Reply to WaPo takes deep dive into DCPS residency fraud

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's how ridiculous some of this fraud investigation is:

40 year DC resident here. Have commuted to other cities, but always lived in DC as an adult. Enrolled kid in Ellington last year with DC license and registration. Get a call 4 months later saying it's my license but wife's registration, even though same household. They could have caught that at the school when I registered but not problem. But OSSE auditors did not ask for matching, they asked for utility bills from certain months. No problem. Sent those. Get a call a month later saying the bills say "credit". They need something saying "paid". I tell them credit means paid, but apparently logic has no impact.  Dig into emails and find a receipts that says "Paid".  Fine, right?  Call a month later says "paid" is one month after the bill. I say "That's how it works. You pay AFTER you get the bill."  Again, logic does not work.  Am asked to go online and print out a ledger of consecutive months. Did that.  Get a call days later saying this is all likely a result of my phone number and wife's and the fact that we have cellphones with out of town area codes, and not landlines with "202".  Except it's the 21st century, and we have not had landlines since 2006, and the whole notion of "mobile" means your number goes with you and area codes are an obsolete concept.   
After the 8th call asking for more, start asking other parents and find out dozens are going through the same thing. Some because the fonts were different on a bill one month than it was on another month, even though DC Water and Pepco both had design and website changes in 2017.

This is all true. I really don't mind being a bit inconvenienced to catch some scofflaws, but when it gets beyond 2-3 calls, we're not talking fraud, we're talking OSSE incompetence.[/quote]

OK. Agreed. Sounds completely nuts and I'm not trying to defend them AT ALL. However, you says you've been a DC resident for 40 years. So WHY is our cell number not a 202 number? That I don't get. [/quote]

Because it's the 21st century. I commuted to Chicago for work for a few years. That's when/where I bought the cellphone. That's the number people know for business. Why change? It's a mobile phone. That's the point. Wife worked at AOL for years. Bought hers at Pentagon City. 703 number.  Why does it matter? The system has to adapt to the times.
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Still doesn't add up. You pay local tax on your cellphone usage, the cell phone companies have to verify your residence (kind of like DCPS!). Even if you buy a phone in VA you have to have a 202 number. [/quote]

Wrong. I bought mine in Chicago too. Have had a 773 number for years.

We bought a phone for DD in Bethesda. Her number is 301.

Only our home number is 202. And that is useless so we are planning to drop it.[/quote]

Not disputing your situation, but we bought our phones in MD and all four of them have 202 numbers because we live in DC.[/quote]

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