe estimates he spent "close to $250" on fees last year. "I have a lot of good stuff to say about Roanoke County schools, but I can't say the education's free," he said.

By contrast, Lenora Downing, the mother of an elementary school student, paid only $9 in fees last year but still praised the school system for getting rid of the fees.

"My sister has four children, and when you start talking four children and you start talking middle school and high school with the economy and the gas and everything, I think most parents will be very happy with what they're doing," said Downing, president of the Roanoke County Council of PTAs.

Lange said she will meet with high school principals next week to discuss how to restructure the county's fees. She said the school system would make it very clear to parents that they will not have to pay any fees if they can't afford them.

"Nobody will be at a disadvantage," she said. "The same education and the same class will be provided."

On the Net: www.justice4all.org