Jackson-Reed home visits for eligibility verification

[Anonymous]

As somebody who was investigated for residency/boundary fraud by DCPS a few years ago (and cleared on the spot) after a divorce I can offer insight. In my experience, if you have the correct residency docs and pay DC income tax, DCPS looks no further. If you're investigated, you need to show your most recent DC tax return and other docs linking you to the in-boundary address. Not a bad idea to have a DC drivers license with your in-boundary address on it. That's it, that's the investigation. DCPS home visits to investigate residency on the part of schools are an urban myth, nothing more. But you shouldn't be dumb enough to claim the DC homeowners exemption on a residential property where you live but aren't using as in-boundary address for a school. And you want to pick up DC official mail from the in-boundary address on a regular basis. If you can't swing both things, don't use that address in-boundary if you aren't living there year-round. The risk is too great.

[Anonymous]

Back to the OP- how do we ensure this gets done so my kid can complete enrollment, and register for classes?

[Anonymous]

Ahh yes. That’s it isn’t it. The bottom line is everyone feels entitled here. Rich/poor, black/ white. There’s always some reason people think they’re the exception. Very DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As somebody who was investigated for residency/boundary fraud by DCPS a few years ago (and cleared on the spot) after a divorce I can offer insight. In my experience, if you have the correct residency docs and pay DC income tax, DCPS looks no further. If you're investigated, you need to show your most recent DC tax return and other docs linking you to the in-boundary address. Not a bad idea to have a DC drivers license with your in-boundary address on it. That's it, that's the investigation. DCPS home visits to investigate residency on the part of schools are an urban myth, nothing more. But you shouldn't be dumb enough to claim the DC homeowners exemption on a residential property where you live but aren't using as in-boundary address for a school. And you want to pick up DC official mail from the in-boundary address on a regular basis. If you can't swing both things, don't use that address in-boundary if you aren't living there year-round. The risk is too great.

That may have been the case a few years ago. Now, they're doing home visits for EVERY incoming 9th grader whose kid didn't go to one of the feeder schools. We've lived zoned for JR for 11 years, and we're going to have to have a home visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the OP- how do we ensure this gets done so my kid can complete enrollment, and register for classes?

This is a good question. We got all our paperwork in on April 2 or 3 and still have heard nothing about when the home visit might happen.

[Anonymous]

Is crazy many kidsvare taking the train. the School refused to enroll kids who are in the AU are .I heard kids from Maryland attend Hardy.☹

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wtf? That is outrageous.

No its awesome. More schools need to do this. Too many OOB kids or from MD attending DC schools and adding the overcrowding issue.

[Anonymous]

This is what happens when a bunch of families EotP lack a halfway decent by-right high school. These people pay DC taxes and J-R home visits won't shut some of them down. Those with the resources will rent apartments in Upper NW, set them up, live in them until the home visit is over, quietly sublet them and go home. This is what happens when your kid strikes out in the Latin and BASIS lotteries, rejects distant DCI on the under-subscribed French or Chinese tracks, and doesn't crack Walls, Ellington or Banneker (although they may have a 4.0 middle school GPA). What should such parents do, bite the bullet for failing Eastern HS? Accept exile to the burbs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wtf? That is outrageous.

No its awesome. More schools need to do this. Too many OOB kids or from MD attending DC schools and adding the overcrowding issue.

Not so awesome. Try DCPS needs to get its act together. Come on, there's but one good neighborhood high school for an entire big city. Lame.

[Anonymous]

And the situation won’t change for at least a decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when a bunch of families EotP lack a halfway decent by-right high school. These people pay DC taxes and J-R home visits won't shut some of them down. Those with the resources will rent apartments in Upper NW, set them up, live in them until the home visit is over, quietly sublet them and go home. This is what happens when your kid strikes out in the Latin and BASIS lotteries, rejects distant DCI on the under-subscribed French or Chinese tracks, and doesn't crack Walls, Ellington or Banneker (although they may have a 4.0 middle school GPA). What should such parents do, bite the bullet for failing Eastern HS? Accept exile to the burbs?

Oh, we found you.

[Anonymous]

Found what? I’m not a high school address cheater; we’re heading to Walls. But we have old friends in Ward 6 who are renting tiny NW apts to get access to J-R in desperation. No idea about home visits but they seem to do this easily enough. No way are they going to live in their cramped NW rentals. Fair enough.

[Anonymous]

I'm really curious if DCPS has actually dedicated the resources needed to do home visits and has a plan/criteria to assess whether or not a person lives where they say they do.

This seems like a classic decent idea that will likely fail execution-wise due to lack of guardrails/guidance for HOW to carry the thing out. (Except that then there will be a paper trail of some sort that they at least looked, which DCPS will tout as proof that everyone lives where they say they do.)

[Anonymous]

DCPS lets kids who are in-bound move later on and re-enroll. So 9th grade enrollment is the year to closely check and the number of students who are not coming from a feeder is relatively limited. Any serious enforcement effort operates as a deterrent that will make a lot of people think twice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Found what? I’m not a high school address cheater; we’re heading to Walls. But we have old friends in Ward 6 who are renting tiny NW apts to get access to J-R in desperation. No idea about home visits but they seem to do this easily enough. No way are they going to live in their cramped NW rentals. Fair enough.

No, not fair enough. I am in Ward 6 and not interested in putting my fed job and law license on the line by engaging in fraud just to send my kid to JR. I am also not interested in forcing an hour+ commute on my kid, and crippling his social life by living half a city away from his classmates. Stop acting like a victim. I chose to live in W6 fully understanding the school situation and don’t need to do underhanded and stupid things to cope.