I know for a fact that there are non-DC kids attending one of the charter schools that has an extremely long waitlist and that many on this board would like to get into. I was told that those kids were able to attend because the parent is a staff person - even though they are NOT DC residents. This sounds like BS to me, but it is being done openly and the Charter School Board has allowed it to happen. It is not a school I am interested in but I have many friends who live in DC who would have liked to get one of the lottery spots and they did not.

Interesting. Is the education you would get at one of these crappy charter schools really better than the public school in Upper Marlboro? Or was she cheating to get the free daycare?

What is this school's performance like? If it's dismal then it's charter should be pulled. I didn't realize that public funds could be used for single sex education. Not sure how I feel about that.

Anonymous wrote:Why do they not investigate the entire Friendship Public Charter School Football team? Do they really need a tip?

Ha! Funny you write this...my godson, who lives in Moco, plays on this team.

Earlier this year I got semi-flamed for writing something negative about Excel PCS. People really want to believe that the culture of DC has changed a great deal. Yes, it is changing for the better but it has a long way to go before the deeply entrenched old-school culture of shadiness is gone.

Why do they not investigate the entire Friendship Public Charter School Football team? Do they really need a tip?

I'm more surprised at how few investigations are pursued (36 last year), possibly because there seems to be an equally surprisingly low number of "tips" received. Only 14 reports of residency fraud received so far this year - it seems like there have been more threads on DCUM than that since September.

What is shocking is that residency information is not available for the vast majorityof students at this school:

"just 196 of the 618 students enrolled at the school were in compliance with OSSE guidelines for residency verification. No documentation to verify residency was provided for 356 students..."

Does this happen at other charters as well?

And this is why, as a teacher in DCPS I never turn in the kids who live in MD. A child is money for the school. Admin does not care where they live.

And then the school fired the person that turned the cheaters in. It is a school run by idiots, I do not think they should be educating any child.

I must admit I'm perplexed. It's one thing for a generic student to submit dodgy papers to support DC residency, but the child of an administrator who lives in MD? Everyone knows where you live, lady. How could she think she'd ever get away with that? Did/does she think at all? The mind boggles.

How is there not a penalty on top of paying back tuition?

It's getting much harder for "cheaters" to remain in the system. There's much more risk now that there used to be.

They need to go after a large number of cheaters and require payback to send the message that it will not be tolerated.

The article states:
"Lockhart told the board that the school is working to improve its “enrollment issues.”... She said that the school plans to terminate anyone who is found guilty of fraud."

So, does that mean the Executive Principal will definitely be let go? She was certainly committing fraud since her daughter attended the school illegally the past 3 years.

Outrageous. The culture of cheating runs deep In our schools

And here I thought residency cheats were just a DCPS phenomenon.

Are any of the kids in DC's schools actually from DC?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/excel-academy-public-charter-school-under-scrutiny-for-alleged-residency-fraud/2014/11/04/a23e7994-6435-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html