Renting but not occupying for DCPS in-boundary residency purposes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you cheater-haters want the OSSE rules on residency to read "the student gets thrown out of his or her public school immediately if it's determined that s/he hasn't slept at the address provided at least 50% of the nights in the last calendar year," why not campaign for that, make it happen?

I don't see a rule anything like that in any of the OSSE docs on residency, at least the ones on their web pages. Slamming parents who aren't breaking the current rules on thread after thread seems like a waste of time.

Here are the full regulations as updated in March 2017 - they are lengthier than what OSSE puts on its website.

They set forth how residency is established in all sorts of scenarios including divorced, separated parents or never married parents, wards of the state, undocumented students and homeless students.

They are silent on the DC boundary rules -- only about proving DC residency.

http://dcregs.dc.gov/Gateway/RuleHome.aspx?RuleNumber=5-A5004

Thanks for sharing. Since OSSE is in fact silent on the DC boundary rules, what leg do you residency vigilantes have to stand on legally?

You can bitch and moan about cheaters paying DC taxes and using rental units and relatives' addresses to enroll as violations of the spirit of the law without that getting you anywhere in particular. I'd give it a rest.

just because that particular rule outlines one particular kind of fraud doesn't mean that other kinds of fraud are OK. That's pretty basic logic there. Plus, the enrollment forms make crystal clear you're supposed to put down your CORRECT address, and that you are liable if you don't. Putting down a fake address (even if you are still a DC resident) is still submitting false information to the government in connection with residency verification.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Have you ever lived abroad? One set of rules for US tax benefits depend precisely on how many days you spend in the US vs. abroad. States, too, care whether you live most of the year or some of the year in their state. And, yes, DCPS cares where you actually live -- at least the overcrowded NW schools do.

People IB for "overcrowded NW schools" also take advantage of decent PK spots with IB status based on that rental property from when they were younger. It goes both ways.

I know of at least one family where the parents are divorced, kids clearly living WOTP with one parent. The 3 year old magically goes to the EOTP IB school where there was an IB waitlist. Want to bet that next year the kid will be WOTP with IB/ sibling preference?

There are users in this world...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are paying for two homes in DC, each one entities them to its IB school. Double the taxes, double the options. Nobody's business where they choose to spend the night.

They are paying twice the income taxes? And twice the sales taxes?

[Anonymous]

PP who was investigated. If you report a suspected boundary cheater, be prepared for the DCPS to look you up. Minimally, they'll Google you to see if they can make a connection between you and your target, looking for a personal vendetta pattern (anything from a code violation complaint to a city agency to a law suit). If there's any hint of an axe to grind, the investigation is likely to go no further than them asking the accused to bring in a few extra residency docs for the file. Also, don't expect them to safeguard your identity. We were a little surprised to be handed the complaint letter and asked if the mom complaining might have reasons unrelated to residency to complain. We had a chance to explain, and document, that she did indeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are paying for two homes in DC, each one entities them to its IB school. Double the taxes, double the options. Nobody's business where they choose to spend the night.

They are paying twice the income taxes? And twice the sales taxes?

Nor are the using twice the seats.

Again, everyone knows this is wrong. But plenty of people do it and most get away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP who was investigated. If you report a suspected boundary cheater, be prepared for the DCPS to look you up. Minimally, they'll Google you to see if they can make a connection between you and your target, looking for a personal vendetta pattern (anything from a code violation complaint to a city agency to a law suit). If there's any hint of an axe to grind, the investigation is likely to go no further than them asking the accused to bring in a few extra residency docs for the file. Also, don't expect them to safeguard your identity. We were a little surprised to be handed the complaint letter and asked if the mom complaining might have reasons unrelated to residency to complain. We had a chance to explain, and document, that she did indeed.

I am pretty sure you are full of shit. We were "investigated." It consisted of someone complaining and the Principal coming to my car to look at my car registration. That was it. No clue who it was, wasn't a bother. They do not investigate the person making the complaint and you really want us to believe that they take the time to look for a personal vendetta via Google or wait for it..... check with other city agencies to see if there were complaints/law suits. Just stop.

[Anonymous]

I'm not actually. We were given several days notice to appear at the DCPS residency fraud investigations office. When we got there, the investigator assigned to our case handed us the complaint letter, and a few pages she'd printed off the Internet demonstrating a link between the accuser and us (she'd found that the accuser had made a statement to a newspaper naming one of us). She asked us a few questions about the link, then asked did you bring the documents I requested in my letter informing you that you are under investigation? We said yes, and handed the docs to her. She photocopied the docs and put copies in our file. Then she typed up a one para letter to our school principal stating that we'd been cleared. She gave us a copy, and said she'd send the letter to our principal. The process took10 mins or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are paying for two homes in DC, each one entities them to its IB school. Double the taxes, double the options. Nobody's business where they choose to spend the night.

They are paying twice the income taxes? And twice the sales taxes?

Nor are the using twice the seats.

Again, everyone knows this is wrong. But plenty of people do it and most get away with it.

If they rent the place out, then any kids of the tenants have a right to the IB school too. This is one of the ways that boundary cheating leads to overcrowding.

I want this thread to keep going so we can learn more about OP--could help narrow down who to report next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not actually. We were given several days notice to appear at the DCPS residency fraud investigations office. When we got there, the investigator assigned to our case handed us the complaint letter, and a few pages she'd printed off the Internet demonstrating a link between the accuser and us (she'd found that the accuser had made a statement to a newspaper naming one of us). She asked us a few questions about the link, then asked did you bring the documents I requested in my letter informing you that you are under investigation? We said yes, and handed the docs to her. She photocopied the docs and put copies in our file. Then she typed up a one para letter to our school principal stating that we'd been cleared. She gave us a copy, and said she'd send the letter to our principal. The process took10 mins or so.

So they wrote a letter with their name instead of using the anonymous tip line. Yeah, ok.

[Anonymous]

So far, I gather the following would be wrong:

1. If you rent a place just for the IB address and then sublet it to someone with kids, you are causing overcrowding because you are taking two slots meant for the same resident, one for your kid and one for your tenant's kid. Don't do that.
2. If you rent a place that would not fit your family (like a studio apartment if you have 5 kids), you are causing overcrowding because you are taking more slots than are planned for the size property you are renting. Don't do that either.

Other than those two scenarios, I fail to see how this is a problem. It's not like they are pulling an address out of thin air.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not actually. We were given several days notice to appear at the DCPS residency fraud investigations office. When we got there, the investigator assigned to our case handed us the complaint letter, and a few pages she'd printed off the Internet demonstrating a link between the accuser and us (she'd found that the accuser had made a statement to a newspaper naming one of us). She asked us a few questions about the link, then asked did you bring the documents I requested in my letter informing you that you are under investigation? We said yes, and handed the docs to her. She photocopied the docs and put copies in our file. Then she typed up a one para letter to our school principal stating that we'd been cleared. She gave us a copy, and said she'd send the letter to our principal. The process took10 mins or so.

So they wrote a letter with their name instead of using the anonymous tip line. Yeah, ok.

Yes, the lady did. No idea why. We left the investigator's office pleased that the investigation us an opportunity to discredit our accuser and prove residency. She was the same investigator who caught the two DC cops who'd been using a rental property as an in-boundary address for years, and were bone-headed enough to file suit against their tenants in DC Landlord-Tenant Court.

Done with this thread. Being investigated was more worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all those who own/rent a home IB for school purposes but live OOB--if you really think you're doing nothing wrong and that this practice is acceptable, then you shouldn't mind if you're reported. Actually, you should tell your principal yourself, since you say there's nothing in the rules that forbids that practice.

Right, and don't worry about your kid letting everyone know your real address, and don't worry the 700 times you have to write down your address on forms for every little thing, including field trips, and sign your name to it. Are you going to tell your kid you have two homes? Are you going to make them lie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all those who own/rent a home IB for school purposes but live OOB--if you really think you're doing nothing wrong and that this practice is acceptable, then you shouldn't mind if you're reported. Actually, you should tell your principal yourself, since you say there's nothing in the rules that forbids that practice.

Right, and don't worry about your kid letting everyone know your real address, and don't worry the 700 times you have to write down your address on forms for every little thing, including field trips, and sign your name to it. Are you going to tell your kid you have two homes? Are you going to make them lie?

You'll have to lie to your kid and act excited that you got in OOB through the lottery. You'll be one of dozens of OOB kid at the school and if it ever comes that's what your kid will say. Parents will be busy with their own lives and leave it at that. You'll have to host birthday parties at some location other than your home. OP's daughter is at a private school now so she's used to having friends spread all over, so who cares about playdates. By the time your kid is older, things like soccer, music lessons, travel, family in town, etc tend to take the place of playdates anyway.

[Anonymous]

All true. You'd need to have a lot of chutzpah, and the tough-mindedness to tune out the background noise, to pull it off, OP. But it's been done many times before and, to my knowledge, the wicked survived.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this has been addressed on previous pages but I’m not reading all of those but I thought the rules changed where by someone who was in boundary but then moves out of boundary, but still resides in the district, can now continue at that school. So if that’s the case then OP could rent for one year claim in boundary status and then “move“ out of boundary for the next year and be permitted to legitimately Continue to attend the school. I would even suggest she move into the rental for that one year to enjoy a short commute and to keep everything on the up and up