First day drop off -- MD tags

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, the analogy is more like a D.C.-run supermarket that dispenses a limited amount of "free" food to people who live in your neighborhood. So you show up with a "Ward #" residency card, pick up some available eggs, and go home. Except on the way out, you see people emerging from several cars with MD tags entering the store and showing the same "Ward #" cards, and then they get some eggs, too. You know there are a limited supply of eggs at your store, and a limited number of "Ward #" cards, so...are you concerned or not?

The supermarket manager has egg on her face.

You can't blame the supermarket manager if no one tells her the cars have MD tags -- if you're concerned, someone needs to tell her about it, so next time when they enter the shop to get their stuff, she can ask, "hey, why do you have MD tags when you come in here but you claim to live in Ward # ?" You can also blame the D.C. government for issuing the Ward # card in the first place, IF the holders really don't live in D.C.

So, what you really need to prevent this kind of fraud is a concerned local citizenry, as well as a careful government.

[Anonymous]

This thread has become a snooze fest. Has anyone reported an offender? What was the outcome?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, the analogy is more like a D.C.-run supermarket that dispenses a limited amount of "free" food to people who live in your neighborhood. So you show up with a "Ward #" residency card, pick up some available eggs, and go home. Except on the way out, you see people emerging from several cars with MD tags entering the store and showing the same "Ward #" cards, and then they get some eggs, too. You know there are a limited supply of eggs at your store, and a limited number of "Ward #" cards, so...are you concerned or not?

The supermarket manager has egg on her face.

You can't blame the supermarket manager if no one tells her the cars have MD tags -- if you're concerned, someone needs to tell her about it, so next time when they enter the shop to get their stuff, she can ask, "hey, why do you have MD tags when you come in here but you claim to live in Ward # ?" You can also blame the D.C. government for issuing the Ward # card in the first place, IF the holders really don't live in D.C.

So, what you really need to prevent this kind of fraud is a concerned local citizenry, as well as a careful government.

No, the only thing a principal is required to do is ensure that the parent/primary care giver of every child has submitted proof of residency, as required by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education: http://osse.dc.gov/service/enrollment-and-residency-verification

The reason I'm not concerned? My kid has been enrolled in two DCPS and one charter, and in all cases, the schools were pretty hardcore about ensuring that the proper papers were submitted. Beyond that, this concerned parent wants the principal to be concerned about running the school, not tracking down license plates.

If you think it's your duty to "help", write to OSSE at [e-mail]. It seems to be a job better suited to someone with time and inclination to write down license plate numbers and cross check them with student directories - and, I guess, attending all play dates and birthday parties to determine (or is that to ensure?) levels of awkwardness.

Personally, I'd prefer not to have any such parent near me or my family. There are so many other more pressing concerns when it comes to public schooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:here's my take (as someone who couldn't afford a house in a good school district, got in a charter via the lottery, moved eotp, may have to go private for middle and high school as I have no viable options past 6th grade).

if residency cheating or waitlist cheating is a problem (and I'm not convinced it is) it is not MY problem. It is a problem for school administrators. And if they don't care and I do, then perhaps I'm not at the right school for my family. You can due do diligence and mention to the administration that larla has md tags, but it is up to them to care. For your family 1) you can either afford to live in the school district or you can't (it won't kill you to pay for pk4 like the rest of the country); if you can't afford to live in the school district, you shouldn't be upset about not going to that school while someone else who can't afford to live in the school district does go to the school 2) if the charter school is cheating on waitlists and knowingly admitting md residents, you do not want to go there. The administration is just untrustworthy. perhaps you wish they had a different administration - but in any case your beef is with the corrupt administration not the residency cheaters who benefit.

You are COMPLETELY missing the point. These are PUBLIC schools, provided by the govt we elect, paid for with our labor via taxes. This is not a question of, I think Starbucks is unethical so I will buy my coffee elsewhere. If you reasonably suspect this kind of dishonesty on the part of cheaters, and impunity on the part of school admins, then you should report it. Just as you would report other types of serious fraud of govt resources.

You should not simply vote with your feet. That's what DC area residents did for years from the 60s through to the late 90s or early 00s, and look what good it did. Frankly it is a very positive sign of the times that anyone cares about this. It is a sign that DC govt is becoming more serious, more honest. Cheating is not new, what is new is people getting caught.

And I think it is regrettable that racist comments get posted in these threads (though far outnumbered by race-baiting comments). But I completely agree with non-racist attempts to shame cheaters. Investigation of this type of fraud is difficult, and shaming can perform an important social function in lieu of easy investigation. Perhaps threads like this make people think twice about cheating. Maybe that's wishful thinking, but it would be a positive result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has become a snooze fest. Has anyone reported an offender? What was the outcome?

A family was outed at Janney last year and promptly had to leave the school. So some administrators take this seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has become a snooze fest. Has anyone reported an offender? What was the outcome?

A family was outed at Janney last year and promptly had to leave the school. So some administrators take this seriously.

I know two families who have changed their living arrangements due to worry about getting caught. One owned properties in DC and Takoma Park and the other in DC and Silver Spring -- both lived in the MD homes and registered using the DC addresses. Both have moved into the DC residences and sold or rented their MD ones because they felt the scrutiny had increased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has become a snooze fest. Has anyone reported an offender? What was the outcome?

Someone was bounced from my JKLM a while ago. It wasn't only the MD tags, but the parents had a very hard time talking about day-to-day life at drop off and pickup. Basically it is hard to avoid discussing where you live and work, but that's what you have to do if you cheat. So, they were bounced. This is what you get in a majority IB school, where parents tend to engage in chit-chat and are concerned when there's obvious residency fraud going on. Why this same scenario does not have the same outcome in other DCPS schools (maybe less IB so less chit-chat?) I can't know for sure.

If we switched to a lottery-only system the cheating would be reee-diculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has become a snooze fest. Has anyone reported an offender? What was the outcome?

Someone was bounced from my JKLM a while ago. It wasn't only the MD tags, but the parents had a very hard time talking about day-to-day life at drop off and pickup. Basically it is hard to avoid discussing where you live and work, but that's what you have to do if you cheat. So, they were bounced. This is what you get in a majority IB school, where parents tend to engage in chit-chat and are concerned when there's obvious residency fraud going on. Why this same scenario does not have the same outcome in other DCPS schools (maybe less IB so less chit-chat?) I can't know for sure.

If we switched to a lottery-only system the cheating would be reee-diculous.

But not Rhee-diculous.

[Anonymous]

Well, to PP's point, where you work is not indicative of anything relating to residency fraud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has become a snooze fest. Has anyone reported an offender? What was the outcome?

Someone was bounced from my JKLM a while ago. It wasn't only the MD tags, but the parents had a very hard time talking about day-to-day life at drop off and pickup. Basically it is hard to avoid discussing where you live and work, but that's what you have to do if you cheat. So, they were bounced. This is what you get in a majority IB school, where parents tend to engage in chit-chat and are concerned when there's obvious residency fraud going on. Why this same scenario does not have the same outcome in other DCPS schools (maybe less IB so less chit-chat?) I can't know for sure.

If we switched to a lottery-only system the cheating would be reee-diculous.

And if it's hard for parents, imagine how corrosive it is for the kids of the fraudsters, always having to be guarded and careful around teachers and even classroom friends. And it teaches them early on that it's acceptable to hustle, cheat and lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, to PP's point, where you work is not indicative of anything relating to residency fraud.

It doesn't, but with more scrutiny on residency fraud, many hustlers understandably want to fly under the radar and engage as little as possible.

[Anonymous]

8:45 @ Amidon -Bowen. 3 MD tags, 1 VA tag and 1 with no tag dropping off kids right in front of the school.

[Anonymous]

8:30 @ Amidon -Bowen. 4 MD tags and 3 VA tags dropping off kids in front of the school.

[Anonymous]

My school just asked for supplemental information to prove our residency.

We had it, of course, but I take this as a sign that they do investigate, they are on top of it, and all the crazy stalking moms standing on sidewalks writing down license plates isn't doing anything. (We have DC plates. You know, because we live in DC.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My school just asked for supplemental information to prove our residency.

We had it, of course, but I take this as a sign that they do investigate, they are on top of it, and all the crazy stalking moms standing on sidewalks writing down license plates isn't doing anything. (We have DC plates. You know, because we live in DC.)

Maybe they need to make pointed investigations on the low-hanging fruit, i.e. parents dropping off kids in front of the school with out-of-state tags. That would be a better use of resources. DCPS administrators aren't the brightest bulbs....