School residency cheaters investigated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

You can have only once legal residence, regardless if one owns property and pays certain taxes in other jurisdictions. Based on all indications, her legal residence is in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

Excellent point. She's actually probably safe, from the financial penalties perspective.

No, not at all. If her legal residence is in Maryland, her kids can't be going to District schools. If she moves across the border -- gets a DC drivers license, registers her car here, votes her, declares this to be her income tax residency jurisdiction, then she becomes a DC resident. I'd bet that her federal and MD income tax returns show her to be a MD resident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public school educators, by and large, are about encouraging people to enroll in school. Not erecting barriers to enrolling in school.

At one point the DME cross sector task force was thinking about proposing a centralized residency verification process to take this out of the control of every school.

Honestly maybe they should put the DC DMV in charge of this - they are total hard asses about complying with residency laws.

The best suggestion of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

You can have only once legal residence, regardless if one owns property and pays certain taxes in other jurisdictions. Based on all indications, her legal residence is in Maryland.

you pay income taxes in DC you're a DC resident. end of story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

You can have only once legal residence, regardless if one owns property and pays certain taxes in other jurisdictions. Based on all indications, her legal residence is in Maryland.

you pay income taxes in DC you're a DC resident. end of story

+1

Frankly, that's all the District OAG is going to care about in this case. Did she pay income taxes to DC for all the years her kids were enrolled? If yes, she won't face the financial penalties. She may still get kicked out of the schools, but I bet she will actually move into the rental property before it even gets to that.

[Anonymous]

This is among the more distressing (and depressing) sections of the series:

"New parents are often warned by old-timers not to bother trying to stop residency fraud because DCPS and OSSE won’t do anything about it.

“Be patient. The DCPS administrators have to work through the list of D.C. government employees who reside in Maryland first,” when it comes to moving up the waiting list, one posted on a listserv for city moms.

“You can have all the documentation you want, sadly, nothing will happen. I have taken photos of one family’s MD license plates at a Deal feeder and at Deal. I have given the names of the students and the address used in the school’s directory. It is well known to kids’ friends that they live in MD but grandparents live in DC. Classic,” another wrote.

One claiming to be a school administrator wrote, “Believe me, not only will the staff not want to act on your information, but we will never forget who ‘helpfully tried to bring it to our attention.’ And if we can make things administratively difficult for your family? We will.”

Those who try to report possible fraud often seemed more fearful than those possibly perpetuating fraud."



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4Dq19tuch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometime got my neighbors mail by mistake (mailman dropped the pile in our mailbox instead of their). There were like 30 people using that address!!!

that would be a good red flag. It would be easy for OSSE to cross-reference addresses and at least investigate cases with suspicious enrollment patterns. That would be a start

Good red flag, my foot. How silly. I live in an apartment building where mail sometimes still comes for tenants who moved out nearly a decade ago. In this century, computers hang onto names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is among the more distressing (and depressing) sections of the series:

"New parents are often warned by old-timers not to bother trying to stop residency fraud because DCPS and OSSE won’t do anything about it.

“Be patient. The DCPS administrators have to work through the list of D.C. government employees who reside in Maryland first,” when it comes to moving up the waiting list, one posted on a listserv for city moms.

“You can have all the documentation you want, sadly, nothing will happen. I have taken photos of one family’s MD license plates at a Deal feeder and at Deal. I have given the names of the students and the address used in the school’s directory. It is well known to kids’ friends that they live in MD but grandparents live in DC. Classic,” another wrote.

One claiming to be a school administrator wrote, “Believe me, not only will the staff not want to act on your information, but we will never forget who ‘helpfully tried to bring it to our attention.’ And if we can make things administratively difficult for your family? We will.”

Those who try to report possible fraud often seemed more fearful than those possibly perpetuating fraud


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4Dq19tuch

It's a bad system all around. DCPS should obviously ask for more serious residency documents up front, as some of the suburban school districts do. Arlington and MoCo require parents enrolling children in their schools to sign residency verification forms in which they swear to live in a primary residence. Not a bad idea. Setting the verification bar ridiculously low, then leaving it for parents to report possible fraud is definitely not the way to go. Contact your City Council Member's office if you want a new, more rigorous residency verification system in place. Bitching here won't get us anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

You can have only once legal residence, regardless if one owns property and pays certain taxes in other jurisdictions. Based on all indications, her legal residence is in Maryland.

you pay income taxes in DC you're a DC resident. end of story

+1

Frankly, that's all the District OAG is going to care about in this case. Did she pay income taxes to DC for all the years her kids were enrolled? If yes, she won't face the financial penalties. She may still get kicked out of the schools, but I bet she will actually move into the rental property before it even gets to that.

No. She likely gets DC Taxes taken out but then gets a full refund from DC every year because she claims MD residency on her federal taxes then pays MD accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

You can have only once legal residence, regardless if one owns property and pays certain taxes in other jurisdictions. Based on all indications, her legal residence is in Maryland.

you pay income taxes in DC you're a DC resident. end of story

Things that are false: that statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is among the more distressing (and depressing) sections of the series:

"New parents are often warned by old-timers not to bother trying to stop residency fraud because DCPS and OSSE won’t do anything about it.

“Be patient. The DCPS administrators have to work through the list of D.C. government employees who reside in Maryland first,” when it comes to moving up the waiting list, one posted on a listserv for city moms.

“You can have all the documentation you want, sadly, nothing will happen. I have taken photos of one family’s MD license plates at a Deal feeder and at Deal. I have given the names of the students and the address used in the school’s directory. It is well known to kids’ friends that they live in MD but grandparents live in DC. Classic,” another wrote.

One claiming to be a school administrator wrote, “Believe me, not only will the staff not want to act on your information, but we will never forget who ‘helpfully tried to bring it to our attention.’ And if we can make things administratively difficult for your family? We will.”

Those who try to report possible fraud often seemed more fearful than those possibly perpetuating fraud


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4Dq19tuch

It's a bad system all around. DCPS should obviously ask for more serious residency documents up front, as some of the suburban school districts do. Arlington and MoCo require parents enrolling children in their schools to sign residency verification forms in which they swear to live in a primary residence. Not a bad idea. Setting the verification bar ridiculously low, then leaving it for parents to report possible fraud is definitely not the way to go. Contact your City Council Member's office if you want a new, more rigorous residency verification system in place. Bitching here won't get us anywhere.

You have to sign the same paper in DC. Read the forms.

[Anonymous]

Has the DC Auditor (former councilmember Kathy Patterson) looked at this problem? DCPS/OSSE clearly don't have the motivation or focus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, she is a DC taxpayer.

You can have only once legal residence, regardless if one owns property and pays certain taxes in other jurisdictions. Based on all indications, her legal residence is in Maryland.

you pay income taxes in DC you're a DC resident. end of story

+1

Frankly, that's all the District OAG is going to care about in this case. Did she pay income taxes to DC for all the years her kids were enrolled? If yes, she won't face the financial penalties. She may still get kicked out of the schools, but I bet she will actually move into the rental property before it even gets to that.

No. She likely gets DC Taxes taken out but then gets a full refund from DC every year because she claims MD residency on her federal taxes then pays MD accordingly.

Why are you jumping to that conclusion? Why would she ever pay MD taxes or claim MD residency on her Federal taxes? That doesn't make sense and actually complicates her situation.

[Anonymous]

There may be a strong correlation between residency fraud and with tax cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is among the more distressing (and depressing) sections of the series:

"New parents are often warned by old-timers not to bother trying to stop residency fraud because DCPS and OSSE won’t do anything about it.

“Be patient. The DCPS administrators have to work through the list of D.C. government employees who reside in Maryland first,” when it comes to moving up the waiting list, one posted on a listserv for city moms.

“You can have all the documentation you want, sadly, nothing will happen. I have taken photos of one family’s MD license plates at a Deal feeder and at Deal. I have given the names of the students and the address used in the school’s directory. It is well known to kids’ friends that they live in MD but grandparents live in DC. Classic,” another wrote.

One claiming to be a school administrator wrote, “Believe me, not only will the staff not want to act on your information, but we will never forget who ‘helpfully tried to bring it to our attention.’ And if we can make things administratively difficult for your family? We will.”

Those who try to report possible fraud often seemed more fearful than those possibly perpetuating fraud."

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/06/d-c-not-interested-in-stopping-maryland-fraudsters-stealing-its-schools/#ixzz4Dq19tuch

Scary.