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Keep your eyes on the mailbox starting in February if you have children who go to public school in Quebec.

You may find a cheque from the specialized agency Collectiva — the spoils of an-out-of-court settlement reached last summer in a class-action lawsuit launched by a Saguenay mother who objected to having to purchase such items as a Bescherelle and a recorder for her two children since public education is supposed to be free in Quebec.

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Right on, many parents are surely saying, applauding the effort by Daisye Marcil to stick it to the school boards over “illegal” billing for textbooks and field trips parents are frequently called upon to shell out for. Former premier Lucien Bouchard was the lead lawyer in the case filed against 68 school commissions on behalf of 900,000 school kids to safeguard the “free educational services to which they are entitled by law.”

But before celebrating the windfall (as much as $150 per child or about $28 per school year from 2008-09 to 2016-17), it’s worth considering what, precisely, that means.