Rulemaking on residency fraud: Comment now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I read through their attachment and it doesn't seem to improve anything.

1) There doesn't seem to be any added incentive for schools to catch cheaters - and no punitive measures taken if they don't.

2) The proof of residency verification is still WAY too light. There should be a requirement of a utility bill and a pay stub and, frankly, a DC license.

Okay, can agree with the utility bill and even other requirements. You are not getting an address on a pay stub from a federal government worker and many private companies. I drive and have a license, but do you have any idea how many people in this city refuse or do not know how to drive, and thus do not own a DL? And with Uber and the red bicycles everywhere, yuck, that number is only growing.

We've lived in DC for 4 years and I still have a Massachusetts license (because our car is registered to my husband so he had to get a DC one but I didn't). So I agree that requiring a DC license doesn't necessarily cover everyone because you can legitimately live in DC and not have one.

That said, I am ok with whatever hoops they put in, because I actually live in DC and can easily prove it, so "over-require away!"

For some people, yes, but if you drive at all:

"If you have lived in the District of Columbia for 30 days or more and you drive a vehicle in public, you must get a driver license from DC DMV—unless you are a student, diplomat, active military member, part-time resident, member of Congress, or presidential appointee and are thus eligible for driving privilege reciprocity with your home state or jurisdiction."

http://dmv.dc.gov/service/driver-licenses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I read through their attachment and it doesn't seem to improve anything.

1) There doesn't seem to be any added incentive for schools to catch cheaters - and no punitive measures taken if they don't.

2) The proof of residency verification is still WAY too light. There should be a requirement of a utility bill and a pay stub and, frankly, a DC license.

Okay, can agree with the utility bill and even other requirements. You are not getting an address on a pay stub from a federal government worker and many private companies. I drive and have a license, but do you have any idea how many people in this city refuse or do not know how to drive, and thus do not own a DL? And with Uber and the red bicycles everywhere, yuck, that number is only growing.

We've lived in DC for 4 years and I still have a Massachusetts license (because our car is registered to my husband so he had to get a DC one but I didn't). So I agree that requiring a DC license doesn't necessarily cover everyone because you can legitimately live in DC and not have one.

That said, I am ok with whatever hoops they put in, because I actually live in DC and can easily prove it, so "over-require away!"

Yeah after four years you should get a DC license. Don't you care about your community at all?

For some people, yes, but if you drive at all:

"If you have lived in the District of Columbia for 30 days or more and you drive a vehicle in public, you must get a driver license from DC DMV—unless you are a student, diplomat, active military member, part-time resident, member of Congress, or presidential appointee and are thus eligible for driving privilege reciprocity with your home state or jurisdiction."

http://dmv.dc.gov/service/driver-licenses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how the proof of residency can be reasonably tweaked. Pay stubs and utility bills + a DC license are on the list of acceptable documentation.

But you can do it with only a utility bill alone. That's the issue.

Sorry...I meant pay stub!

Paystub verifies DC State Taxes.

Yeah, so have DC taxes withheld, then apply for a total refund because you live in Md. The tax office won't tell anyone because of confidentiality. The paystub can be one indication of residency, but there must be more.

Getting the principals off their fat butts and getting on the sidewalks to greet students and observe Md.s tags dropping off kids would be beneficial. You can keep passing laws for contrived deficiencies, or you can get responsible administrators who care.

DCPS and most of its administrators truly do suck.

[Anonymous]

This is why part of this new rulemaking is to allow sharing of data between the Dept of Taxation and OSSE.

Initially it would be an option for parents who don't want to hassle with producing documents each year - just check the box and your residency and address will be verified by OSSE using your tax forms and parents don't need to do anything else.

Tax returns are how they verify residence for DC TAG grants -- no licenses/utility bills/pay stubs. It seems likely that's where they want to head with schools over the next few years. In which case changing one's address but fixing it at tax time will NOT work any longer.

I'm all for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I read through their attachment and it doesn't seem to improve anything.

1) There doesn't seem to be any added incentive for schools to catch cheaters - and no punitive measures taken if they don't.

2) The proof of residency verification is still WAY too light. There should be a requirement of a utility bill and a pay stub and, frankly, a DC license.

Okay, can agree with the utility bill and even other requirements. You are not getting an address on a pay stub from a federal government worker and many private companies. I drive and have a license, but do you have any idea how many people in this city refuse or do not know how to drive, and thus do not own a DL? And with Uber and the red bicycles everywhere, yuck, that number is only growing.

We've lived in DC for 4 years and I still have a Massachusetts license (because our car is registered to my husband so he had to get a DC one but I didn't). So I agree that requiring a DC license doesn't necessarily cover everyone because you can legitimately live in DC and not have one.

That said, I am ok with whatever hoops they put in, because I actually live in DC and can easily prove it, so "over-require away!"

"Legitimately" is not the same as not getting caught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this is a big deal. DC offers free PK and surrounding counties do not-- that is HUGE incentive to cheat. One of the people profiled in that daily caller is a friend of mine. She (a PG county resident) said honestly that's what everyone she knows in her circle does and they don't (or didn't) consider it to be a big deal. Generations of her family lived or still live in DC and using their addresses is just very common, she told me.

I had to delete a FB post after that MPD case because the back-and-forth became too much for me. People that I grew up with---who now live in Md didn't seem to care or think they were doing anything wrong. The law is simply an inconvenience circumvented by manipulating a few documents. The fraud might be greater over here in Ward 8 ( at least at the preschool level) simply due to proximity. I see too many charter school uniforms from people that I know for a fact live in Maryland and don't fit into that category of hypothetical "what-ifs".

They're doing it for pre-K and then bouncing back to the burbs for primary and high school or they stay in DC publics?

There are kids who live in Maryland who are at sought-after Deal and Wilson. This is shameful, when many more DC families would like to send their kids there but the schools are overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

You're just thinking MoCo. A number of DCPS schools are better than PG schools. But the real incentive for the scammers is the low-cost, often basically free, before and after school care. The fact that it's available close to a parent's workplace is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it may come down to a tempting opportunity to get free stuff on someone else's (i.e., the DC taxpayer's) dime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I read through their attachment and it doesn't seem to improve anything.

1) There doesn't seem to be any added incentive for schools to catch cheaters - and no punitive measures taken if they don't.

2) The proof of residency verification is still WAY too light. There should be a requirement of a utility bill and a pay stub and, frankly, a DC license.

Okay, can agree with the utility bill and even other requirements. You are not getting an address on a pay stub from a federal government worker and many private companies. I drive and have a license, but do you have any idea how many people in this city refuse or do not know how to drive, and thus do not own a DL? And with Uber and the red bicycles everywhere, yuck, that number is only growing.

We've lived in DC for 4 years and I still have a Massachusetts license (because our car is registered to my husband so he had to get a DC one but I didn't). So I agree that requiring a DC license doesn't necessarily cover everyone because you can legitimately live in DC and not have one.

That said, I am ok with whatever hoops they put in, because I actually live in DC and can easily prove it, so "over-require away!"

What a surprise! Another Taxachusetts refugee in favor of laws that apply to everyone else except herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

You're just thinking MoCo. A number of DCPS schools are better than PG schools. But the real incentive for the scammers is the low-cost, often basically free, before and after school care. The fact that it's available close to a parent's workplace is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it may come down to a tempting opportunity to get free stuff on someone else's (i.e., the DC taxpayer's) dime.

A number of The public schools are also better than some MOCO schools. MOCO schools are not equal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

You're just thinking MoCo. A number of DCPS schools are better than PG schools. But the real incentive for the scammers is the low-cost, often basically free, before and after school care. The fact that it's available close to a parent's workplace is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it may come down to a tempting opportunity to get free stuff on someone else's (i.e., the DC taxpayer's) dime.

A number of The public schools are also better than some MOCO schools. MOCO schools are not equal.

There maybe a few MoCo schools that are worse than DC's best but really not many. And the ones that are worse than Wilson like Kennedy and Einstein are sort of far from the district. I would wager 95% of the Maryland cheats are from PG

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

You're just thinking MoCo. A number of DCPS schools are better than PG schools. But the real incentive for the scammers is the low-cost, often basically free, before and after school care. The fact that it's available close to a parent's workplace is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it may come down to a tempting opportunity to get free stuff on someone else's (i.e., the DC taxpayer's) dime.

A number of The public schools are also better than some MOCO schools. MOCO schools are not equal.

There maybe a few MoCo schools that are worse than DC's best but really not many. And the ones that are worse than Wilson like Kennedy and Einstein are sort of far from the district. I would wager 95% of the Maryland cheats are from PG

I'm sure you would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

You're just thinking MoCo. A number of DCPS schools are better than PG schools. But the real incentive for the scammers is the low-cost, often basically free, before and after school care. The fact that it's available close to a parent's workplace is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it may come down to a tempting opportunity to get free stuff on someone else's (i.e., the DC taxpayer's) dime.

A number of The public schools are also better than some MOCO schools. MOCO schools are not equal.

There maybe a few MoCo schools that are worse than DC's best but really not many. And the ones that are worse than Wilson like Kennedy and Einstein are sort of far from the district. I would wager 95% of the Maryland cheats are from PG

They are no farther than Bowie or Friendshp High. In fact, the schools you named are closer to WILSON than the two schools I named.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

You're just thinking MoCo. A number of DCPS schools are better than PG schools. But the real incentive for the scammers is the low-cost, often basically free, before and after school care. The fact that it's available close to a parent's workplace is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it may come down to a tempting opportunity to get free stuff on someone else's (i.e., the DC taxpayer's) dime.

A number of The public schools are also better than some MOCO schools. MOCO schools are not equal.

There maybe a few MoCo schools that are worse than DC's best but really not many. And the ones that are worse than Wilson like Kennedy and Einstein are sort of far from the district. I would wager 95% of the Maryland cheats are from PG

I'm sure you would.

That's pretty much what reported cases in the press have found.

[Anonymous]

The common tactic among cheaters is to pay a small business to generate a paystub (I've heard anything from $50 to $150). They do it for daycare vouchers, utility assistance, housing subsidies---you name it. Information sharing between jurisdictions is virtually non-existent.

[Anonymous]

I swear this board is full of delusional trolls. If people are really cheating with falsified documents, what is your fix for that? Are legitimate residents going to have to produce more paperwork than is required to obtain a driver's license to enroll our kids in school? Really?