Please complain to your school's admins and/or call the residency hotline. Do something other than come here and point holier than thou fingers.

The worst trolls are the ones who report alleged cheaters, then come here to spew sour grapes after failing to bust particular parents. Cowards and losers. Get a life!

Anonymous wrote:This is obviously a troll thread.

Why a troll thread? Because you think there are no boundary cheaters? I'm sure there are tons. My sister lives in another city with a similar boundary/lottery system, and she and all her friends were coordinating ways to game the system. She said everyone she knows in that city does the same gaming - just part of the system. On one hand, it's slightly less offensive to me if everyone is doing it. On the other hand, the most common scam (using the address of an in-bounds friend) is offensive because it means those with friends in the rich, white parts of town (ie, higher SES whites) are more able to grab any open spots.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you want to learn how to game the system. You can try, but if caught, your kids will be thrown out.

Will they? I think the only bitching about this is ON THIS BOARD. Seriously, how many kids does DCPS or charters actually throw out each year? Less than 5 I would assume. And we know there are probably hundreds of kids "gaming" the system.

+1. Except in the most egregious cases, like the married DC officers who live in MD for years and sent their kids to DC schools, I wonder if any kids get "thrown out." The only school that has some kind of policy posted is Oyster-Adams which is occasionally posted on this board. And even in that case, the policy isn't definitive.


All students who enter Oyster-Adams for the first time under the “in-boundary” process in 2010-2011, will risk losing their space if they move out of boundary after the beginning of the school year or in the future years. Students who move mid year will be allowed to finish the school year at Oyster-Adams but may then be asked to re-apply via the lottery for subsequent years. This is necessary to ensure manageable class sizes and to counter a documented pattern of families moving to the boundary for one year only to gain access to the school’s in-boundary status.

Anonymous wrote:So you want to learn how to game the system. You can try, but if caught, your kids will be thrown out.

Will they? I think the only bitching about this is ON THIS BOARD. Seriously, how many kids does DCPS or charters actually throw out each year? Less than 5 I would assume. And we know there are probably hundreds of kids "gaming" the system.

This is obviously a troll thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's an interesting question. Our child is at a very popular neighborhood school, and I know at least two families in the class who appear to be cheating. One family uses an IB address but actually lives slightly out of bounds. (This was revealed to me by one of the parents, over drinks). Another family seems to live outside of DC. As the kids get older, I'm not sure how they handle it. Clearly, it would be tough to refuse play dates and ask your child to hide where you live. I personally wouldn't cheat, but I don't feel inclined to report these people either.

Why not report them? I'm curious.

Cause it's all made-up crap!

From what I've observed in DCPS over the years, parents who report alleged cheaters almost always come away from the process disappointed. They report the problem via the DCPS residency hotline, or OSSE, and/or their school principal, sometimes launching investigations Nevertheless, the alleged cheaters generally remain in schools for whatever reasons. If these parents live in DC, and pay taxes here, and are in a gray area re residency, they may still have the right documents, or can survive a home visit.

A word to the wise, OP, don't be surprised if this is the case, whatever your motives for starting this thread. The fact is, smart, determined parents get resourceful when you have disastrous neighborhood schools (like Payne and Miner elementary schools) sharing boundaries with good ones with large high SES populations (like Maury, Brent and Tyler Spanish Immersion).

It seems fairly obvious OP doesn't really care about what the school or OSSE will do. She wants to know if the other parents will talk about it behind her back. From what I have seen, a small number will, and the rest will just be worrying about their own families and not paying OP any attention.

Anonymous wrote:If you think a family is cheating and are bothered by the arrangement on and on, I'd report it to the school. Then let it go. Schools usually follow up with home visits. If the school isn't satisfied with a suspect residency arrangement, they'll bust the family. If they are satisfied, you're better off moving on than launching a whispering campaign among parents when you're not in command on all the facts. Schools, both charter and DCPS, clearly interpret residency in different ways. You can only do so much about that.

I agree but report it to OSSE, not the school. The schools have to ask parents to submit the required paperwork. OSSE is the one can investigate to see if the paperwork is fraudulent.

If you think a family is cheating and are bothered by the arrangement on and on, I'd report it to the school. Then let it go. Schools usually follow up with home visits. If the school isn't satisfied with a suspect residency arrangement, they'll bust the family. If they are satisfied, you're better off moving on than launching a whispering campaign among parents when you're not in command on all the facts. Schools, both charter and DCPS, clearly interpret residency in different ways. You can only do so much about that.

Anonymous wrote:It's an interesting question. Our child is at a very popular neighborhood school, and I know at least two families in the class who appear to be cheating. One family uses an IB address but actually lives slightly out of bounds. (This was revealed to me by one of the parents, over drinks). Another family seems to live outside of DC. As the kids get older, I'm not sure how they handle it. Clearly, it would be tough to refuse play dates and ask your child to hide where you live. I personally wouldn't cheat, but I don't feel inclined to report these people either.

Why not report them? I'm curious.

OP, those aren't "creative solutions." Those are lies. Fraud. When you submit your residency papers, you sign that the information provided is true. Listing a fake address is fraud. You do not live there. Using a friend's address is fraud too, though it's less clearly cut. Renting an apartment for a month to get into a school may work, but next year, you will likely be asked to resubmit your paperwork. At which point, you'd be lying, again. That's not "creative" - it's fraud.

As for your question, we are out of bounds at a school that is not highly sought after. Where we live comes up often. It came up around my daughter's birthday. It came up during the summer when setting up play dates with friends.

At our school, people know where people live. I don't know that a cheater would be looked down on, but that's mostly because our school is not a highly desired school and we do have a lot of OOB students (including my child). It's pretty impossible to sort out who got in as an OOB student legitimately and who lied. But if I found out that somebody had lied, yes, I would think less of them and would distance myself from that family.

It's an interesting question. Our child is at a very popular neighborhood school, and I know at least two families in the class who appear to be cheating. One family uses an IB address but actually lives slightly out of bounds. (This was revealed to me by one of the parents, over drinks). Another family seems to live outside of DC. As the kids get older, I'm not sure how they handle it. Clearly, it would be tough to refuse play dates and ask your child to hide where you live. I personally wouldn't cheat, but I don't feel inclined to report these people either.

LOL that you want to keep "moralizers" off this thread. Good luck with that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People I know don't blink think twice saying - if lottery does not work out we will use y parent's address which is IB for Deal.

Yep. I considered this for half a minute and then decided i didn't want my kids to be part of a lie.

And as a PP above said, folks aren't keeping vacant apartments but buy (or keep) something to rent out. They believe that because they are paying taxes they aren't cheating.

I met a woman who had an older OOB kid at the same school as a family who kept a vacant apartment for the address. Older kid's sibling did not get in because the other family gamed the system. She was PISSED about it. Given that I heard the whole story within a half hour of meeting this person, I cannot imagine she made life pleasant for the vacant apartment family at school.

Apartment family won the lottery to a desirable charter the next year and left.