Cheaters enter the lottery first, lying, and then rent a place in time to prove residency if they get in via lottery.

In the upper grades they might not be taking a lottery spot, but they are taking up another desk and spreading resources thinner.

They are also forcing my children to go to school with children whose parents think that money trumps ethics.

Anonymous wrote:Getting into conversation late, but couldn't just one of you, either dh or dw just change your address to the apt. and use the excuse that you are working on your marriage -- that's why you and your children still spend so much time back at the out of area house. And that would be why you have the playdates at that house plus why your child only knows the address to that house. There are plenty of ways around it.

One of our neighbors did this to get their kid into deal. Parents were rarely civil to each other so it was believable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all a scam or none of it is a scam. My guess is that the very upset pps were shut out of a preschool spot. So now they want to find someone to blame.
And the poster who made the point about shifting boundaries due to potential over crowding- that is the first rational issue I've heard raised. Although, then you should do what you are telling everyone else to do. Either work to improve your new IB or try OOB the regular way. Lead by example.
Everyone is afraid of bad schools for their kids. Some folks are fleeing those situations while they rest are afraid that they will suddenly find themselves carved out of a currently good school.

Not one of the very upset pps, but how does a family that is lying about their residency and thereby securing a preschool spot not harm a family that is legitimately inbounds for a school that is then shutout? Preschool costs $$$ or time for commute or both. If I was paying an extra $30K or commuting an extra hour or two a day for several years due to the fact that other families were cheating, I would definitely be upset. Also, how do overcrowded classrooms due to people who are there illegitimately (and I'm not talking about kids who are there at the principal's discretion; I'm talking about those who provided false information to the school about their residence) not harm families that are there illegitimately? Would you rather have 20 or 30 kids per classroom/teacher? Space and classrooms are limited in these schools.

This is actually a fair and legitimate point to make, and as someone who believes struggling schools will only get better with growing participation, I support what you're saying.

But preschool seats are only accessed by lottery, so being in the boundary at that point doesn't guarantee anything. I seriously doubt anyone would take on a second residence just for a shot.

And when it comes to access by right at K and up, how many families have the wherewithal to pay a mortgage in one place and rent a second that sits empty? Not many, because if they did they could likely afford to just move to the boundary they want. They're not displacing anyone because if you live in the neighborhood, you have a right to the school.

Again, I applaud people who stay with their school as my family is doing. But there's not enough cheating nor loss to IB families to raise this much outrage - because there aren't many people who can afford to pull it off.

The cost to DCPS is marginal; the cost to your family, less than that. Unless your problem is interlopers into your enclave, and there's just no cure for rampant status anxiety in this town. I guess the only way to feel better is to stigmatize and shun any family that's not at the neighborhood playground on Saturdays. Or take the legitimate route to exclusionary schooling and go private.

Anonymous wrote:What I love about the preschool frenzy is that the entire reason DCPS has the program is to help low income families. But it's the high SES folks who get hot and bothered about their access to it. Turns out- us poor folk have done a thing or two for ya'll!

That is absolutely not the reason that DCPS has the program. If it were, it would means-test the program. It specifically has a program for all because it wants people to invest in their neighborhood schools, especially underperforming ones. For people who are IB for an underperforming school (or, like mine is, failing) to scam the system--not reside IB for a better school but claim to do so--means that the new school has to take a family that isn't IB and that the neighborhood school by where the family actually lives loses a family that could be investing time and energy to improve the school.

Hey, as someone who is sending her kid to HD Cooke, one of the worst schools in the city, I would love to send my kid WOTP to a school. But I'm not going to do it by lying. I will either get in OOB or I won't--and for now, we're investing a LOT of time and energy into Cooke, which is helping the school get better.

What I love about the preschool frenzy is that the entire reason DCPS has the program is to help low income families. But it's the high SES folks who get hot and bothered about their access to it. Turns out- us poor folk have done a thing or two for ya'll!

Anonymous wrote:It's all a scam or none of it is a scam. My guess is that the very upset pps were shut out of a preschool spot. So now they want to find someone to blame.
And the poster who made the point about shifting boundaries due to potential over crowding- that is the first rational issue I've heard raised. Although, then you should do what you are telling everyone else to do. Either work to improve your new IB or try OOB the regular way. Lead by example.
Everyone is afraid of bad schools for their kids. Some folks are fleeing those situations while they rest are afraid that they will suddenly find themselves carved out of a currently good school.

Not one of the very upset pps, but how does a family that is lying about their residency and thereby securing a preschool spot not harm a family that is legitimately inbounds for a school that is then shutout? Preschool costs $$$ or time for commute or both. If I was paying an extra $30K or commuting an extra hour or two a day for several years due to the fact that other families were cheating, I would definitely be upset. Also, how do overcrowded classrooms due to people who are there illegitimately (and I'm not talking about kids who are there at the principal's discretion; I'm talking about those who provided false information to the school about their residence) not harm families that are there illegitimately? Would you rather have 20 or 30 kids per classroom/teacher? Space and classrooms are limited in these schools.

Getting into conversation late, but couldn't just one of you, either dh or dw just change your address to the apt. and use the excuse that you are working on your marriage -- that's why you and your children still spend so much time back at the out of area house. And that would be why you have the playdates at that house plus why your child only knows the address to that house. There are plenty of ways around it.

Anonymous wrote:

They should follow suspected cheaters home and send surveillace to monitor that the children are leaving from the correct address in the mornings, as well as touring the properties periodically. Of course residential exemption should be tracked, as well as voter registration, tax returns, drivers licenses, and vehicle registrations. In addition, there should be heightened scrutiny where a family of four claims to live in a studio IB, while owing a 3+ bedroom elsewhere.

NP. This thread has really gone down a rabbit hole.

I keep reading this vitriol and wondering what loss is causing you so much indignation? If you're in-boundary for the school, you're in. How is it that you're robbed by a rent payer at the same school? There's no diminished value to your child's education if someone else chooses to rent or own a second home to attend. There's no damage to your community nor your property. You've not even lost any of your elite address status - obviously a precious commodity.

All this talk about karma and morals is infectious, but in a flesh-eating way when you're talking chasing down and persecuting parents and children who are trying to gain access to a quality education - and paying extra (i.e. more funds than you're paying) to do so. You want to send investigators after them to hopefully send them to a shitty school?

All this moral outrage is a little sick. Seriously, I think you're going to be surprised by karma's target on this one.

Pretty sure that anyone driven to do their part to keep the admissions process as clean and fair as possible is safe from bad karma, no matter how enthusiastic they are about it. Those knowingly doing harm, like cheaters or other gamers of the system are the only ones karma is coming after. That is, after all, the nature of karma

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Launching whispering campaigns against fellow parents you've decided to "out" could easily lead to those with legitimately complicated residency situations (e.g. legal separation, divorce, relatives who are not the parents with legal custody, military and diplomatic families with one parent serving abroad) being hurt.

If you want to call the DCPS fraud hotline, your call, but your threats to take make life miserable for others whose motives for enrolling their kid in any particular in-demand, by-right school may or may be suspect are out of line!

NP here.

This argument is a red herring often brought up by people who cheat the system. If someone has a legitimately complicated residency situation, they should have no trouble proving it if investigated. Life is only miserable for the cheaters.

You've never been wrongly investigated.

Oh please. NP above is right, this is a major red herring to make people feel guilty. Total BS. By the time anyone at a school is concerned enough that someone is cheating, they have seen or heard or know something that has raised their concern. If a family is legit, they will show it and that will be that. The "wrongly accused" scenario is so rare, and the legit families will not lose their slots, so there is NO reason to hesitate on reporting suspected cheaters. The whole point of investigating is to sort out the guilty from the legit, so report if you think someone is cheating. Let the school/investigators sort out guilt or innocence on cheating.

Anonymous wrote:

Launching whispering campaigns against fellow parents you've decided to "out" could easily lead to those with legitimately complicated residency situations (e.g. legal separation, divorce, relatives who are not the parents with legal custody, military and diplomatic families with one parent serving abroad) being hurt.

If you want to call the DCPS fraud hotline, your call, but your threats to take make life miserable for others whose motives for enrolling their kid in any particular in-demand, by-right school may or may be suspect are out of line!

NP here.

This argument is a red herring often brought up by people who cheat the system. If someone has a legitimately complicated residency situation, they should have no trouble proving it if investigated. Life is only miserable for the cheaters.

You've never been wrongly investigated.

Launching whispering campaigns against fellow parents you've decided to "out" could easily lead to those with legitimately complicated residency situations (e.g. legal separation, divorce, relatives who are not the parents with legal custody, military and diplomatic families with one parent serving abroad) being hurt.

If you want to call the DCPS fraud hotline, your call, but your threats to take make life miserable for others whose motives for enrolling their kid in any particular in-demand, by-right school may or may be suspect are out of line!

NP here.

This argument is a red herring often brought up by people who cheat the system. If someone has a legitimately complicated residency situation, they should have no trouble proving it if investigated. Life is only miserable for the cheaters.

Anonymous wrote:Where do you get that they are paying more? They are paying for two places, we don't know what the cost is for both and theoretically the one IB is not inhabitable by a family, or could even be used by someone else but the parent uses the address. We own a condo we rent out in a good district, it would be against the regs for us to use that as our address. I suspect that is what some of the PPs that talk about paying taxes on another dc property are talking about.

This is gaming the system and if allowed will lead to more gaming and eventual boundary changes for overcrowded schools. See the vitriol that has happened around boundary changes to see how much this matters to people.

Because how much parents are paying is what's most important here. Witness the poster upthread calling renters in their boundary "freeloaders."

It's all a scam or none of it is a scam. My guess is that the very upset pps were shut out of a preschool spot. So now they want to find someone to blame.
And the poster who made the point about shifting boundaries due to potential over crowding- that is the first rational issue I've heard raised. Although, then you should do what you are telling everyone else to do. Either work to improve your new IB or try OOB the regular way. Lead by example.
Everyone is afraid of bad schools for their kids. Some folks are fleeing those situations while they rest are afraid that they will suddenly find themselves carved out of a currently good school.

Boundary changes don't matter much when DCPS provides slots at prime schools for politically connected families. It happens at all of the WoTP schools.

Where do you get that they are paying more? They are paying for two places, we don't know what the cost is for both and theoretically the one IB is not inhabitable by a family, or could even be used by someone else but the parent uses the address. We own a condo we rent out in a good district, it would be against the regs for us to use that as our address. I suspect that is what some of the PPs that talk about paying taxes on another dc property are talking about.

This is gaming the system and if allowed will lead to more gaming and eventual boundary changes for overcrowded schools. See the vitriol that has happened around boundary changes to see how much this matters to people.