Can someone give me the number to call to report boundary fraud?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here... I'm finding this all highly entertaining that I've gotten so many of you so worked up yet you're worried about the energy I'm wasting on this. To the person saving their MySchoolDC emails worried about "people like me"... my child also attends an out-of-boundary school "in the fancy part of town" - a spot that earned through the lottery as well. I am well aware that there are perfectly legitimate ways to attend a school outside of your boundary school. What I didn't like most about how this family handled things was the child and family walked around loudly telling everyone that they won a lottery spot to Jackson Reed, as if the data on whether that has happened at that school isn't publicly available to all. I know plenty of folks who have gamed the system, never thinking that I needed to report a thing, as I don't have the holier-than-thou attitude that you all think I do. It was this particular situation and this family's boldness that made me want to speak up. And to an early poster who asked if I want them to see this... well, I highly doubt they're on this forum, but yes I would definitely love them to know that they've spent years telling the same boldface lie but they didn't fool everyone.

OP, do you care that your actions will harm a child who has made friends and joined activities and built relationships at this school? They may be needlessly bold and who knows whether they are telling the truth, but you lack empathy for a child! You should feel ashamed. I don’t think I could live with my own moral compass if I took a direct and needless action to emotionally (or physically of course) harm a child.

[Anonymous]

All kids suffer from the unfortunate choices of their parents. Why should boundary-fraud kid be different?

Boundary-fraud causes real problems. Think about all the kids who live within walking distance of J-R that now must spend 45+ minutes getting to a new high school because of over-crowding at J-R.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All kids suffer from the unfortunate choices of their parents. Why should boundary-fraud kid be different?

Boundary-fraud causes real problems. Think about all the kids who live within walking distance of J-R that now must spend 45+ minutes getting to a new high school because of over-crowding at J-R.

Huh? We’re in-bounds for J-R, and I don’t know any in-bounds kids commuting to a new school, because J-R is overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Is this really what you want to spend your time on? Yes, they are in the wrong, but this is an area where you mind your own business. Karma comes around and all that.

I have an acquaintance who similarly sent kids to a school - and entire school cluster - after moving. Maybe the schools knew but I doubt it. It’s shady AF but not my business. Does not affect me and I say nothing. I certainly wouldn’t try to blow up their lives over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All kids suffer from the unfortunate choices of their parents. Why should boundary-fraud kid be different?

Boundary-fraud causes real problems. Think about all the kids who live within walking distance of J-R that now must spend 45+ minutes getting to a new high school because of over-crowding at J-R.

Huh? We’re in-bounds for J-R, and I don’t know any in-bounds kids commuting to a new school, because J-R is overcrowded.

Not in-bounds for J-R now. There are hundreds of families who *were* in-boundary for J-R that have been rezoned to MacArthur, even though they live much, much nearer to J-R.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here... I'm finding this all highly entertaining that I've gotten so many of you so worked up yet you're worried about the energy I'm wasting on this. To the person saving their MySchoolDC emails worried about "people like me"... my child also attends an out-of-boundary school "in the fancy part of town" - a spot that earned through the lottery as well. I am well aware that there are perfectly legitimate ways to attend a school outside of your boundary school. What I didn't like most about how this family handled things was the child and family walked around loudly telling everyone that they won a lottery spot to Jackson Reed, as if the data on whether that has happened at that school isn't publicly available to all. I know plenty of folks who have gamed the system, never thinking that I needed to report a thing, as I don't have the holier-than-thou attitude that you all think I do. It was this particular situation and this family's boldness that made me want to speak up. And to an early poster who asked if I want them to see this... well, I highly doubt they're on this forum, but yes I would definitely love them to know that they've spent years telling the same boldface lie but they didn't fool everyone.

How well do you know this family? Is the parent boldly announcing to you or did the kid tell the other students (because their parent lied to them, perhaps)?

Did you really go through and research where they actually live? Maybe they are within bounds and chose private school for the previous years. Maybe they do have their documentation to “prove” where they live - they did have to produce something to enroll.

People here are not “worked up”. We are responding, but we’re scrolling on the couch being entertained. Your blood pressure and stress level could be at risk with the amount of vitriol it seems you have. Good luck! I hope you get what you want out of this and without hurting yourself / child/ reputation in the process.

[Anonymous]

Don’t do this, OP. (I say as an in-bounds Jackson Reed parent.) You won’t actually get the parents in trouble, you’ll just get the kid kicked out of the school.

[Anonymous]

It’s tough. There are cases where this impacts families directly. Our IB doesn’t have nearly enough slots for ECE demand. PK3 and PK4 are only guaranteed if you are IB with an older sibling, and some years even those numbers get tight. We’ve had IB friends not get into the school until K because of it. Meanwhile we know of a kiddo that did get a spot for ECE, likely thanks to older siblings at the school, and they are all using grandma’s IB address. There’s a few others in the rising PK4 cohort we suspect are doing the same, including at least one who likely resides in MD. So, yes, boundary fraud can have an impact on the community with the trickle down effect. If the school verifies the address though, not sure what to do beyond it.

But in this case, I don’t think this JR student is actually impacting anyone else. If they’re a DC resident and have been there for a couple of years as you say, it may be annoying that the family is flaunting gaming the system but you’d just be hurting the kid with a campaign to get them expelled. I’m sure if they were a truly problematic student, the school would latch onto a reason to remove them. If that’s not the case, despite my own frustrations with boundary/residency fraud, I think you let this go and accept it’s one of the imperfections of a big public school district with a lottery system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All kids suffer from the unfortunate choices of their parents. Why should boundary-fraud kid be different?

Boundary-fraud causes real problems. Think about all the kids who live within walking distance of J-R that now must spend 45+ minutes getting to a new high school because of over-crowding at J-R.

Huh? We’re in-bounds for J-R, and I don’t know any in-bounds kids commuting to a new school, because J-R is overcrowded.

Not in-bounds for J-R now. There are hundreds of families who *were* in-boundary for J-R that have been rezoned to MacArthur, even though they live much, much nearer to J-R.

That’s because of DCPS’s equity goal, not because of this child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this really what you want to spend your time on? Yes, they are in the wrong, but this is an area where you mind your own business. Karma comes around and all that.

I have an acquaintance who similarly sent kids to a school - and entire school cluster - after moving. Maybe the schools knew but I doubt it. It’s shady AF but not my business. Does not affect me and I say nothing. I certainly wouldn’t try to blow up their lives over it.

You know DCPS policy allows you to continue at your current school to the terminal grade after moving within DC, right? There's nothing shady about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever this type of thread comes up, most reasonable people express sympathy for the kids involved and prefer to place their best interests above that of the scheming parents.
And then the inevitable retort on the part of the OP and co is that all these posters must be immoral and probably commit fraud themselves. This is so predictable.

OP, I really hope that someone calls you out when you do something the least bit wrong. Busybodies like you don't even realize that you hold others to standards that you might not hold for yourself. No one is perfect. Everyone breaks the rules in different ways. You are the type of person who will always find excuses for your own rule-breaking, but never excuse it in others.

So basically you endorse people breaking rules for their own benefit

newsflash to the boundary cheats: you can cheat, you can probably get away with it, but you cannot stop people from judging you as a lying cheat. And some will report you. FAFO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure you’d just report it to the school, as they’re the ones verifying addresses on entry (whether that’s in-bounds or lottery or whatever). But as others have said, pretty sure they’re not going to take this seriously especially if the kid/family are DC residents. I’m showing my age, but they couldn’t even get rid of that ridiculous Takoma family with the Capitol Hill/Brent rental - even once viral with the contested treehouse. That was fun!

That family doesn't live in Takoma. They live on Capitol Hill but IB for a different school. (One that is now sufficiently popular that they may not have needed the fraud, but I guess felt they did at the time.) Nonetheless I agree that it's crazy they admit it's not their principal residence in all the treehouse paperwork/website material yet claimed it for school purposes.

Ahhh yes, thank you! As noted above, showing my age, which apparently now includes a hint of memory loss, ha. I thought when their Craigslist rental post went up on Popville lambasting all of the sketchy conditions (enter only though a back door requiring a stepstool, you’re only allowed one suitcase of personal items despite being a full-time resident, expect landlords to come over often and help themselves to your food…) AND with a former renter commenting on the post about how awful they were and that it was for boundary fraud, it would solve it. Nope. Good times.

Ohh is there a link to that???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here... I'm finding this all highly entertaining that I've gotten so many of you so worked up yet you're worried about the energy I'm wasting on this. To the person saving their MySchoolDC emails worried about "people like me"... my child also attends an out-of-boundary school "in the fancy part of town" - a spot that earned through the lottery as well. I am well aware that there are perfectly legitimate ways to attend a school outside of your boundary school. What I didn't like most about how this family handled things was the child and family walked around loudly telling everyone that they won a lottery spot to Jackson Reed, as if the data on whether that has happened at that school isn't publicly available to all. I know plenty of folks who have gamed the system, never thinking that I needed to report a thing, as I don't have the holier-than-thou attitude that you all think I do. It was this particular situation and this family's boldness that made me want to speak up. And to an early poster who asked if I want them to see this... well, I highly doubt they're on this forum, but yes I would definitely love them to know that they've spent years telling the same boldface lie but they didn't fool everyone.

OP, do you care that your actions will harm a child who has made friends and joined activities and built relationships at this school? They may be needlessly bold and who knows whether they are telling the truth, but you lack empathy for a child! You should feel ashamed. I don’t think I could live with my own moral compass if I took a direct and needless action to emotionally (or physically of course) harm a child.

Why would OP be ashamed? It’s the parents that put the child in this situation. Personally I would not report them barring some extreme circumstance, but the parents are the ones who created the risk and harm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this really what you want to spend your time on? Yes, they are in the wrong, but this is an area where you mind your own business. Karma comes around and all that.

I have an acquaintance who similarly sent kids to a school - and entire school cluster - after moving. Maybe the schools knew but I doubt it. It’s shady AF but not my business. Does not affect me and I say nothing. I certainly wouldn’t try to blow up their lives over it.

You know DCPS policy allows you to continue at your current school to the terminal grade after moving within DC, right? There's nothing shady about that.

The terminal grade of that school. Not the feeder school. You don’t get the right to 12 years IB just because you lived there for 1 month in PK.

[Anonymous]

Maybe one kid does't have big impact. But a bunch of kids like this do, and if there is no enforcement of the rules, then surely there are a lot of kids like this.

Overcrowding matters.