proof of residency question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The vague language in the rules obviously provides broad scope for interpretation, e.g. stay for "dwell for a continuous period of time."

I see two major problems here: 1) lack of political will to prevent and prosecute boundary cheating, and, 2) the considerable skill, determination and resources boundary cheaters can and will bring to creatively interpret, or even bypass, rules.

In our EotP neighborhood, where real estate values have skyrocketed in recent years, it's not uncommon for early gentrifiers to trade up to bigger houses. Parents often keep small property #1 for school enrollment, quietly subletting the place to friends or relatives, then live in house #2, which is larger. DCPC leaves these longtime neighborhood families alone rather than play games of wack-a-mole with them, knowing that they can jump between local properties.

You have to pick your battles as a school system leader. As long as rampant out of state residency cheating is widespread in the District, and dozens of public schools fail, the lesser problem of boundary cheating is very unlikely to be addressed.

I mean, "dwell for a continuous period of time" really is not that ambiguous under some of the fact patterns on DCUM, where the parents don't even live at the address at all, and maintain their actual residence somewhere else. There are hard cases but nobody has mentioned them here ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The vague language in the rules obviously provides broad scope for interpretation, e.g. stay for "dwell for a continuous period of time."

I see two major problems here: 1) lack of political will to prevent and prosecute boundary cheating, and, 2) the considerable skill, determination and resources boundary cheaters can and will bring to creatively interpret, or even bypass, rules.

In our EotP neighborhood, where real estate values have skyrocketed in recent years, it's not uncommon for early gentrifiers to trade up to bigger houses. Parents often keep small property #1 for school enrollment, quietly subletting the place to friends or relatives, then live in house #2, which is larger. DCPC leaves these longtime neighborhood families alone rather than play games of wack-a-mole with them, knowing that they can jump between local properties.

You have to pick your battles as a school system leader. As long as rampant out of state residency cheating is widespread in the District, and dozens of public schools fail, the lesser problem of boundary cheating is very unlikely to be addressed.

I mean, "dwell for a continuous period of time" really is not that ambiguous under some of the fact patterns on DCUM, where the parents don't even live at the address at all, and maintain their actual residence somewhere else. There are hard cases but nobody has mentioned them here ...

oh and your example absolutely violates the regs if they never lived in house #1 while enrolled. it's not even a close case at all.

[Anonymous]

NP who doesn't see the point of going at boundary cheaters who own the real estate involved from K on up. The parents pay DC taxes and aren't stealing anything.

DC is better off keeping them than pushing them to better public schools in the burbs.

Yea, they're amoral, wealthy jerks who teach their kids to lie, selfish, entitled etc. I could care less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP who doesn't see the point of going at boundary cheaters who own the real estate involved from K on up. The parents pay DC taxes and aren't stealing anything.

DC is better off keeping them than pushing them to better public schools in the burbs.

Yea, they're amoral, wealthy jerks who teach their kids to lie, selfish, entitled etc. I could care less.

Do you feel the same way about poor DC residents who use a fraudulent address (say an address of a family member where the kid/parents don't reside) to get into Deal/Wilson? Or are only rich people allowed to break the rules for their own benefit?

[Anonymous]

Yes, feel the same way. Leave them alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, feel the same way. Leave them alone.

So let's say they essentially stop enforcing boundaries, not that current enforcement is that strong. Presumably that would lead to tons of people moving into more desirable schools. What do you do then when certain schools are way over capacity, even more than current overcrowding?

If 2,000 kids per class registered at Wilson, you simply couldn't fit that and the fire marshal would step, never mind educational concerns.

If you really support laissez faire on boundaries, you have to figure out what you are going to do with the chaos that ensues.

[Anonymous]

This wouldn't happen if DCPS increased residency document requirements. Parents have to submit twice as many documents proving residency in some other US cities as they do in DC.

[Anonymous]

Why do people keep saying teaching their kids to lie or lie on a form? There are hundreds of kids at Deal with an address outside of Deal's boundary. Nobody knows how one got access to Deal.

[Anonymous]

Obviously because parents/taxpayers want to stay in the City and aren't satisfied with the quality of the education on offer at by-right middle schools other than Deal, and maybe Hardy and Stuart Hobson. There are only so many spots at Washington Latin. This is particularly true of UMC parents. They put down roots in neighborhoods and want to ensure bright futures for their children for the hefty property and income tax they pay annually.

I'm not convinced all these parents teach the kids to lie, they teach them not to talk about residency issues, to change the subject.

If DCPS would invest in solid honors classes at more neighborhood middle schools, market them aggressively to parents, and maintain high and transparent standards for entry to these classes, the droves of boundary cheaters would start to peter out. Teaching and discipline would also have to improve in DCPS middle schools to address boundary cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP who doesn't see the point of going at boundary cheaters who own the real estate involved from K on up. The parents pay DC taxes and aren't stealing anything.

DC is better off keeping them than pushing them to better public schools in the burbs.

Yea, they're amoral, wealthy jerks who teach their kids to lie, selfish, entitled etc. I could care less.

Do you feel the same way about poor DC residents who use a fraudulent address (say an address of a family member where the kid/parents don't reside) to get into Deal/Wilson? Or are only rich people allowed to break the rules for their own benefit?

I say clamp down on all of the cheaters. But I reserve a special scorn for cheating DC government employees who don't even live in DC and sneak their kids in from Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Laws on domicile vary from state to state. DC is a jurisdiction where many resident maintain strong ties to states. This helps explain why DC domicile is more loosely constructed than in many states, both in the way law on domicile is written, and how it's enforced. For better or worse, DCPS looks at where you file DC taxes where school residency is concerned. As long as residency investigators find no evidence of a lease holder at a property you own, and where you claim residence, they leave you alone. The DC courts don't have a history of coming at DC residents for school residency fraud in cases where DC income tax has been filed. There aren't precedent cases.

When OSSE busted a couple DC police officers who reside in MD for residency fraud back in 2016, they found that the idiots were not only renting out their DC properties, they were taking their tenants to DC Landlord-Tenant court.

I'm not arguing that this is good, I'm explaining why what what is arguably school boundary fraud remains prevalent, at least in Upper NW.

I wonder if they were related to the parents of a girl who attended a DC elementary school several years ago and was found to have brought her parents' drugs to school in her knapsack. The parents' defense to an action brought in court by DC family services was that DC had no jurisdiction because they in fact were PG County residents!

[Anonymous]

Nuts!

As long as DCPS refuses to address the crux of the problem with boundary cheaters--scarcity of good by-right middle and high schools--the cheating will continue apace.

Not easy to crack down on UMC families who can afford to play residency games. You're better off working to give them IB schools they're satisfied with...