Reply to My story: Accused of Residency Fraud

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We moved to Maryland mid-year. It wasn't planned, but it couldn't be postponed. Our child was in fifth grade at an underenrolled charter. There was no wait list for their spot. We were open with the school from the beginning about what was going on, and that we would not be continuing there for the next year.

We got reported for fraud in APRIL. April of the last year of elementary school. Our child had to go to school at an MD elementary for two months. The last two months of elementary school--or, we were.told we would be liable for the entire year's tuition in DC, despite having lived there and paid taxes. If they'd prorated it, I would have done it. But we didn't have an entire year's money, nor should we have been responsible for it.

I hesitate to tell this story because I know the self-righteous people who post here, and I know they will just blame us. And life is a series of choices: we own the ones we make. We couldn't stay in our rental in DC (the boiler broke and the landlord wouldn't repair it, after we moved the house stood vacant for two years, uninhabitable) -- and we wanted to buy. We got outbid in DC and ended up starting to bid on places in MD. We chose to bid where we did. We made a choice, our family and our child had to live with it.

And yet, to this day I still wonder what kind of asshole decided to report is, knowing our family, knowing our kid, (and how happy they were with their friends to be finishing fifth grade), and... frankly, knowing how many other kids at our school had households that went cross-border.

Truth is, life is complicated. This is supposed to be what's best for the kids. I would have moved my kid mid-year, had it been any other year but the end of elementary school, but at the time, I thought they needed the stability. To be honest, I preferred the MD elementary over the DC charter. But again, I thought the child needed the stability. We'd already gone from a DCPS to the DCPCS. It was the second year at the DCPS. The last year before middle school.

I've said it before: people here are awful. It's true. Not everyone, but enough. This is the pettiest, most zero-sum place I have ever seen. The longer I live here, the more petty and zero-sum I feel myself. The entire mentality of reporting on your neighbors--reporting on children--is just gross. The entire mentality that resources are finite and you are more deserving is no way to live. Is there residence fraud? Sure. Is there a way to check for it? Certainly. Is encouraging people to rat each other out the best way to handle it? No.

One thing I will say is, things are a lot more laid back in Maryland. Because I am lazy, I drove a car with DC plates here for nearly a year. Enrolled the kid in elementary and middle school with my house deed, a utility bill ... And my DC drivers license. I miss the city. But not the people.

Queue: dozens of you threatening to report me to the DMV, for driving fraud. Eyeroll.[/quote]

Don't play the victim here. You moved mid-year and you should have disenrolled your child as soon as you moved out of the District. If you were so concerned about your child's stability, you should have signed a temporary lease on an apartment in the city or adjusted your timeline for buying to coincide with summer break.

You were wrong, period, and your deeds caught up with you. [/quote]

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