Using relative's address to get child into different school district in MCPS

[Anonymous]

There is someone in my neighborhood who drives to her parents‘ house, gets out of the car with the kids and walks them to school every day. I think it’s way more of a hassle than just going to your local school, but if someone is that determined and hates their school enough to do that for years, who cares? Nobody would snitch.

[Anonymous]

My cousin’s parents lived over the Churchill boundary line and used our address to send my cousin to CHS for three years. I was weird getting his school mail at our address. It worked, but it was a weird secret to keep. I overlapped with him for a year and no one seemed to notice that we had the same address. Not sure if the administration pays closer attention now. This was the 90’s… long time ago.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my friend growing up in the Midwest in an area where school districts are by city/by a smaller local area, not county-wide. He lived 2 streets over the boundary. He claimed his parents didn’t know because he did K-8 at a private school and they just enrolled him at the HS they thought was closest, and no one there checked because some people with a (town name) address went to X HS and some went to Y HS. Kind of like here how if your mailing address is “Alexandria” there’s like 4 HS’s you could feasibly go to, but where we grew up the HS’s were different districts. Anyway, they got caught and he had to go to his real in-bounds HS midway through junior year. It was very disruptive. I wouldn’t do it because I feel like you’re going to get caught sooner or later.

[Anonymous]

How about renting a room out to a relative and his child?

I have a similar situation where my relative is placed overseas by an employer in NY. Due to recent instability in the location he needs to work there to keep his emplyment but wants send his kid back in the states.

So technically he can claim his residence in MoCo by renting my room, and pay county tax?!? I am sure he can fly in every few months.

[Anonymous]

I know a family using another address. A neighbor did not like them and moved away from them. I guarantee she reported them and mcps still did nothing about the situation. It is a shame for those who follow the rules. I know families who were denied a cosa but families who lie seem to get away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just personally think that it shows low moral character. There is a family that I generally like and I know that they do this and this definitely causes me to think less of them.

My child would be so upset about this she is honest as can be. I can imagine her walking into school on the first day and just blurting out I’m supposed to say that I live at 21 Main St. but I actually live at 34 Cherry St.!!!

No it shows you care about your kids education and it's not your fault you cant afford a $2M house in the zone you're trying to send your kid. Maybe if school districts made all the schools high quality instead of only the ones that serve the wealthier enclaves parents wouldn't be reduced to having the low moral character of trying to get high quality education for their children.

Yes, exactly, schools are "low quality" because school districts don't do enough, not because we tie school funding to property taxes and penalize schools for not being able to pass standardized tests that are really just a measure of SES as a means of keeping them hypersegregated and underfunded.

[Anonymous]

We see this a lot in my small city. I know multiple people who lie about their addresses . . . use a rental property, use the grandparents' address, or just use a friend's. Not going to lie . . . I do judge them because when I didn't opt out of the "undesirable" zoned school I discovered a thriving school that wasn't on anybody's radar because it had the "wrong" racial makeup. So that made me realize that all the pearl clutching and neck wringing was silly, and the elaborate steps to rig the process were certainly not worth the negative message they're sending to their kids and the risk they're taking. And furthermore, it just makes this beast of segregation never.go.away.

But have I ever reported anyone? No. These are people who generally can't afford to move or send their kids to private school, and well, it's the kids who would suffer most by being outed. I just try to talk up the schools and encourage people to tour their zoned school before rejecting it. So much of the rumor mill is just a self-reinforcing endless cycle.

[Anonymous]

A couple friends who did this in high school. One family paid the tuition/fee as out of district - a pain but was fine. The other didn’t pay and said the lying was low-level stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We see this a lot in my small city. I know multiple people who lie about their addresses . . . use a rental property, use the grandparents' address, or just use a friend's. Not going to lie . . . I do judge them because when I didn't opt out of the "undesirable" zoned school I discovered a thriving school that wasn't on anybody's radar because it had the "wrong" racial makeup. So that made me realize that all the pearl clutching and neck wringing was silly, and the elaborate steps to rig the process were certainly not worth the negative message they're sending to their kids and the risk they're taking. And furthermore, it just makes this beast of segregation never.go.away.

But have I ever reported anyone? No. These are people who generally can't afford to move or send their kids to private school, and well, it's the kids who would suffer most by being outed. I just try to talk up the schools and encourage people to tour their zoned school before rejecting it. So much of the rumor mill is just a self-reinforcing endless cycle.

Tangent, but I tried to tour our local school (Baltimore County) but they wouldn't let us in because of COVID, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just personally think that it shows low moral character. There is a family that I generally like and I know that they do this and this definitely causes me to think less of them.

My child would be so upset about this she is honest as can be. I can imagine her walking into school on the first day and just blurting out I’m supposed to say that I live at 21 Main St. but I actually live at 34 Cherry St.!!!

No it shows you care about your kids education and it's not your fault you cant afford a $2M house in the zone you're trying to send your kid. Maybe if school districts made all the schools high quality instead of only the ones that serve the wealthier enclaves parents wouldn't be reduced to having the low moral character of trying to get high quality education for their children.

Yes, exactly, schools are "low quality" because school districts don't do enough, not because we tie school funding to property taxes and penalize schools for not being able to pass standardized tests that are really just a measure of SES as a means of keeping them hypersegregated and underfunded.

In Moco the funding is the same. The issue is concentrated poverty. Thee best way to alleviate concentrated poverty would be busing but rich parents basically bring out the pitchfoiand torches whenever that is suggested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pupil personnel worker may do a home visit if they can't verify residency.

I have never heard of this happening.

Agree. It never happens.

We know of several families that did this. One used an aunt’s address. Two used a grandparents. One used another relative.

It has NEVER been an issue. The families are open and honest that they live elsewhere.

In some cultures, your extended family is basically ‘your family’, so they feel that any address is valid. I say this as a non-White person and because all the families who did this (used a relative’s address) were also non-White.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just personally think that it shows low moral character. There is a family that I generally like and I know that they do this and this definitely causes me to think less of them.

My child would be so upset about this she is honest as can be. I can imagine her walking into school on the first day and just blurting out I’m supposed to say that I live at 21 Main St. but I actually live at 34 Cherry St.!!!

I agree that it gets stressful on the kids. My kid’s ES friend lives out of bounds and the mom has said to not talk about their address, etc. Clearly causes the kid some stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who does it. She has 2 kids assigned to an Elem in east county but drives them to a school in Rockville every day. I think it’s wrong but she’s been getting away with it for 5 years now.

Seems like a lot of effort for...Rockville

LOL! I live in Rockville and I agree. I don’t even think our school is that great. But there are SO many families that do this. My kid played soccer with two kids who do this.

[Anonymous]

Our neighbor down the street did this, assume kid used address of a relative or noncustodial parent. I live in an "affordable" area.

[Anonymous]

oh yes this is common, and people - some who i don't know very well - are surprisingly open about it. some friends living in really good school districts would proactively offer up their address to use. i would never out them of course so their spidey sense was right.

my take on this phenomenon is generally, good on them - to be so helpful with friends and family. and the people who use rental property - imo why not. they own it and can easily make it their home address if they wanted to. just a technicality.