In our five years at the school, the only correspondence we ever received by mail was test results in late June. We're not planning to move before July 1 anyway. Oh, and one year that letter did come back to them as undeliverable (we had moved -- a different apartment in the same building -- and the change of address form I had sent to the school must not have gotten recorded.) It took several phone calls to get that fixed, but it really did not appear as if the idea of people deliberately hiding their change of address was even on their radar. I am not saying everyone should do it, or even that we will do it, but it does seem like the probability of "getting caught" is extremely low.

When mail was returned as undeliverable they would catch you.

Also, you would not be able to give the school your new address for mail purposes.

Thank you to everyone who responded. Asking my daughter to lie is the part that made me most uncomfortable. Sounds like the best solution would be to time our move to coincide with the beginning of the year, i.e. to sign the lease on September 1. It would mean a slightly more hectic first week of school but at least we would know there is no need to lie and no chance of being forced to change schools.

I would talk to the principal. There is a family that recently moved to our catchment area but continues to send their kids to the 'old' school, which is just the next one over and feeds into the same MS. You could present it now as a hypothetical. Especially for one year I don't think it's a big deal.

In all of MCPS, if you move during the school year, you can stay at the current school for the duration of the year. The school year begins on August 27 in 2012.

Go to the website and look up "Change of School Assignment".

I think this would be hard to keep a secret. Her friends will know she has moved and it may come up in class. Now the teacher may not care or connect the dots to realize teh move put her outside the boundary but it is a risk you would have to take. Would the school then ask her move once the year started - I don't know. Might be a situation of asking for forgiveness later rather than permission now but I wouldn't ask her to lie about it.

But then you would have to specifically ask your child to lie/withhold the info from their teacher and other school staff. Not a very good life lesson.

At least at my elementary school, you are allowed to stay the rest of the year if you move during the school year. So you could make your move in October or something and then stay in her school legally all year. I don't know if there's anyone out there who chases or catches cheaters, but the prospect of cheaters would probably annoy a lot of people who feel like they paid a major housing premium to live in an area and send their kids to a specific school. Even if you are a cheater moving to an equally well regarded school like you mention.

DD is starting 5th grade next fall and we are considering a move this summer. Which got me thinking -- what if we found a perfect place but it was just outside her elementary school boundary. Suppose we were willing to drive her or she could easily walk to school or to the nearest school bus stop. We are in a well-regarded Montgomery County public school but the surrounding school districts are just as good. The following year she would go to whatever middle school the new address was assigned to.

In this situation, would you go to the school administration and try to get some kind of official permission? If you are familiar with the procedure, what would be our chances of getting it? On the other hand, what if we just didn't say anything? There is never any mail from the school and I don't think keeping parents' addresses up-to-date let alone catching "cheaters" is high priority for them. What would you do?