Reply to How to Report Out of State DCPS student?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No one is redefining anything.  Caregiver is caregiver - if the law was about "legal custody", it would say "Whoever has legal custody of the child".  That's not what it says.  It says caregiver, and caregiver is understood in pretty much all social services and family court settings (and schools) as being whoever is the primary caretaker of the child.  Whoever is seeing to the child's daily needs.

If the child does't live in DC, the child shouldn't be enrolled in a DC school, regardless of where the legal custodian or parent lives, unless there is split custody, in which case the child IS living half time in DC.  It is you who doesn't understand the legal definitions already in place.  You are wrong to think someone is switching this up all of a sudden behind everyone's back.  Why is it so hard to understand that the kid needs to live in DC, end of story?

No one is redefining anything, and everyone needs to be on notice that if the "changes" you go through in the next 12 years mean you move out of the district/your kid isn't living in the district, you can be kicked out of public school any time unless you had let them know and are paying tuition.[/quote]

That is not a reasonable interpretation of the statute.  I am not a lawyer, but DW is.  My exposure to lawyers has taught me that a section of a statute must be interpreted in the context in which it appears.

For adults attending DCPS, the statute requires that they reside in DC.

For children attending DCPS, the statute could easily have been written to require that they reside in DC as well.   However, the statute does not require this.  Instead, for children attending DCPS, the statute requires only that a "parent, custodian other primary caregiver" reside in DC.

Clearly, the drafters of the statute were allowing for the possibility of a non-resident child attending a DCPS by virtue of his parent or custodian being a DC resident, as is the case here.

Look at is this way:  Here is a mother who lives in DC and, presumably, pays DC income taxes.  For reasons only she knows, she decides that it is in the best interests of her child for the child to live with a grandmother in MD.

Perhaps the mother is a violent alcoholic, has difficulty controlling her rage, and is afraid she might beat the child.  Perhaps the mother has a drug problem and is afraid of exposing the child to her drug-addict friends.  Perhaps the mother has to work two jobs and cannot drop the child off at school and pick the child up.  Heck, perhaps the mother simply feels inadequate when it comes to reading to her child and helping with homework and feels that the child would do better academically by living with the grandmother MD, who, after all, is a former principal.

The reason doesn't really matter.  What matters is that the mother has decided that it is in the best interests of the child to live with the grandmother in MD.  By virtue of that decision, the child should not lose the right to attend a DCPS, especially when the statute explicitly allows for this possibility.

I am no supporter of MD and VA residents sending their kids to DC public and public charter schools on the dime of DC taxpayers.  I whole-heatedly support the prosecution of MD and VA residents who fraudulently send their kids to DC schools.

However, this case smacks of a witch hunt.  I don't know if there is a different statute that was violated here, but this family has not violated this statute.  [b]These people need a good lawyer.[/b][/quote]

Then they definitely shouldn't hire you, because you would lose this case for them in opening statements with this flawed reading of the law.[/quote]

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