For reasons everyone already knows, most colleges and universities in the U.S. ended in-person instruction for the spring semester early this year and moved classes online. On top of that, many schools also forced students living in campus housing to move out. So if you were kicked out of the dorms, can you get back part of your tuition and other expenses you already paid? Some law firms have already launched class-action lawsuits against universities—but do they really have a chance of succeeding? In this article, we’ll take a look. This is for general interest only and is not legal advice.

What law applies?

The main legal basis for seeking refunds from a school is contract law. There is an educational contract between a student and a university: the student pays money, and the school provides services, even though this contract is not necessarily written out and signed on a single sheet of paper the way a lease would be. Because the pandemic changed the method of instruction to online learning, and may also affect the value of the degree itself, there is at least a potential breach-of-contract issue.

Contract law is state law, and each state has its own differences. So whether lawsuits against universities succeed in other states is not especially useful as precedent for schools in your own state. What you should really watch are developments in cases in the state where your school is located.

Sovereign immunity

For public schools, the doctrine of sovereign immunity (sovereign immunity) may prevent students from bringing a breach-of-contract claim against the school at all. People see lawsuits against local governments all the time and may find this surprising. Wait—isn’t suing the government supposed to be normal? Not exactly. The common-law concept of crown immunity from England was imported into the United States largely intact. As a general rule, state government entities have the privilege of not being sued in state court unless the state itself has consented to be sued. Over time, state legislatures have passed laws allowing citizens to sue state governments in state court in certain types of disputes, such as civil-rights violations (for example, police excessive force in cases like George Floyd) and tort claims (for example, if your car is hit by a government vehicle).

But in most states, individuals still are not allowed to sue the state government (including public universities) for breach of contract. Florida is an exception, so law firms have already sued public universities in Florida. If you happen to be in a state where the school cannot be sued, then even the strongest legal arguments discussed below will not help.

If you want to sue a public school in federal court, that is probably a dead end too. The Eleventh Amendment bars private individuals from suing a state government in federal court for money damages (Hans v. Louisiana). Some law firms have tried to work around this, but in the author’s view, their chances of success are slim.

Of course, if you attend a private school, none of the above really applies to you. Private schools do not have this kind of legal immunity, so filing suit is generally not the problem.

Tuition refunds

Tuition is the biggest expense for students, especially international students. If you could force a school to return even part of it, that would be a meaningful amount of money. But partial tuition refunds are also the hardest to obtain. The contract between the student and the school usually does not specify the method of instruction, even though no one expected a situation like this. Whether a school breached its contract by switching to remote instruction will ultimately depend on how the courts rule, and the author believes the outcome may well vary from state to state.

Live remote classes on Zoom are very different from pre-recorded courses like those on Coursera. Universities did not necessarily reduce their instructional costs just because teaching moved online, so it is hard to argue that the university was unjustly enriched (unjust enrichment). Also, during the pandemic, many administrative services—such as resume review services and international student office support—were still being provided, and those services are part of what tuition covers.

Refunds for housing and meal plans

Compared with tuition, refunds for housing and meal plans may be somewhat easier to recover. Once the school closes the dorms, students can no longer use campus housing or dining services, and it is hard to say the school has fully performed its contractual obligations. In addition, the school may have saved some operating costs because food service was suspended. All of this points to one conclusion: schools should refund the unused portion of housing and meal plan charges caused by the pandemic.

For example, we have seen the University of Arizona voluntarily refund part of students’ housing costs.

Bottom line

If you still have unused housing or meal plan charges with your school, your chances of getting a refund are much better than your chances of getting a partial tuition refund. To see how things stand in your case, you can check whether any law firms have already filed a class action against your school. You may also be able to try requesting a refund from the school yourself.

At a time like this, please continue to prioritize your own health and safety. And of course, we also hope you can save money wherever possible.