Question: I enrolled for a class in the Kaimuki Community School for Adults for the fall session. Due to low enrollment, the class got canceled. I received a refund for the tuition but not the $10 enrollment fee. It makes sense for a partial refund if I was the one withdrawing from the class, but doesn’t seem fair I lose money when they canceled on me. How can I ever be sure that I won’t be losing money again if I decide to enroll for the same class next session?

Answer: You can’t be sure.

It may not seem fair, but everyone who signed up for classes was given written notice about the nonrefundable fee, imposed statewide for the first time this fall at all the Community School for Adults, said Estelle Wong, principal of Kaimuki Community Adult School.

The $10 enrollment fee is separate from the course cost and tuition and "was our attempt to help preserve our programs by defraying reduction in our funding because of the budgetary cuts," she said.

The fee helps to pay for operating the schools.

"Because this was a first-time assessment, we went to great lengths to be sure that it was brought to the attention of our registering students," Wong said. The nonrefundable fee was noted in the brochure and posted "in as many places" as possible to alert students.

She explained that the fee is levied once per session regardless of the number of courses that a student registers for. She said students still will receive a tuition refund if they withdraw from a course before the second class begins.

Wong also said students on a tight budget who don’t want to risk losing the $10 enrollment fee are being given the option of being put on a "pending list" for a course. If it looks like there will be enough students signed up to make the course a go, people on the list will be called.

However, there’s a risk for the student that the course will fill up before those on the pending list can be called, as well as a risk to the school that those on the list are no longer interested.

But it is an attempt "to find a compromise or happy medium," Wong said.

Question: Who can I call regarding the $8,000 I was entitled to after I bought a home in April?

Answer: You can check on the status of your tax credit by going to the Internal Revenue Service website, www.irs.gov, and clicking on "where’s my refund" on the right side.

Qualified first-time homebuyers could claim the $8,000 tax credit on their original 2009 or amended 2009 federal income tax returns by filling out IRS Form 5405. Or they could wait and claim it on their 2010 tax return.

To be eligible, taxpayers had to have signed the contract to purchase a home before the end of April, although the deadline for closing the deal was extended to Sept. 30.

Visit www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/faq1.php.

Auwe

To the young lady driving a Jeep on Saturday, Oct. 2: You certainly did not make "life good" for several motorists on the freeway because you were tailgating many of them, including us, and weaving from lane to lane trying to get ahead. We don’t know if the purpose for all those shenanigans was to reach your Mililani destination faster than anyone, but we reached the first stoplight by Kamehameha Highway and Lanikuhana Avenue the same time you did and we drove the speed limit, did not tailgate anyone, did not weave in and out of lanes or endanger anyone.

— No Name

Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or e-mail kokualine@staradvertiser.com.