Is residency fraud a real issue or is it overblown?

[Anonymous]

Context - I have 2 kids at different EOTP schools and live near a third school. At all of these schools, probably a third to half of the license plates every day are from MD and some VA.

I certainly know families who have one parent in MD and one in DC (and I'm sure there are all sorts of different guardianship arrangements), so that's obviously not residency fraud. But is that THIS common? Wouldn't it be difficult to register without showing this proof of residency? I'm just genuinely curious; I know this was a big issue a few years ago but haven't heard as much about it lately.

[Anonymous]

The other thing is that some people pay people (like nannies) or ask other family members to drive their kids to school, especially now that parents are back in the office more. Those people may not have DC license plates.

For example, my mother lives in NC and in DC and picks my kids up most days.

[Anonymous]

I've been living in the DC area for decades and know DC, MoCo, Howard and Fairfax public schools.

DCPS is an academic disaster compared to MCPS and FCPS (and some smaller, more homogeneous public school systems further out). Some charter schools are just OK, but none of them hold a candle to the best MCPS and FCPS school clusters.

Very few families are in such logistical straights as to want to place their kids in DCPS if they live in MD or VA.

[Anonymous]

Residency fraud threads used to be bread and butter for DCUM. I would think it is still an issue, but, maybe not? I feel like people have quit complaining about it post-Covid. Maybe it is a generational difference with younger parents having a MYOB attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been living in the DC area for decades and know DC, MoCo, Howard and Fairfax public schools.

DCPS is an academic disaster compared to MCPS and FCPS (and some smaller, more homogeneous public school systems further out). Some charter schools are just OK, but none of them hold a candle to the best MCPS and FCPS school clusters.

Very few families are in such logistical straights as to want to place their kids in DCPS if they live in MD or VA.

If you've lived in DC for decades you know that residency fraud has been an issue. Lots of MD folks wanting to take advantage of free PK3 & PK4. Also convenience and being able to use grandma (who still lives in DC) for childcare. Close-in PG County schools are just okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Residency fraud threads used to be bread and butter for DCUM. I would think it is still an issue, but, maybe not? I feel like people have quit complaining about it post-Covid. Maybe it is a generational difference with younger parents having a MYOB attitude.

Yes, I wonder if they were all animated by some really obsessed trolls. Some posters were so virulent as to be completely unhinged.

Just like the still extant male infidelity obsession on the Relationship Forum... I'm persuaded those threads keep happening because a handful of female posters have never recovered from being cheated on by their husbands, and they glom onto any new thread to turn it into a crazy hate fest.

[Anonymous]

I live EOTP and notice this at our neighborhood schools as well. I’ve always wondered about it.

[Anonymous]

As an anecdotal data point, we live EOTP but our kid's grandparents live in MD and often assist with school pickups. Hard to judge from license plates alone.

I'm sure that residency fraud still happens (especially for free Pre-K)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been living in the DC area for decades and know DC, MoCo, Howard and Fairfax public schools.

DCPS is an academic disaster compared to MCPS and FCPS (and some smaller, more homogeneous public school systems further out). Some charter schools are just OK, but none of them hold a candle to the best MCPS and FCPS school clusters.

Very few families are in such logistical straights as to want to place their kids in DCPS if they live in MD or VA.

If you've lived in DC for decades you know that residency fraud has been an issue. Lots of MD folks wanting to take advantage of free PK3 & PK4. Also convenience and being able to use grandma (who still lives in DC) for childcare. Close-in PG County schools are just okay.

PP you replied to. I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm saying it's not as dire as some would make it out to be.

I also have a theory on the marked decrease in residency fraud threads on DCUM: the average age of posters have gone up with time, so maybe in the past, there was a perfect storm of more posters with younger kids, who were noticing potential residential fraud at their DCPS schools, by families with preschool aged kids who then continued on to DCPS elementaries. But since DCPS gets worse the higher you go, middle school is a time of attrition to private or better suburban schools (and parents start to realize that MD or VA residency guarantees in-state tuition at UMD, UVA, etc), and kids become self-sufficient enough to not need adult supervision after school. So now that a plurality of DCUM posters are older, their kids have passed the age where they would notice such residential fraud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Residency fraud threads used to be bread and butter for DCUM. I would think it is still an issue, but, maybe not? I feel like people have quit complaining about it post-Covid. Maybe it is a generational difference with younger parents having a MYOB attitude.

Yes, I wonder if they were all animated by some really obsessed trolls. Some posters were so virulent as to be completely unhinged.

Just like the still extant male infidelity obsession on the Relationship Forum... I'm persuaded those threads keep happening because a handful of female posters have never recovered from being cheated on by their husbands, and they glom onto any new thread to turn it into a crazy hate fest.

Maybe you need to take a break from reading the Relationship Forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been living in the DC area for decades and know DC, MoCo, Howard and Fairfax public schools.

DCPS is an academic disaster compared to MCPS and FCPS (and some smaller, more homogeneous public school systems further out). Some charter schools are just OK, but none of them hold a candle to the best MCPS and FCPS school clusters.

Very few families are in such logistical straights as to want to place their kids in DCPS if they live in MD or VA.

If you've lived in DC for decades you know that residency fraud has been an issue. Lots of MD folks wanting to take advantage of free PK3 & PK4. Also convenience and being able to use grandma (who still lives in DC) for childcare. Close-in PG County schools are just okay.

PP you replied to. I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm saying it's not as dire as some would make it out to be.

I also have a theory on the marked decrease in residency fraud threads on DCUM: the average age of posters have gone up with time, so maybe in the past, there was a perfect storm of more posters with younger kids, who were noticing potential residential fraud at their DCPS schools, by families with preschool aged kids who then continued on to DCPS elementaries. But since DCPS gets worse the higher you go, middle school is a time of attrition to private or better suburban schools (and parents start to realize that MD or VA residency guarantees in-state tuition at UMD, UVA, etc), and kids become self-sufficient enough to not need adult supervision after school. So now that a plurality of DCUM posters are older, their kids have passed the age where they would notice such residential fraud.

All of this.

I have no special knowledge, but I think the city did a big data match a few years ago and that's why so many city employees were caught doing residency fraud. And that may have made people more cautious about doing it.

I also think that, aside from preschool, there are certainly DC residents sneaking into Maryland schools too. If we had to pay Maryland for that, and Maryland had to pay us for their residents, I'm not sure which state would come out ahead. This isn't necessarily the cost savings people think it is.

[Anonymous]

At 5:15 PM all the cars around Duke Ellington have MD plates.

It is a thing.

[Anonymous]

I think residency fraud is probably not widespread at popular DCPS schools.

People with out of state tags living in DC, however…

[Anonymous]

It is still happening. I know several kids at my kids' school that are cheating. They typically use a family address (sometimes grandparent sometimes aunt/uncle/cousin). They're not particularly shy about either. There is a sense of entitlement since their family originally lived in the neighborhood despite the fact that they don't anymore.

[Anonymous]

Of the 3 schools my kids have gone to in DC, there is crowding mostly because of boundary fraud. I know tons of families who do not live in bounds but use grandparents, a rental, or just flat out lie on their applications. It’s disgusting. We live in a tiny place to get into the schools legally. It infuriates me. I do suspect there is a lot of residency fraud for PK3 and 4 which is a huge issue for those schools.