can we stop with the threads about residency cheating, already?

[Anonymous]

it's unclear really, how much of a problem this is. The system seems pretty thorough--our charter school is doing an audit now and so it's not enough to have a utility bill but you have to have multiple months worth of utility bills showing that they're paid (don't really understand how this prevents people from committing fraud who own a rental property, but I can't imagine that's the case for many people). The school required a copy of my driver's license and a current utility bill both confirming my address at the start of school. Now they will get this additional documentation. Maybe I'm a total idiot but I just don't see how it is easy to get around these requirements and "fake" living in DC. Both our charter and our prior DCPS required this documentation at the start of the year.

[Anonymous]

It's not that hard in DCPS, particularly if you have a lot of family in the city - Grandma, sisters, cousin/sisters, etc. It happens, and under those circumstances, it's pretty easy.

BTW, it's also a black thing, and that drives some people crazy.

There's obviously a small handful of people on this board who are absolutely batsh*t because they didn't get into the school they wanted. I'm not saying anybody loves cheaters; I'm saying there are a couple of voices that are having SO MUCH TROUBLE moving on, that it's looking like they have some problems of their own.

[Anonymous]

can we stop with the threads about residency cheating, already?

All together now - don't click on threads in which you are not interested.

Maybe I'm a total idiot

Maybe. See above.

[Anonymous]

It's been a problem in DCPS and in DC charter schools. (Remember the famous question, as reported in the Post, that a kid asked during a DC history lesson, "What ward is Landover in?"). In the past year of so, the problem has gotten more attention at the Council level and in DCPS.

Could it be that the deniers have a vested interest in damping down the discussion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it's unclear really, how much of a problem this is. The system seems pretty thorough--our charter school is doing an audit now and so it's not enough to have a utility bill but you have to have multiple months worth of utility bills showing that they're paid (don't really understand how this prevents people from committing fraud who own a rental property, but I can't imagine that's the case for many people). The school required a copy of my driver's license and a current utility bill both confirming my address at the start of school. Now they will get this additional documentation. Maybe I'm a total idiot but I just don't see how it is easy to get around these requirements and "fake" living in DC. Both our charter and our prior DCPS required this documentation at the start of the year.

I think it might be more on the idiot side. Your school can require documentation, but all you have to do is provide ONE pay stub showing a DC address. You don't even need an auntie or grandma with a utility bill. Log on to your HR site, change your address to a DC one, most people don't even get paychecks mailed. Print out your next pay stub with DC address, it's that easy. School doesn't have to question YTD DC taxes withheld, nothing. You can go back to your website and change back. That easy. This is don't a lot and also done by DC residents to get into JKLM.

[Anonymous]

Agree that the Hall Monitor is an idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not that hard in DCPS, particularly if you have a lot of family in the city - Grandma, sisters, cousin/sisters, etc. It happens, and under those circumstances, it's pretty easy.

BTW, it's also a black thing, and that drives some people crazy.

There's obviously a small handful of people on this board who are absolutely batsh*t because they didn't get into the school they wanted. I'm not saying anybody loves cheaters; I'm saying there are a couple of voices that are having SO MUCH TROUBLE moving on, that it's looking like they have some problems of their own.

In DC proper, street crime is also "a black thing". And perhaps that's what drives some people crazy. That doesn't mean street crime is harmless, or that we shouldn't work to curtail it.

[Anonymous]

This is a DC public schools forum. Residency cheating in DC public schools is very visible and rampant. At the same time wait list waiting is highly stressful and fraught. I don't see these threads going away anytime soon. If you got a spot in your top choice school and didn't have to pay extra years for daycare or private, good for you! There is a huge population of DC tax payers who haven't been so lucky.

[Anonymous]

The voices of dissent grow year after year. I agree, this isn't going away any time soon.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but until we root out all the cheaters and send them back to their home schools, no, we can't stop, nor should we stop, threads about residency cheating.

Actually, I'm not sorry. I'm just being polite.

[Anonymous]

I know several white families that do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but until we root out all the cheaters and send them back to their home schools, no, we can't stop, nor should we stop, threads about residency cheating.

Actually, I'm not sorry. I'm just being polite.

Absolutely, completely agree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but until we root out all the cheaters and send them back to their home schools, no, we can't stop, nor should we stop, threads about residency cheating.

Actually, I'm not sorry. I'm just being polite.

+1. and shame on those people who keeps trying to paint fed up DC parents and taxpayer as racist and derail the conversation with posts or threads that "all cheaters are from PG county" or that "this is a black" thing.

cheaters are dishonest people, they come in any color and shape, and reside in any MD and VA county around DC. we want them out of our schools, regardless of their colors and county of residency

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but until we root out all the cheaters and send them back to their home schools, no, we can't stop, nor should we stop, threads about residency cheating.

Actually, I'm not sorry. I'm just being polite.

Another +1.

[Anonymous]

The one case I know of was basically Mom moved out to VA and wanted daughter to finish high school in DC where she had been attending. So she puts grandma on the residency documents.

Two things here, neither of which make this easier.

1. Wouldn't you want your kid to be able to finish with their school community? Things like this generate sympathy.
2. Let's be honest, the widespread broken or, to be less judgmental, at least multi-generational/matrilineal/typically fatherless family and housing structure of DC families makes people not want too challenge kids' claims that they live with a grandmother or other female relative in DC even of the face of other evidence or complex custody/care situations. And DC in fact has a lot of people in tough situations, so making judgment calls on residency in these kinds of family housing setups is likely to get administrators burned sometimes and they don't want that kind of trouble.