School Fraud- Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This back and forth is so tedious.

Yes, one Maryland plate does not automatically equal fraud. Yes, some families have unusual circumstances and no one should go around accusing individual families of residency fraud because you don't know what that specific family's situation is and it could in fact be a situation where one parent lives in MD and the other is IB, or the nanny has Maryland plates, or the family has Maryland plates even though they live in DC. Yes, all of this is true. No one is saying it cannot be true. I'm sure each of these situations happen sometimes in this city.

BUT ALSO

If you attend a school in DC and on a daily basis, more than half of the cars dropping of children at the school have Maryland plates, that raises a serious question that the school has a problem with RESIDENCY fraud (not boundary fraud, that's not what we're talking about here). It is improbably that fully half, or more, of the families at that school have one of the circumstances listed in this thread as valid reason why parents or caregivers could be dropping off with Maryland plates. Some, sure. Half or more? No, of course not. It's a massive red flag and raises all kinds of issues including the possible complicity of the administration or DCPS, as well as normalizing a fraudulent behavior that can ultimately really hurt schools by making it hard to create cohesive school communities with mutual respect and trust.

I don't even understand why this is ever controversial. Whenever this subject comes up on these boards, people are so weird about it and many people just flat out refuse to acknowledge that residency fraud is wrong or even that it would be a problem if it were occurring (much less admitting that there are signs that it's definitely occurring). Such a mystery to me. This is one of those weird DC things I will never get.

What I don’t get is, don’t families get to know each other? Go to birthday parties? Talk about where exactly they live? Have play dates at each other’s houses? I know where most people live in my kids school in the classes they’re in. How are these folks hiding? It sounds hard.

Yes, they do. Any many families know who is a non-resident. But there is so little enforcement it’s not even worth reporting.

It also sucks to rely on parents to report each other. I know some Maryland parents at our ES (not Maury) but I’d never report them. I know their kids! I like them, even though I hate they do this. But I don’t want to lick their kids out of school, nor do I want my kid to be known as the child of the residency police. But I do wish OSSE did a better job with this and that residency fraud wasn’t essentially normalized at certain schools and among some PG County families.

But yes, I definitely know some families committing residency fraud. I just couldn’t ever bring myself to do anything about it. Plus, there is a [remote] chance that I am misunderstanding something. As far as I know, these are families who live in MD in houses with both parents, so these are not cases of housing insecurity or divorce. But I could be wrong about something! Im not prying into peoples lives and don’t want to. No way would I risk being wrong about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This back and forth is so tedious.

Yes, one Maryland plate does not automatically equal fraud. Yes, some families have unusual circumstances and no one should go around accusing individual families of residency fraud because you don't know what that specific family's situation is and it could in fact be a situation where one parent lives in MD and the other is IB, or the nanny has Maryland plates, or the family has Maryland plates even though they live in DC. Yes, all of this is true. No one is saying it cannot be true. I'm sure each of these situations happen sometimes in this city.

BUT ALSO

If you attend a school in DC and on a daily basis, more than half of the cars dropping of children at the school have Maryland plates, that raises a serious question that the school has a problem with RESIDENCY fraud (not boundary fraud, that's not what we're talking about here). It is improbably that fully half, or more, of the families at that school have one of the circumstances listed in this thread as valid reason why parents or caregivers could be dropping off with Maryland plates. Some, sure. Half or more? No, of course not. It's a massive red flag and raises all kinds of issues including the possible complicity of the administration or DCPS, as well as normalizing a fraudulent behavior that can ultimately really hurt schools by making it hard to create cohesive school communities with mutual respect and trust.

I don't even understand why this is ever controversial. Whenever this subject comes up on these boards, people are so weird about it and many people just flat out refuse to acknowledge that residency fraud is wrong or even that it would be a problem if it were occurring (much less admitting that there are signs that it's definitely occurring). Such a mystery to me. This is one of those weird DC things I will never get.

What I don’t get is, don’t families get to know each other? Go to birthday parties? Talk about where exactly they live? Have play dates at each other’s houses? I know where most people live in my kids school in the classes they’re in. How are these folks hiding? It sounds hard.

Yes, they do. Any many families know who is a non-resident. But there is so little enforcement it’s not even worth reporting.

When my DD was in PK at Miner, she went to 2 birthday parties in MD (at what appeared to be the kids' normal homes) and there were 4 kids in her PK4 class who started K in MD instead (1 kid is in both categories, so at least 5 kids with MD connections). While there are definitely explanations that don't involve boundary fraud, I have a hard time thinking they apply to every one of the 5 kids...

[Anonymous]

It was in homage to you people that I enjoyed dropping my kid off at TPMS (that is a school in Maryland) with my DC plates for nearly a year.

That... Or we were going to turn in the leased car anyway and I didn't bother changing the tags after we moved to MD.

Was that wrong of me? I don't care.

Seriously, you people would whine about the sea.

[Anonymous]

If DC wanted to address residency fraud they'd provide buses to get kids to school. That would pretty much solve the issue... Or at least spread out the kids to bus stops so you don't have to see unsightly Maryland drivers in front of the school you are going to use for free preK

[Anonymous]

The idea that anyone OOB let alone out of state is getting into PK is insane

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea that anyone OOB let alone out of state is getting into PK is insane

Yeah at our elementary school on Cap Hill, which we live across the street from, we were told there would be no way we’d have a shot at getting our kids into pre-k. Which turned out to be true. Deeply frustrating and has led to lots of commute issues. And a little more frustrating given that we dealt with construction, now more construction (often starting at 6am), and lost half our parking spaces to teachers. Which I support— the school is beautiful and teachers have trouble finding parking. But it’s frustrating to deal with a lot of downsides and then be told that half of the pre-k class is actually for OOB and we can’t go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If DC wanted to address residency fraud they'd provide buses to get kids to school. That would pretty much solve the issue... Or at least spread out the kids to bus stops so you don't have to see unsightly Maryland drivers in front of the school you are going to use for free preK

Not addressing the MD issue but why shouldn’t we use our local school for “free pre-k”? Isn’t that the point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea that anyone OOB let alone out of state is getting into PK is insane

They’re lying and saying they’re IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This back and forth is so tedious.

Yes, one Maryland plate does not automatically equal fraud. Yes, some families have unusual circumstances and no one should go around accusing individual families of residency fraud because you don't know what that specific family's situation is and it could in fact be a situation where one parent lives in MD and the other is IB, or the nanny has Maryland plates, or the family has Maryland plates even though they live in DC. Yes, all of this is true. No one is saying it cannot be true. I'm sure each of these situations happen sometimes in this city.

BUT ALSO

If you attend a school in DC and on a daily basis, more than half of the cars dropping of children at the school have Maryland plates, that raises a serious question that the school has a problem with RESIDENCY fraud (not boundary fraud, that's not what we're talking about here). It is improbably that fully half, or more, of the families at that school have one of the circumstances listed in this thread as valid reason why parents or caregivers could be dropping off with Maryland plates. Some, sure. Half or more? No, of course not. It's a massive red flag and raises all kinds of issues including the possible complicity of the administration or DCPS, as well as normalizing a fraudulent behavior that can ultimately really hurt schools by making it hard to create cohesive school communities with mutual respect and trust.

I don't even understand why this is ever controversial. Whenever this subject comes up on these boards, people are so weird about it and many people just flat out refuse to acknowledge that residency fraud is wrong or even that it would be a problem if it were occurring (much less admitting that there are signs that it's definitely occurring). Such a mystery to me. This is one of those weird DC things I will never get.

Maury doesn’t have “half the plates” from MD. And I frankly don’t care and am not motivated in the slightest to be the school residency vigilante. OSSE has a process for that which actually fined a Maury parent a few years ago. I have bigger issues on my plate.

But that's the thing, DC is barely doing any enforcement about residency fraud. Basically one token case once in a great while. Just like they pulled back from even enforcing violent crime too much.

As of 2018, OSSE "had just one full-time residency investigator for a school system of 92,000 students. In late 2017, that investigator was handling more than 600 cases."

"In neighboring Montgomery County, Md., where the public school system has almost twice as many students as the District, a spokesman said 52 employees spend at least part of their time on residency investigations. ... In Virginia’s Fairfax County, the school district’s central office employs 15 attendance officers whose duties include investigating residency fraud."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/stop-enrollment-fraud-dc-school-officials-are-often-the-ones-committing-it/2018/04/16/03b816c0-3ce7-11e8-8d53-eba0ed2371cc_story.html

Read that WaPo article. DC could easily crack down on residency fraud, but it clearly has no desire to do so.

[Anonymous]

2018 is a while ago. OSSE has beefed up its residency investigations in the past few years, along with fines and other penalties for residency fraud. Things are improving, just not as much as you'd like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea that anyone OOB let alone out of state is getting into PK is insane

Yeah at our elementary school on Cap Hill, which we live across the street from, we were told there would be no way we’d have a shot at getting our kids into pre-k. Which turned out to be true. Deeply frustrating and has led to lots of commute issues. And a little more frustrating given that we dealt with construction, now more construction (often starting at 6am), and lost half our parking spaces to teachers. Which I support— the school is beautiful and teachers have trouble finding parking. But it’s frustrating to deal with a lot of downsides and then be told that half of the pre-k class is actually for OOB and we can’t go there.

Are you at near Maury? There is no way half the PK classes are OOB. No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea that anyone OOB let alone out of state is getting into PK is insane

Yeah at our elementary school on Cap Hill, which we live across the street from, we were told there would be no way we’d have a shot at getting our kids into pre-k. Which turned out to be true. Deeply frustrating and has led to lots of commute issues. And a little more frustrating given that we dealt with construction, now more construction (often starting at 6am), and lost half our parking spaces to teachers. Which I support— the school is beautiful and teachers have trouble finding parking. But it’s frustrating to deal with a lot of downsides and then be told that half of the pre-k class is actually for OOB and we can’t go there.

Are you at near Maury? There is no way half the PK classes are OOB. No way.

The only schools you could be describing are Brent, Maury, LT and Peabody and, while I have no doubt that there’s the occasional boundary cheat, it’s definitely an anomalous thing not “half the class.” That is a truly absurd claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea that anyone OOB let alone out of state is getting into PK is insane

Yeah at our elementary school on Cap Hill, which we live across the street from, we were told there would be no way we’d have a shot at getting our kids into pre-k. Which turned out to be true. Deeply frustrating and has led to lots of commute issues. And a little more frustrating given that we dealt with construction, now more construction (often starting at 6am), and lost half our parking spaces to teachers. Which I support— the school is beautiful and teachers have trouble finding parking. But it’s frustrating to deal with a lot of downsides and then be told that half of the pre-k class is actually for OOB and we can’t go there.

Are you at near Maury? There is no way half the PK classes are OOB. No way.

The only schools you could be describing are Brent, Maury, LT and Peabody and, while I have no doubt that there’s the occasional boundary cheat, it’s definitely an anomalous thing not “half the class.” That is a truly absurd claim.

Sorry, I read again focusing on the details. You’re obviously talking about the recent playground construction at Maury. Zero chance there is more than 1 OOB kid per PK class. Half? Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2018 is a while ago. OSSE has beefed up its residency investigations in the past few years, along with fines and other penalties for residency fraud. Things are improving, just not as much as you'd like.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At which school do "more than half" of the cars have Maryland plates?

Every DCPS in Brookland plus Bethune.