My story: Accused of Residency Fraud

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to Maryland mid-year. It wasn't planned, but it couldn't be postponed. Our child was in fifth grade at an underenrolled charter. There was no wait list for their spot. We were open with the school from the beginning about what was going on, and that we would not be continuing there for the next year.

We got reported for fraud in APRIL. April of the last year of elementary school. Our child had to go to school at an MD elementary for two months. The last two months of elementary school--or, we were.told we would be liable for the entire year's tuition in DC, despite having lived there and paid taxes. If they'd prorated it, I would have done it. But we didn't have an entire year's money, nor should we have been responsible for it.

I hesitate to tell this story because I know the self-righteous people who post here, and I know they will just blame us. And life is a series of choices: we own the ones we make. We couldn't stay in our rental in DC (the boiler broke and the landlord wouldn't repair it, after we moved the house stood vacant for two years, uninhabitable) -- and we wanted to buy. We got outbid in DC and ended up starting to bid on places in MD. We chose to bid where we did. We made a choice, our family and our child had to live with it.

And yet, to this day I still wonder what kind of asshole decided to report is, knowing our family, knowing our kid, (and how happy they were with their friends to be finishing fifth grade), and... frankly, knowing how many other kids at our school had households that went cross-border.

Truth is, life is complicated. This is supposed to be what's best for the kids. I would have moved my kid mid-year, had it been any other year but the end of elementary school, but at the time, I thought they needed the stability. To be honest, I preferred the MD elementary over the DC charter. But again, I thought the child needed the stability. We'd already gone from a DCPS to the DCPCS. It was the second year at the DCPS. The last year before middle school.

I've said it before: people here are awful. It's true. Not everyone, but enough. This is the pettiest, most zero-sum place I have ever seen. The longer I live here, the more petty and zero-sum I feel myself. The entire mentality of reporting on your neighbors--reporting on children--is just gross. The entire mentality that resources are finite and you are more deserving is no way to live. Is there residence fraud? Sure. Is there a way to check for it? Certainly. Is encouraging people to rat each other out the best way to handle it? No.

One thing I will say is, things are a lot more laid back in Maryland. Because I am lazy, I drove a car with DC plates here for nearly a year. Enrolled the kid in elementary and middle school with my house deed, a utility bill ... And my DC drivers license. I miss the city. But not the people.

Queue: dozens of you threatening to report me to the DMV, for driving fraud. Eyeroll.

Don't play the victim here. You moved mid-year and you should have disenrolled your child as soon as you moved out of the District. If you were so concerned about your child's stability, you should have signed a temporary lease on an apartment in the city or adjusted your timeline for buying to coincide with summer break.

You were wrong, period, and your deeds caught up with you.

Or simply, instead of providing us this lengthy explanation gone and talked to the principal or school counselor and find out the options. Then you know whatever happens you are being honest … doubt they would have kicked you out straight away. Really DMV doesn't care what you drive in MD, another state you are now subject to their rules and regulations. I'm not sure why the lengthy explanations and posts, just be honest with the school and they will tell you if it is fraud etc, they are very used to homeless families, and unique family situations in DC and rarely do they demand you leave 3/4 way through school year especially if all their docs been pre-approved by OSSE, very very very rare. Principals have better things to do with their time, like running a school.

[Anonymous]

PP must not have collected residency fraud docs carefully enough. We were reported for fraud and cleared on the spot after bringing in a good stack of docs, including car registration, several years of certified tax returns, voter registration, multiple utilities bills. The process took 10 minutes, no great stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to Maryland mid-year. It wasn't planned, but it couldn't be postponed. Our child was in fifth grade at an underenrolled charter. There was no wait list for their spot. We were open with the school from the beginning about what was going on, and that we would not be continuing there for the next year.

We got reported for fraud in APRIL. April of the last year of elementary school. Our child had to go to school at an MD elementary for two months. The last two months of elementary school--or, we were.told we would be liable for the entire year's tuition in DC, despite having lived there and paid taxes. If they'd prorated it, I would have done it. But we didn't have an entire year's money, nor should we have been responsible for it.

I hesitate to tell this story because I know the self-righteous people who post here, and I know they will just blame us. And life is a series of choices: we own the ones we make. We couldn't stay in our rental in DC (the boiler broke and the landlord wouldn't repair it, after we moved the house stood vacant for two years, uninhabitable) -- and we wanted to buy. We got outbid in DC and ended up starting to bid on places in MD. We chose to bid where we did. We made a choice, our family and our child had to live with it.

And yet, to this day I still wonder what kind of asshole decided to report is, knowing our family, knowing our kid, (and how happy they were with their friends to be finishing fifth grade), and... frankly, knowing how many other kids at our school had households that went cross-border.

Truth is, life is complicated. This is supposed to be what's best for the kids. I would have moved my kid mid-year, had it been any other year but the end of elementary school, but at the time, I thought they needed the stability. To be honest, I preferred the MD elementary over the DC charter. But again, I thought the child needed the stability. We'd already gone from a DCPS to the DCPCS. It was the second year at the DCPS. The last year before middle school.

I've said it before: people here are awful. It's true. Not everyone, but enough. This is the pettiest, most zero-sum place I have ever seen. The longer I live here, the more petty and zero-sum I feel myself. The entire mentality of reporting on your neighbors--reporting on children--is just gross. The entire mentality that resources are finite and you are more deserving is no way to live. Is there residence fraud? Sure. Is there a way to check for it? Certainly. Is encouraging people to rat each other out the best way to handle it? No.

One thing I will say is, things are a lot more laid back in Maryland. Because I am lazy, I drove a car with DC plates here for nearly a year. Enrolled the kid in elementary and middle school with my house deed, a utility bill ... And my DC drivers license. I miss the city. But not the people.

Queue: dozens of you threatening to report me to the DMV, for driving fraud. Eyeroll.

Don't play the victim here. You moved mid-year and you should have disenrolled your child as soon as you moved out of the District. If you were so concerned about your child's stability, you should have signed a temporary lease on an apartment in the city or adjusted your timeline for buying to coincide with summer break.

You were wrong, period, and your deeds caught up with you.

Or simply, instead of providing us this lengthy explanation gone and talked to the principal or school counselor and find out the options. Then you know whatever happens you are being honest … doubt they would have kicked you out straight away. Really DMV doesn't care what you drive in MD, another state you are now subject to their rules and regulations. I'm not sure why the lengthy explanations and posts, just be honest with the school and they will tell you if it is fraud etc, they are very used to homeless families, and unique family situations in DC and rarely do they demand you leave 3/4 way through school year especially if all their docs been pre-approved by OSSE, very very very rare. Principals have better things to do with their time, like running a school.

Exactly

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'm calling BS. I have never heard of a kid being told to leave midway through fifth grade, even at high demand schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I'm calling BS. I have never heard of a kid being told to leave midway through fifth grade, even at high demand schools.

Yep

And I just love the way she ends the post with an eye roll. She is just SO above it all!

[Anonymous]

I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

So you're saying white people are more likely to hold their local government accountable? Strange line of reasoning.

It has less to do with white people and more to do with the fact that the city is undergoing school-age population growth, especially among higher SES groups from all ethnic backgrounds. For about 50 years, those groups large refrained from raising kids in DC proper and instead went to the MoCo and Nova (publics) or PG county (privates).

With the growing population, there is increased competition for a small number of seats at established schools with good test scores. Complicating this are two issues: 1) free pre-K and the high demand to get into your neighborhood school that outstrips supply of seats and 2) the charters which have an incentive to ignore cheaters. Thus, the onus is largely on the parents to police bad actors.

Further, the DC government has not kept up with the changing mentality of DC parents. They expect more responsiveness and more adherence to norms. The DC government's mindset lags the DC population's mindset by 10-15 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

So you're saying white people are more likely to hold their local government accountable? Strange line of reasoning.

It has less to do with white people and more to do with the fact that the city is undergoing school-age population growth, especially among higher SES groups from all ethnic backgrounds. For about 50 years, those groups large refrained from raising kids in DC proper and instead went to the MoCo and Nova (publics) or PG county (privates).

With the growing population, there is increased competition for a small number of seats at established schools with good test scores. Complicating this are two issues: 1) free pre-K and the high demand to get into your neighborhood school that outstrips supply of seats and 2) the charters which have an incentive to ignore cheaters. Thus, the onus is largely on the parents to police bad actors.

Further, the DC government has not kept up with the changing mentality of DC parents. They expect more responsiveness and more adherence to norms. The DC government's mindset lags the DC population's mindset by 10-15 years.

Nonsense. I’m new to DC and did not move to the suburbs specifically because I will not submit to the mentality you’re espousing. Please do not bring your suburban mindset here and expect to take over the city with it. The key to city living is tolerance and accepting that we all share DC with each other, even though we are in different situations and come from different backgrounds. I do not expect more adherence to “norms.” Cities are places where freedom is increased, not policed by people who want everyone to be exactly like them and expect us all to fall in line. Residency fraud is an absurd excuse to use for persecuting people about whom you are suspicious. The attitudes I’m seeing on this thread are unconscionable. I’m ashamed of you all.

[Anonymous]

The current residency fraud enforcement system lends itself too well to abuse.

I'd much rather see OSSE write clearer laws on residency, with DCPS upping enrollment document requirements (with special help for families on government assistance in collecting and producing documents) and better enforcement of the rules. Promoting whispering campaigns and witch hunts is mean-spirited and doesn't work very well. DCPS should study how MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax do things and copy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The current residency fraud enforcement system lends itself too well to abuse.

I'd much rather see OSSE write clearer laws on residency, with DCPS upping enrollment document requirements (with special help for families on government assistance in collecting and producing documents) and better enforcement of the rules. Promoting whispering campaigns and witch hunts is mean-spirited and doesn't work very well. DCPS should study how MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax do things and copy.

Fairfax: "15 attendance officers whose duties include investigating residency fraud."

DCPS: "currently has a single investigator responsible for all residency fraud cases."

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?utm_term=.e71f3fa6d283

DCPS could easily copy places like Fairfax. It doesn't want to, because city officials are afraid of what they will turn up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

So you're saying white people are more likely to hold their local government accountable? Strange line of reasoning.

It has less to do with white people and more to do with the fact that the city is undergoing school-age population growth, especially among higher SES groups from all ethnic backgrounds. For about 50 years, those groups large refrained from raising kids in DC proper and instead went to the MoCo and Nova (publics) or PG county (privates).

With the growing population, there is increased competition for a small number of seats at established schools with good test scores. Complicating this are two issues: 1) free pre-K and the high demand to get into your neighborhood school that outstrips supply of seats and 2) the charters which have an incentive to ignore cheaters. Thus, the onus is largely on the parents to police bad actors.

Further, the DC government has not kept up with the changing mentality of DC parents. They expect more responsiveness and more adherence to norms. The DC government's mindset lags the DC population's mindset by 10-15 years.

Nonsense. I’m new to DC and did not move to the suburbs specifically because I will not submit to the mentality you’re espousing. Please do not bring your suburban mindset here and expect to take over the city with it. The key to city living is tolerance and accepting that we all share DC with each other, even though we are in different situations and come from different backgrounds. I do not expect more adherence to “norms.” Cities are places where freedom is increased, not policed by people who want everyone to be exactly like them and expect us all to fall in line. Residency fraud is an absurd excuse to use for persecuting people about whom you are suspicious. The attitudes I’m seeing on this thread are unconscionable. I’m ashamed of you all.

Huh? Residency rules are embedded in the city's laws. I fail to see how following the law in this specific matter is about forcing "everyone to be exactly like them." You can still live life as you see fit, do what you want with your body, and raise your kids in whatever unconventional manner you see fit.

You just can't break the law. Is that really too much to ask?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

So you're saying white people are more likely to hold their local government accountable? Strange line of reasoning.

It has less to do with white people and more to do with the fact that the city is undergoing school-age population growth, especially among higher SES groups from all ethnic backgrounds. For about 50 years, those groups large refrained from raising kids in DC proper and instead went to the MoCo and Nova (publics) or PG county (privates).

With the growing population, there is increased competition for a small number of seats at established schools with good test scores. Complicating this are two issues: 1) free pre-K and the high demand to get into your neighborhood school that outstrips supply of seats and 2) the charters which have an incentive to ignore cheaters. Thus, the onus is largely on the parents to police bad actors.

Further, the DC government has not kept up with the changing mentality of DC parents. They expect more responsiveness and more adherence to norms. The DC government's mindset lags the DC population's mindset by 10-15 years.

Nonsense. I’m new to DC and did not move to the suburbs specifically because I will not submit to the mentality you’re espousing. Please do not bring your suburban mindset here and expect to take over the city with it. The key to city living is tolerance and accepting that we all share DC with each other, even though we are in different situations and come from different backgrounds. I do not expect more adherence to “norms.” Cities are places where freedom is increased, not policed by people who want everyone to be exactly like them and expect us all to fall in line. Residency fraud is an absurd excuse to use for persecuting people about whom you are suspicious. The attitudes I’m seeing on this thread are unconscionable. I’m ashamed of you all.

Huh? Residency rules are embedded in the city's laws. I fail to see how following the law in this specific matter is about forcing "everyone to be exactly like them." You can still live life as you see fit, do what you want with your body, and raise your kids in whatever unconventional manner you see fit.

You just can't break the law. Is that really too much to ask?

No, “norms” and “the law” are two separate things. You need to read the post I was responding to. Morality and the law are also not the same. It may not be illegal to follow people in their cars and photograph them before reporting them to the authorities, but it is definitely immoral. I don’t break the law, but when I read about this level of stalking/harassment towards people who are suspected of doing so, I find it sickening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

So you're saying white people are more likely to hold their local government accountable? Strange line of reasoning.

It has less to do with white people and more to do with the fact that the city is undergoing school-age population growth, especially among higher SES groups from all ethnic backgrounds. For about 50 years, those groups large refrained from raising kids in DC proper and instead went to the MoCo and Nova (publics) or PG county (privates).

With the growing population, there is increased competition for a small number of seats at established schools with good test scores. Complicating this are two issues: 1) free pre-K and the high demand to get into your neighborhood school that outstrips supply of seats and 2) the charters which have an incentive to ignore cheaters. Thus, the onus is largely on the parents to police bad actors.

Further, the DC government has not kept up with the changing mentality of DC parents. They expect more responsiveness and more adherence to norms. The DC government's mindset lags the DC population's mindset by 10-15 years.

Charters have no more of an incentive to ignore cheaters than DCPS schools do. Both are paid for enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a correlation between the increasing numbers of white families moving to DC, and the increased concern about residency fraud.

So you're saying white people are more likely to hold their local government accountable? Strange line of reasoning.

It has less to do with white people and more to do with the fact that the city is undergoing school-age population growth, especially among higher SES groups from all ethnic backgrounds. For about 50 years, those groups large refrained from raising kids in DC proper and instead went to the MoCo and Nova (publics) or PG county (privates).

With the growing population, there is increased competition for a small number of seats at established schools with good test scores. Complicating this are two issues: 1) free pre-K and the high demand to get into your neighborhood school that outstrips supply of seats and 2) the charters which have an incentive to ignore cheaters. Thus, the onus is largely on the parents to police bad actors.

Further, the DC government has not kept up with the changing mentality of DC parents. They expect more responsiveness and more adherence to norms. The DC government's mindset lags the DC population's mindset by 10-15 years.

Nonsense. I’m new to DC and did not move to the suburbs specifically because I will not submit to the mentality you’re espousing. Please do not bring your suburban mindset here and expect to take over the city with it. The key to city living is tolerance and accepting that we all share DC with each other, even though we are in different situations and come from different backgrounds. I do not expect more adherence to “norms.” Cities are places where freedom is increased, not policed by people who want everyone to be exactly like them and expect us all to fall in line. Residency fraud is an absurd excuse to use for persecuting people about whom you are suspicious. The attitudes I’m seeing on this thread are unconscionable. I’m ashamed of you all.

Huh? Residency rules are embedded in the city's laws. I fail to see how following the law in this specific matter is about forcing "everyone to be exactly like them." You can still live life as you see fit, do what you want with your body, and raise your kids in whatever unconventional manner you see fit.

You just can't break the law. Is that really too much to ask?

+ a million

[Anonymous]

You all are simply wrong about tolerance for rule-breaking in DC: for example, the City Council passed a law that decriminalizes fare-jumping on the Metro. The Mayor vetoed the measure, but a super-majority will likely override her veto. Their reason? The criminal law is racist because it disproportionately affects african-american persons. Therefore, the perps should be allowed to ride the Metro for free whenever they want. This reasoning is a perfect comparator to the City's historic aversion to prosecuting residency fraud. If you live in the City, this kind of reasoning is just one of the things that you are going to have to accept.