Renting an apartment to be inbounds

[NoDiggity]

So, this is a strange concept. But could you rent an apartment inbounds for a NW elementary school that you would love to get your kid into. And then at the end of the lease, move to a more affordable area but at that point your child is already into the feeder system you want and you don't need to pay for private school.

Is that possible? Sounds crazy, I know. But curious if it would work.

[Anonymous]

Yes, absolutely. Find a sublet and you don’t even have to stay a year. Note that you don’t have on paper feeder rights (only through the end grade of the current school), but that’s not actually enforced and everyone in the class matriculates to the next feeder school.

[Anonymous]

NoDiggity wrote:So, this is a strange concept. But could you rent an apartment inbounds for a NW elementary school that you would love to get your kid into. And then at the end of the lease, move to a more affordable area but at that point your child is already into the feeder system you want and you don't need to pay for private school.

Is that possible? Sounds crazy, I know. But curious if it would work.

Officially, if you get in due to being IB and you move OOB, you are allowed to stay through the "truncating grade" of the school. So let's pretend you move IB for Murch for K and move somewhere else in DC in December of K year. You are allowed to stay at Murch through 5th grade, the truncating grade of the school. But you do not have rights for Deal as Deal is not your IB middle school.
Now - the registrars at Deal never check and they blindly allow anyone to enroll who "graduated" from a feeder elementary school as long as they have evidence of being a DC resident

[Anonymous]

I knew of a family who owned a rental property IB for a desirable ES a number of years ago. They didn’t live in it (nor did anyone else at the time), but they used the address to get their kid in. It EXTREMELY pissed some people off and I their lives were basically made miserable at the school. They lotteried to another school.

[Anonymous]

OP, yours is not an original thought.

[Anonymous]

Lots of people do this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew of a family who owned a rental property IB for a desirable ES a number of years ago. They didn’t live in it (nor did anyone else at the time), but they used the address to get their kid in. It EXTREMELY pissed some people off and I their lives were basically made miserable at the school. They lotteried to another school.

I highly doubt that they were made miserable at Deal, since it wasn't uncommon for NW families to do this before Hardy improved. It also happens now and then in Ward 6 for Maury and Brent. If you rent an apartment to be inbounds, fine, just be very low key about it. Make a point of not telling anybody but 2 or 3 of your closest friends and train your kid not to talk about where they actually live. Be pragmatic.

[Anonymous]

Know a few that did this but ultimately moved to be in the B-CC feeder. Just made more sense to them.

[Anonymous]

Yes the biggest drawback to this strategy is that if you only stay for a short time, people know what you are doing and might be annoyed.

HOWEVER, it sounds like you don't yet own a home and may be looking at doing this for PK or K (keep in mind that you are not guaranteed at PK spot at most DCPS elementaries, so if you do this when your kid is 3, you may have to wait until K for them to enroll in the school), and then buying OOB after that. I honestly think no-one would even notice if you did this. I mean maybe people would put it together, but to most people it would look like you were living in a neighborhood you liked, your kid went to school there, but then when you decided to buy you could not afford it so bought elsewhere. And since DC lets you stay in a school once enrolled, even if you move out of bounds, you would not be violating any rules and I doubt people would care.

It would be different if you have, say, a 2nd grader and you rented IB for one year to get them into the school and then immediately moved back out. Then it would be more obvious to people, and might annoy them, especially if you managed to get feeder preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes the biggest drawback to this strategy is that if you only stay for a short time, people know what you are doing and might be annoyed.

HOWEVER, it sounds like you don't yet own a home and may be looking at doing this for PK or K (keep in mind that you are not guaranteed at PK spot at most DCPS elementaries, so if you do this when your kid is 3, you may have to wait until K for them to enroll in the school), and then buying OOB after that. I honestly think no-one would even notice if you did this. I mean maybe people would put it together, but to most people it would look like you were living in a neighborhood you liked, your kid went to school there, but then when you decided to buy you could not afford it so bought elsewhere. And since DC lets you stay in a school once enrolled, even if you move out of bounds, you would not be violating any rules and I doubt people would care.

It would be different if you have, say, a 2nd grader and you rented IB for one year to get them into the school and then immediately moved back out. Then it would be more obvious to people, and might annoy them, especially if you managed to get feeder preference.

Not necessarily. Upper NW certainly isn't like Capitol Hill, where almost all of the single family homes are connected in rows, school catchment areas are tiny, and apt. buildings are small or tiny. You can fly under the radar easily enough on residency in Wards 1,2 and 3 if you're careful. Even if people suspect that you're gaming the system, none of their business what you're doing at the school - you could have lotteried in OOB. Almost every DCPS program in Upper NW offers at least a few spots for every grade. Just don't invite kids to your home unless their parents are close friends who won't bust you. Just don't talk about where you actually live with parents who aren't close friends. Done.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't the big drawback to this plan be that you have to teach your children to lie about where they live? And that you don't live near your children's classmates? Won't this be obvious if your child has a friend over to play?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't the big drawback to this plan be that you have to teach your children to lie about where they live? And that you don't live near your children's classmates? Won't this be obvious if your child has a friend over to play?

You don't have to lie about where you live, because this isn't considered boundary fraud. So playdates aren't some big "gotcha" moment either. But I agree that not living near classmates is a drawback.

[Anonymous]

This is not a good way to make friends at a new school

[Anonymous]

The biggest issue is not having friends over once you move. Parents don’t have the time to drive ES kids around and so encourage neighborhood friendships (one reason why many choose their IB school in the first place) and ES kids aren’t old enough to take Metro/bus.

[Anonymous]

People don’t just do this for schools either. To be Police Chief or hold other government positions you have to life in the jurisdiction you work in. I know one such Police chief who lives outside the jurisdiction but rents an apartment in it. He doesn’t live there though. It’s ridiculous that it doesn’t get looked into. It’s sneaky.