Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, get a signed lease.

Also make sure the owner has a rental license and that the basement meets the requirements for light, ventilation and emergency egress.

Not in Montgomery County. Montgomery County rarely cracks down on illegal rentals. We have several on our street, and they have not been shut down, even though the owners have no rental license.

"Rarely" =/= never. Would you want to risk it? Especially if something goes wrong and someone gets hurt? I sure wouldn't.

Anonymous wrote:
Report people who do this. It's theft.

It's not theft if you are a resident in the school district (but zoned for a different school). It's still lying and fraud, though.

Report people who do this. It's theft.

Anonymous wrote:As a first grade teacher I work a lot on helping kids learn their address and how to write it correctly. There is always one kid telling me a completely different address than he is registered too. It makes me really in a terrible position. Just don't be that mom.

Learn both addresses like you do for divorced parents. Did you really need somebody to tell you that

Anonymous wrote:If you are living there yes.

Not true. MCPS can't prove where its students live. They don't have the staff or the resources, or the inclination to go after residency violations.

OP, you don't even need to rent a basement. Do you have a friend who lives in the cluster you want to attend? Simply ask if you can use their address.

Most notices now come by email, or by robo-call. Not much that MCPS really mails, other than report cards. DD has a friend who does this, and the only issue is that her report card takes longer to get to her. It gets sent to the other address, so the mom has to go pick it up. Other than that, it's a non-issue.

Anonymous wrote:If I rent a basement of a house in another school boundary - but still live in current home, Can I use the rental as my address to get DD into school?

Yes. You can absolutely do this. Many families do.

You'll get some posters on here who feign outrage, but in many cultures, you do what you need to do to get ahead. So, many families in MCPS use relatives' addresses, or friends' addresses to attend schools that are out of their boundary. It's NBD, and nobody every gets caught.

My coworker even lives in Frederick County, and her daughter attends MCPS because they are using an aunt's address. It's very prevalent, though I'm not an MCPS fan, so not sure what the appeal is!

What if it's in the same school district where half the kids go to a school and the other half goes to a different school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, get a signed lease.

Also make sure the owner has a rental license and that the basement meets the requirements for light, ventilation and emergency egress.

Not in Montgomery County. Montgomery County rarely cracks down on illegal rentals. We have several on our street, and they have not been shut down, even though the owners have no rental license.

How would the school know whether or not you are actually living in the basement? Sounds like as long as you have a rental agreement - nothing the school can do. Plus, what kid is actually going to snitch on other kids. I don’t think they care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a first grade teacher I work a lot on helping kids learn their address and how to write it correctly. There is always one kid telling me a completely different address than he is registered too. It makes me really in a terrible position. Just don't be that mom.

Don’t be that teacher! You don’t know the whole story so don’t make assumptions.

I'm the PP.

This is exactly that I was saying. People really won't want to report anything. That's why so many families get away with it in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:People can report you. Like your DD's friends' parents and such. Think about that.

Nobody reports you for this kind of thing. NOBODY.

We have several families who use false addresses to attend my kids' school. It's pretty well known where the kids live (they play sports together, etc). In 8 years at our ES/MS, I have never seen it be an issue. People are really not inclined to report this kind of thing.

Anonymous wrote:As a first grade teacher I work a lot on helping kids learn their address and how to write it correctly. There is always one kid telling me a completely different address than he is registered too. It makes me really in a terrible position. Just don't be that mom.

Don’t be that teacher! You don’t know the whole story so don’t make assumptions.

Anonymous wrote:There's a girl in my DD's ES class that lives completely out of boundary, not even close. I took DC for a playdate to their house once and I was like; "Huh"?? A big property -- and a way worse school district, but I guess, they've found the way to cheat the system.
I suspect her parents are using their friends' address (they might even have a rental agreement with them but they sure don't live together) and drive the girl to and fro every single day. Oh, well.

If it's in a different school district, and MCPS finds out, MCPS can make them pay back tuition.

There's a girl in my DD's ES class that lives completely out of boundary, not even close. I took DC for a playdate to their house once and I was like; "Huh"?? A big property -- and a way worse school district, but I guess, they've found the way to cheat the system.
I suspect her parents are using their friends' address (they might even have a rental agreement with them but they sure don't live together) and drive the girl to and fro every single day. Oh, well.

Its pretty common. Some people do it and use the close in apartment as a resting/stopping point until the traffic dies down. Some people stay there overnight on non-telework days to avoid traffic. Some people hire after school sitters to watch the kids in the apartment and then pick them up on the way home.

MCPS can't say anything if you are spending time in both houses nor do they have interest in wading into this. There is too much complexity with people maintaining multiple houses or situations with divorce and shared custody.