The recent school reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s has been characterized by school-based management (SBM) initiatives and participatory decision-making arrangements. While much has been written about the need for teacher, parental and community involvement in school decision-making, the role of the student in these experiments has remained largely undefined and unexplored. This article considers the experiences of Chicago's Student Local School Council (LSC) representatives who share decision-making responsibilities with adults in their schools. These students were surveyed and interviewed to secure their perceptions of and feelings about their participation on these decision-making bodies. My research suggests that while participation fosters a sense of equality and ownership among LSC student reps, they are not given a corresponding opportunity to substantively affect policy and other changes in their schools. LSC student reps experience their participation on two levels: 1) subjective considerations; and 2) objective conditions. There appears to be a disconnect between what LSC student reps say that they "feel" and what they say that they actually do. (Contains 4 tables.)