COSA for overcrowding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. You have to do better than that. They've really cracked down the past 1-2 years and eliminated most of the "standard" allowables. For example, in the past families could fairly easily get a COSA to have a child attend the school assigned to a caregiver or relative that provided childcare, or teachers could have their own children attend the school where they taught. But not anymore (assuming you're talking MCPS).

I have some colleagues that work in the office, and seriously investigated applying for one for my own child (but didn't, after learning that the chance was pretty much nil that I would get it). Enrollment would generally be a factor AGAINST approving a COSA that might otherwise be deemed appropriate, when considered at all. Meaning that it would be more difficult to COSA into an over-enrolled school, but there's no incentive to leave one.

OP, I totally disagree with this PP.

People say this on DCUM all the time - that you won't get a COSA. There are 5 students in DD's first grade class that have COSAs. Some got them in previous years, but two got them this year. One for child care reasons and one for a sibling issue. One was denied when the mom first applied, but then was given the COSA on appeal.

Also, if you have any friends or family who live in the ES you want to be in, ask around. Often, you can ask if they'll let you do a shared housing, where you just use their address to attend. Again, we have several of those at our school also. They just change a few bills to their family member's address and use that to attend the ES.

Don't listen to this PP. S/he is advocating fraud.

Not the PP but she is being truthful. We are in a severely crowded ES and there are multiple COSA's for ridiculous reasons and parents don't seem to mind sharing them. It really ticks me off because I thought they would fight to prevent more overcrowding b

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP, I totally disagree with this PP.

People say this on DCUM all the time - that you won't get a COSA. There are 5 students in DD's first grade class that have COSAs. Some got them in previous years, but two got them this year. One for child care reasons and one for a sibling issue. One was denied when the mom first applied, but then was given the COSA on appeal.

Also, if you have any friends or family who live in the ES you want to be in, ask around. Often, you can ask if they'll let you do a shared housing, where you just use their address to attend. Again, we have several of those at our school also. They just change a few bills to their family member's address and use that to attend the ES.

Don't listen to this PP. S/he is advocating fraud.

Please. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen ALL. THE. TIME. People do what they think is best for their kids. MCPS has no way of proving where every single kid lives, so it continues to occur in quite a few ESs.

You can say 'not to listen', but OP was looking for options, so I responded. I'm not doing it myself, so don't get mad at me. Just commenting that it does go on and it can be an option for people willing to try it.

Thanks for contributing to the problem! The fact that you would even put this so called "option" out there is so disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

But don't people try to get COSAs or do 'shared housing' for those better ESs? I would think people want to get their kids into those schools. We're in the RM cluster and there are quite a few 'shared housing' arrangements at our ES. It's a good school but not like Somersat, lol.

There are quite a few people who do this to get their kids into all types of schools, how are the W schools immune to this issue?

[Anonymous]

OP - how old is your kid? If your DC does get a COSA and goes to a different cluster for ES, come MS, your DC may not know many kids going into MS. COSA is harder to get in MS/HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Please. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen ALL. THE. TIME. People do what they think is best for their kids. MCPS has no way of proving where every single kid lives, so it continues to occur in quite a few ESs.

You can say 'not to listen', but OP was looking for options, so I responded. I'm not doing it myself, so don't get mad at me. Just commenting that it does go on and it can be an option for people willing to try it.

Thanks for contributing to the problem! The fact that you would even put this so called "option" out there is so disgusting.

Well, if it happens often in MCPS, it's only fair that EVERYONE knows about it as an option. Not fair that only some people know that it's a possible way out of your home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - how old is your kid? If your DC does get a COSA and goes to a different cluster for ES, come MS, your DC may not know many kids going into MS. COSA is harder to get in MS/HS.

I have heard this also. It's fine if you get the COSA for another ES in your same cluster but can be tough if you are trying to get into a different MS. Keep that in mind when changing ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

But don't people try to get COSAs or do 'shared housing' for those better ESs? I would think people want to get their kids into those schools. We're in the RM cluster and there are quite a few 'shared housing' arrangements at our ES. It's a good school but not like Somersat, lol.

There are quite a few people who do this to get their kids into all types of schools, how are the W schools immune to this issue?

Yes but most of the people who would try stuff like this aren't the type who have friends that could afford to live in the some of the better W zones. And even if they did get in they would stick out like a sore thumb, an ESOL kid from Langley park would blend in to a next door Takoma Park school but that same kid at Bannockburn might be the only poor Latino immigrant in the entire school making harder to fake. The biggest problem the W schools have is when the parents live in the Ws and their kids use their address.

You are at much higher risk when like as the OP states,you live near a marginal area and people find ways in. Look at Westbrook in Bethesda, it is surrounded by Somerset, Woodacres, Janney, none of those kid's parents would bother to cheat to get into a school that wouldn't have their local friends that at best is just as good and some hapless parent else where doesn't even know about it because these have never really been in that part of the city.

Where I grew up and attended Piney Branch Elementary, I went to birthday parties in PG and DC while they claimed an Aunt or what not on Maple Ave in a small apt. That is the problem with the RM cluster is it really is the edge with low income areas all around it. Where as there are areas closer in and in the west that are surrounded by affluence for miles in every direction, they are simply sheltered from many of these types of problems save for the occasional maid's kid using an employers address.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

But don't people try to get COSAs or do 'shared housing' for those better ESs? I would think people want to get their kids into those schools. We're in the RM cluster and there are quite a few 'shared housing' arrangements at our ES. It's a good school but not like Somersat, lol.

There are quite a few people who do this to get their kids into all types of schools, how are the W schools immune to this issue?

Yes but most of the people who would try stuff like this aren't the type who have friends that could afford to live in the some of the better W zones. And even if they did get in they would stick out like a sore thumb, an ESOL kid from Langley park would blend in to a next door Takoma Park school but that same kid at Bannockburn might be the only poor Latino immigrant in the entire school making harder to fake. The biggest problem the W schools have is when the parents live in the Ws and their kids use their address.

You are at much higher risk when like as the OP states,you live near a marginal area and people find ways in. Look at Westbrook in Bethesda, it is surrounded by Somerset, Woodacres, Janney, none of those kid's parents would bother to cheat to get into a school that wouldn't have their local friends that at best is just as good and some hapless parent else where doesn't even know about it because these have never really been in that part of the city.

Where I grew up and attended Piney Branch Elementary, I went to birthday parties in PG and DC while they claimed an Aunt or what not on Maple Ave in a small apt. That is the problem with the RM cluster is it really is the edge with low income areas all around it. Where as there are areas closer in and in the west that are surrounded by affluence for miles in every direction, they are simply sheltered from many of these types of problems save for the occasional maid's kid using an employers address.

THIS IS STILL FRAUD. It's not better because it's a grandparent's house instead of a tia's house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

But don't people try to get COSAs or do 'shared housing' for those better ESs? I would think people want to get their kids into those schools. We're in the RM cluster and there are quite a few 'shared housing' arrangements at our ES. It's a good school but not like Somersat, lol.

There are quite a few people who do this to get their kids into all types of schools, how are the W schools immune to this issue?

Yes, many in Richie Park and College Gardens do their fraud COSA's. And both are severely overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have experience getting a COSA to move from an overcrowded ES to the closest nearby ES that is not overcrowded? In this case it would be a different cluster, but it is just the next closest school. I literally live 1 block from the boundary.

This attorney's website indicates that enrollment could be a factor, so I was interested if anyone knew if this was possible?
http://bachfamilylaw.com/change-of-school-assignment-cosa-in-maryland/

Everybody in Horizon Hill who tries to get a COSA from Ritchie Park to Cold Spring is denied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have experience getting a COSA to move from an overcrowded ES to the closest nearby ES that is not overcrowded? In this case it would be a different cluster, but it is just the next closest school. I literally live 1 block from the boundary.

This attorney's website indicates that enrollment could be a factor, so I was interested if anyone knew if this was possible?
http://bachfamilylaw.com/change-of-school-assignment-cosa-in-maryland/

Everybody in Horizon Hill who tries to get a COSA from Ritchie Park to Cold Spring is denied.

Same with Rachel Carson to Dufief or Jones Lane. Why the severely overcrowded schools can't offer optional COSA's to any under capacity school is beyond me. It should just be with the stipulation that you provide the transportation and you go back to your cluster middle school following 5th grade. Wouldn't this help the county financially?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

But don't people try to get COSAs or do 'shared housing' for those better ESs? I would think people want to get their kids into those schools. We're in the RM cluster and there are quite a few 'shared housing' arrangements at our ES. It's a good school but not like Somersat, lol.

There are quite a few people who do this to get their kids into all types of schools, how are the W schools immune to this issue?

Yes but most of the people who would try stuff like this aren't the type who have friends that could afford to live in the some of the better W zones. And even if they did get in they would stick out like a sore thumb, an ESOL kid from Langley park would blend in to a next door Takoma Park school but that same kid at Bannockburn might be the only poor Latino immigrant in the entire school making harder to fake. The biggest problem the W schools have is when the parents live in the Ws and their kids use their address.

You are at much higher risk when like as the OP states,you live near a marginal area and people find ways in. Look at Westbrook in Bethesda, it is surrounded by Somerset, Woodacres, Janney, none of those kid's parents would bother to cheat to get into a school that wouldn't have their local friends that at best is just as good and some hapless parent else where doesn't even know about it because these have never really been in that part of the city.

Where I grew up and attended Piney Branch Elementary, I went to birthday parties in PG and DC while they claimed an Aunt or what not on Maple Ave in a small apt. That is the problem with the RM cluster is it really is the edge with low income areas all around it. Where as there are areas closer in and in the west that are surrounded by affluence for miles in every direction, they are simply sheltered from many of these types of problems save for the occasional maid's kid using an employers address.

THIS IS STILL FRAUD. It's not better because it's a grandparent's house instead of a tia's house.

Again, this happens all the time, even in the non-W clusters. People use a grandparent's address to gain access to a different ES.

But, interesting take on ESs that are surrounded by wealthier areas, versus more middle-class areas that are surrounded by mixed income areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason to aim for the better W's, people with money have less reasons to pretend to get over on the system. Of course the system is set up to help them but why not take the help if you qualify?

But don't people try to get COSAs or do 'shared housing' for those better ESs? I would think people want to get their kids into those schools. We're in the RM cluster and there are quite a few 'shared housing' arrangements at our ES. It's a good school but not like Somersat, lol.

There are quite a few people who do this to get their kids into all types of schools, how are the W schools immune to this issue?

Yes, many in Richie Park and College Gardens do their fraud COSA's. And both are severely overcrowded.

Agree that this is very common in Ritchie Park and College Gardens and also Barnsley. All overcrowded ESs that end up with a decent amount of kids who use family member's addresses and also kids with legitimate COSAs.

[Anonymous]

What is a legitimate COSA? I am curious.