For those of you who do the Catholic CCD, what is the going rate your church charges you? My DD just started first grade and is still in that adjustment mode. I held off on registering her for CCD since it is 6:30 till 8:00 at the church we are supposed to attend based on our address. They charge $190. Our parish of choice and the church where my husband and I got married and had both our DD's baptized at is wanting $395 since we are no longer "contributing" envelope members. In fact, they stopped sending us the envelopes a few years ago when we stopped going regularly due to having kids and the whole sex scandal turning us off for awhile. Classes have started up this week and now I am feeling a bit guilty for not signing her up. Her bedtime is 7:30 and I have a hard time with the 8:00 stop time. Has anyone had their child make their first communion later than second grade? Will I be forced to home school her if I don't enroll her with her grade? I was willing to consider this option until our current church told me that I would still have to pay the $400 to home school her. That right there tells me it's all about the money! Thanks for your insights! Janet

By Pamt on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 08:36 pm:

What!!?? You have to pay for church education/training? I'm not Catholic, but that's the craziest thing I've ever heard of! Any Bible studies, discipleship training, etc. that our church does are completely free---and whether you tithe or not.

By Marcia on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 09:52 pm:

We're Anglican, and we don't have to pay for anything either. We always have the option of leaving a free will offering if we want, or a donation to the food bank. Nothing is expected.

By Missmudd on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 10:00 pm:

I'm catholic and we dont charge for ccd. I am really kind of confused that your parish does. In all the parishes I have belonged to it is paid by the archdiocese which is paid from funds from the annual catholic appeal. I could understand if it was that your dd was going to private school and you were paying tuition but I have never had to pay or show tithing to have my children receive ccd. The most I have had to do was state that we attended church regularly. Our ccd is run totally by parent volunteers, maybe that is why you need to pay, do they pay their teachers? Still imo this should be a freebie, or at least on a voluntary payment situation.

By Sue3 on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 10:02 pm:

I am Catholic.We have never had to pay for our kids ccd classes.However there is a charge if you are not a member of the church and I have to add that we do not contribute to the weekly envelopes every week either , we have never been questioned at all about this.
We can home school too.Again no charge.They do suggest that we don`t homeschool the year that your child makes a sacrament
because of all the material covered when making your sacrament.
All my kids made their first holy communion in the 2nd grade also my youngest made his sacrament of reconciliation in 2nd grade along with the first holy communion.
This is something new they started last year.
Like Pam`s church all of our churches training and Bible studies , ect. ( adult classes included )are free.
Are you a member of the church your dd might be taking classes at ?
If so maybe you should look into joining a different church.
We have a variety of options for ccd classes.
My 2 youngest go 4:15 - 5:15 during the week and my oldest goes Sunday evenings.
and there are 2 more options during the week.

By Cheerio on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 10:29 pm:

Thanks for everyone's input. Maybe it's just a thing with our diocese. It seems all the churches charge the same (suburb of Chicago, maybe it's a big city thing?), except for the church we belong to. They want to charge us double since we haven't been using our envelopes. Although parents who are attending the other Catholic church in our area have told me that they have been told the cost next year may go to $400 for them too if you don't contribute an "acceptable" amount each week at mass.
All the teachers are parent volunteers. In fact, they offered me to teach in order to save 50% off the price! You would think that if I devoted myself to teaching for 1.5 hours a week for the school year that my DD would get to attend for free! I'd love for her to make her communion at the same church I got married at and they were baptized at, but the cost just bugs me. Maybe I need to switch religions! I'll stop now before I need to move this to the debate board! Thanks for sharing how your churches handle it.

By Colette on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 06:14 am:

We never paid for ccd either.

By Fraggle on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 07:29 am:

There is a charge for CCD at our church-I think it is $50 to cover the cost of materials. I teach so I do not have to pay anything.

By Kernkate on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 08:38 am:

I am catholic and we never had to pay either. The only thing we paid for was the books the kids needed for communion and confirmation.

By Debbie on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 08:52 am:

I live in a northwest suburb of Chicago. Our church only charges a materials fee of around $30.00 for ccd. That is just ridiculous that you have to pay $190.00. We are actually a part of the Rockford Diocese, so maybe it is a docese thing. However, my dks have gone to ccd in several parishes, since we have moved a few times. We have never had to pay for anything except a small fee for materials.

By Mommmie on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 02:38 pm:

Our parishes charge about $85 for CCD and it's possible to not get a spot if you don't sign up early enough (so you have to go to different parishes with openings). My dyslexic son started in Kindergarten but I had to withdraw him after a month. The volunteer teachers didn't know what to do with a non-reader in their class. Their curriculum wasn't set up for that. I never took him back. The whole thing is silly.

By Mommmie on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 02:46 pm:

I just checked our parish website and I was mistaken - it's $50 per kid except $90 for 2nd grade. Parents are *required* to volunteer and they are considering having a special ed class for kids with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, etc if there is enough interest. I didn't see anything about non-parishoners attending religious education.