Anonymous wrote:A lot of people cheat OP and DC is so negligent on everything but parking enforcement, that people get away with go to DCPS for years. My thought is they should send parking enforcement after them. DC has very generous assistance for people with special needs. I know cheaters from MD and VA who avail themselves of getting DC public money to go to the Lab School for example . It's galling.

A lot of PG County folks have drive their kids into DCPS too and I met some kids from VA on the bus going to Duke Ellington. DC really needs to crack down. MD + VA would never let us DC folks get away with that.

If you had any remote clue of how much verification and legal red tape is involved for the special needs families to get the tuition payments to go to Lab school, you would Know that with the current state of the law , there is no one "cheating DCPS out of free tuition to Lab School." These request have to be renewed every year, there is no guarantee and those special needs families are on pins and needles about whether they will have to come up with 35K for a special needs school. No one is send their neuro typical child there--and it would be nearly impossible to get a lawyer to sue DCPS on your behalf to get the tuition. You would be asking the lawyer to commit fraud--for which they would be disbarred. You're barking up the wrong tree on this one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A lot of people cheat OP and DC is so negligent on everything but parking enforcement, that people get away with go to DCPS for years. My thought is they should send parking enforcement after them. DC has very generous assistance for people with special needs. I know cheaters from MD and VA who avail themselves of getting DC public money to go to the Lab School for example . It's galling.

A lot of PG County folks have drive their kids into DCPS too and I met some kids from VA on the bus going to Duke Ellington. DC really needs to crack down. MD + VA would never let us DC folks get away with that.

Lab is a private school, not DCPS.

Yes, but DC has a history of doing such a terrible job with special needs kids that the city sometimes pays for them to attend private school.

My MD friends with a kid at DESA pay tuition.

I know of a lot of bright and talented people who work in DC but live outside of the city, with DC's many dicey schools being one of the main reasons they bought outside of the city. Having some compelling options is indeed a reason why they might consider getting a kid enrolled. Pay tuition, see how it works out, and if it's a winner, move into the city.

For those of us who've managed to get it all together, it's great. Speaking for myself, we went through that decision process ourselves - now I get to walk my kid to school, and then walk to the office from there. Can't beat that.

Anonymous wrote:

A lot of people cheat OP and DC is so negligent on everything but parking enforcement, that people get away with go to DCPS for years. My thought is they should send parking enforcement after them. DC has very generous assistance for people with special needs. I know cheaters from MD and VA who avail themselves of getting DC public money to go to the Lab School for example . It's galling.

A lot of PG County folks have drive their kids into DCPS too and I met some kids from VA on the bus going to Duke Ellington. DC really needs to crack down. MD + VA would never let us DC folks get away with that.

Lab is a private school, not DCPS.

Yes, but DC has a history of doing such a terrible job with special needs kids that the city sometimes pays for them to attend private school.

A lot of people cheat OP and DC is so negligent on everything but parking enforcement, that people get away with go to DCPS for years. My thought is they should send parking enforcement after them. DC has very generous assistance for people with special needs. I know cheaters from MD and VA who avail themselves of getting DC public money to go to the Lab School for example . It's galling.

A lot of PG County folks have drive their kids into DCPS too and I met some kids from VA on the bus going to Duke Ellington. DC really needs to crack down. MD + VA would never let us DC folks get away with that.

Lab is a private school, not DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:There is a message posted a page behind us that is very clear that residency only has to be established by the beginning of the school year. And that is how it should be as far as I am concerned. Many people value their children's education over where they live - and it appears that residency only has to be established at the time of enrollment, which is when the year begins. That means that if you are lucky enough to win whatever lottery you pick up and move before they ask for proof of residency. Most of us would move heaven and earth for our children, but it takes a little time to move a household!

What you say, clearly does NOT apply to these people OP is talking about:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, this is 21:39 and yes, to clarify, she was definitely not planning to move but she worked close to the school so it would have been convenient and free.

Again, were they applying with their MD or VA addresses, in which case your point makes sense? No, they were not. They were faking it to get their kid into a good charter near a parent's work.

While I certainly understand going to great lengths to provide for our children, I can sincerely say I have never lied on an application or "not been totally honest" in a process to get what's best for my kid. I pay exorbitant rent that we really cant' afford in DC because we want to be legit. I have and will continue to report any out of state license I see at DC's DC schools. If that driver has a good explanation, fine, that will come out when they're asked. If they don't... never should have lied in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:There is a message posted a page behind us that is very clear that residency only has to be established by the beginning of the school year. And that is how it should be as far as I am concerned. Many people value their children's education over where they live - and it appears that residency only has to be established at the time of enrollment, which is when the year begins. That means that if you are lucky enough to win whatever lottery you pick up and move before they ask for proof of residency. Most of us would move heaven and earth for our children, but it takes a little time to move a household!

This only applies as a legitimate consideration if the people in OPs office are using their non-DC addresses. This whole idea of "it's fair as long as they have legit DC addresses when they enroll" is BS if they use DC addresses they do NOT live at now to apply. That is lying, that is gaming the system, and if you are really intending to move to DC if/when you get into a charter, then use your real VA or MD address to apply.

People with nothing to hide and no plans to game the system tell the truth. People can say whatever else they want, but if they lie at any point, they are gaming the system and should not be protected.

There is a message posted a page behind us that is very clear that residency only has to be established by the beginning of the school year. And that is how it should be as far as I am concerned. Many people value their children's education over where they live - and it appears that residency only has to be established at the time of enrollment, which is when the year begins. That means that if you are lucky enough to win whatever lottery you pick up and move before they ask for proof of residency. Most of us would move heaven and earth for our children, but it takes a little time to move a household!

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people cheat OP and DC is so negligent on everything but parking enforcement, that people get away with go to DCPS for years. My thought is they should send parking enforcement after them. DC has very generous assistance for people with special needs. I know cheaters from MD and VA who avail themselves of getting DC public money to go to the Lab School for example . It's galling.

A lot of PG County folks have drive their kids into DCPS too and I met some kids from VA on the bus going to Duke Ellington. DC really needs to crack down. MD + VA would never let us DC folks get away with that.

Why don't you report them?

OP re moving for BASIS -

DC is my home state, well not a state, but you get my point. I have lived here off and on for over 40 years. DC is more my "home" than most others can claim. My father grew up here and came back when he had me. I grew up here and I have been back now for ten years.

That was a time when the only kids who made the transition from public school to private school were kids from Horace Mann, and we did not know any kids from public school. My brother and four cousins all grew up here and all went to different private schools. We considered ourselves middle class. And my parents and my uncle (and my grandfather, who put 4 kids through private school) put 6 kids through private school while their wives did not work.

I should ask my mother how much our tuition was. We considered ourselves middle class, because we knew who the rich kids were but they weren't us. We all graduated I think between 80 and 89. I have no idea who is going to these schools now because most of my cohorts have moved away and the rest are in public school unless their parents are footing the bill. But I'm not sure I would want my kids around those kids...

For a charter school like Basis to excel you want the best and the brightest. You want people to move into the city to go to Basis, because the rise in private school tuition and the disastrous DC school system has caused a brain drain in terms of our students who would go to a good public high school. We all probably know plenty of people who have made or changed their decision about where to live based on schools. They have all moved out of DC (the brain drain) to go to the suburbs or begged or borrowed the money to pay the absolutely ridiculous tuition at a private school.

Of the people you all know who could not afford private school for their children and work in the DC area, how many do you know who either bought their first house together in Maryland or Virginia based in part on the public school system, or who left the city once their child was old enough for school because the neighborhood they lived in did not have a good public school? How many do you know who decided after elementary school if they were not zoned for Deal (or even if they were) to move to Maryland or Virginia for middle and high school if they did not send their kids to private school? We know people in all these categories.

We know plenty of people who bought right over the border of DC who plan to send their kids all the way through the school system they have chosen. They have made their decisions about Whitman, BCC, Churchill, and don't have to worry any more. Many of these schools rank fairly highly in the various "best public high schools in America" lists every year. No public DC high school can claim that thus far. But Basis Phoenix and Basis Tucson regularly get in this group..

We are not talking about foreign countries here or areas that are an additional hour away. Precisely because parts of Maryland and Virginia that are so close to DC have good public schools, we know a lot of people who have moved so that their kids can go to those schools.

Quite a few kids who went to my private DC school lived in Maryland 30 years ago, and I'm sure that is still the case. Growing up here I did not really think about when I crossed a state line, or if someone lived in Maryland or Virginia instead of DC. In fact, the only people with children who can live anywhere are those who take the private school route from beginning to end.

We bought our house based on the elementary school when we moved to DC but since we only had one kid who was 2 at the time (we now have a few more and one is in 6th grade), we did not think beyond that.

We live in the city and were starting to believe that we were going to have to move out to give our kids the best public education available after 5th grade. But that kind of public education - a large school system with tracking, a fair number of AP classes, but also an emphasis on sports and probably social status, would not have been an ideal environment for us (we both went to small private schools where we knew almost every single kid in our high school and our entire graduating class), and we were not looking forward to having our kids in these large schools either.

My husband grew up in NYC where there were lots of public magnet schools based on different skill sets and selective admissions for each one (no lottery), where the kids ended up going to MIT etc. I know the names of some high schools in DC that are focused on particular skills (like Duke Ellington), but we have nothing like the schools in New York.

Then Basis came along and changed our minds. Our kids have a real aptitude for math and science. Given the low acceptance rate at the one great math and science school in Fairfax (which is based on merit but admits fewer applicants than some Ivy League colleges and universities), we had decided that we could not count on all 3 kids getting in to TJ. But we now have a kid in Basis, and are very optimistic. Had we moved out earlier, we would have moved back - provided we knew our first child was in. DC is a very transient city. People move from here and to here very quickly from places very far away, like Australia. So I barely blink when someone moves across the river.

So if the only reason a family would move here or move back is a specific charter school acceptance, the same way a family might move to fairfax if accepted to TJ, I don't see how that is wrong. People become Virginia residents to go to UVA, (you have to do it the year you apply) but that usually just means moving across the river, not moving an entire family.

We would not have stayed if it were not for Basis, How bout the idea you build it and they will come... You offer this type of education and people will no longer move across the river. We can increase our tax revenues while shining as a Public academic star the way the District of Columbia should....

OP re moving for BASIS -

DC is my home state, well not a state, but you get my point. I have lived here off and on for over 40 years. DC is more my "home" than most others can claim. My father grew up here and came back when he had me. I grew up here and I have been back now for ten years.

That was a time when the only kids who made the transition from public school to private school were kids from Horace Mann, and we did not know any kids from public school. My brother and four cousins all grew up here and all went to different private schools. We considered ourselves middle class. And my parents and my uncle (and my grandfather, who put 4 kids through private school) put 6 kids through private school while their wives did not work.

I should ask my mother how much our tuition was. We considered ourselves middle class, because we knew who the rich kids were but they weren't us. We all graduated I think between 80 and 89. I have no idea who is going to these schools now because most of my cohorts have moved away and the rest are in public school unless their parents are footing the bill. But I'm not sure I would want my kids around those kids...

For a charter school like Basis to excel you want the best and the brightest. You want people to move into the city to go to Basis, because the rise in private school tuition and the disastrous DC school system has caused a brain drain in terms of our students who would go to a good public high school. We all probably know plenty of people who have made or changed their decision about where to live based on schools. They have all moved out of DC (the brain drain) to go to the suburbs or begged or borrowed the money to pay the absolutely ridiculous tuition at a private school.

Of the people you all know who could not afford private school for their children and work in the DC area, how many do you know who either bought their first house together in Maryland or Virginia based in part on the public school system, or who left the city once their child was old enough for school because the neighborhood they lived in did not have a good public school? How many do you know who decided after elementary school if they were not zoned for Deal (or even if they were) to move to Maryland or Virginia for middle and high school if they did not send their kids to private school? We know people in all these categories.

We know plenty of people who bought right over the border of DC who plan to send their kids all the way through the school system they have chosen. They have made their decisions about Whitman, BCC, Churchill, and don't have to worry any more. Many of these schools rank fairly highly in the various "best public high schools in America" lists every year. No public DC high school can claim that thus far. But Basis Phoenix and Basis Tucson regularly get in this group..

We are not talking about foreign countries here or areas that are an additional hour away. Precisely because parts of Maryland and Virginia that are so close to DC have good public schools, we know a lot of people who have moved so that their kids can go to those schools.

Quite a few kids who went to my private DC school lived in Maryland 30 years ago, and I'm sure that is still the case. Growing up here I did not really think about when I crossed a state line, or if someone lived in Maryland or Virginia instead of DC. In fact, the only people with children who can live anywhere are those who take the private school route from beginning to end.

We bought our house based on the elementary school when we moved to DC but since we only had one kid who was 2 at the time (we now have a few more and one is in 6th grade), we did not think beyond that.

We live in the city and were starting to believe that we were going to have to move out to give our kids the best public education available after 5th grade. But that kind of public education - a large school system with tracking, a fair number of AP classes, but also an emphasis on sports and probably social status, would not have been an ideal environment for us (we both went to small private schools where we knew almost every single kid in our high school and our entire graduating class), and we were not looking forward to having our kids in these large schools either.

My husband grew up in NYC where there were lots of public magnet schools based on different skill sets and selective admissions for each one (no lottery), where the kids ended up going to MIT etc. I know the names of some high schools in DC that are focused on particular skills (like Duke Ellington), but we have nothing like the schools in New York.

Then Basis came along and changed our minds. Our kids have a real aptitude for math and science. Given the low acceptance rate at the one great math and science school in Fairfax (which is based on merit but admits fewer applicants than some Ivy League colleges and universities), we had decided that we could not count on all 3 kids getting in to TJ. But we now have a kid in Basis, and are very optimistic. Had we moved out earlier, we would have moved back - provided we knew our first child was in. DC is a very transient city. People move from here and to here very quickly from places very far away, like Australia. So I barely blink when someone moves across the river.

So if the only reason a family would move here or move back is a specific charter school acceptance, the same way a family might move to fairfax if accepted to TJ, I don't see how that is wrong. People become Virginia residents to go to UVA, (you have to do it the year you apply) but that usually just means moving across the river, not moving an entire family.

We would not have stayed if it were not for Basis, How bout the idea you build it and they will come... You offer this type of education and people will no longer move across the river. We can increase our tax revenues while shining as a Public academic star the way the District of Columbia should....

I'm confused - OP did you ask them if they were paying tuition or putting their MD or VA addresses down? Unless they are applying with their real MD and VA addys (highly doubtful), they know exactly that they are cheating the system if they are using relatives/other addresses to apply. I love the optimism of some that they might be really putting their real addys down, but how likely is that?

OP did you ask them what addys they were putting down (i.e. whether they were using DC addresses)?

I could not listen to a conversation like this without sweetly asking those talking about it why they think it's ok to rip off DC residents and lie to send their kids to free DC schools.

If the lottery system allows one to apply from out of state then why not? Fix the system, make rules and then crack down. LOL on the parking enforcement!

Sorry, 12:39 again. I think the scariest part of this is that this woman and seemingly others do just think OOB lottery means OOB wherever you are and if the system allows you to apply then it must be ok.

I would like to see DCPS not allow any online applications without a DC address at all (not that you can't cheat this but still...) and have people who plan to live in DC by the start of the school year call and obtain an override to enter.

Hi, this is 21:39 and yes, to clarify, she was definitely not planning to move but she worked close to the school so it would have been convenient and free.