Boundary Crossings: A Matter of Residency - inter-school district student enrollment

School Administrator, Nov, 2000 by Kimberly Reeves

The district has several names for these applications: discretionary transfers, out-of-boundary transfers and special permission transfers. As the principal at 350-student Eastern Senior High School in Southeast Washington, Neal would enroll 50 9th grade students from outside his attendance area in his three on-site academies each year.

"We try to give parents and members of our community choice and give them different options for them to attend school," Neal says. "Approval depends on how much space we have available. I'd say we approve probably about 15 percent of the applications that we receive each year.

Escalating Acts

Boundary crossing is especially prevalent in inner-ring districts that abut large urban districts. Specialized academic programs--not to mention championship interscholastic sports teams--also are a big draw for parents who are willing to forge or fake documents to enroll.

In the 60,000-student Cypress-Fair-banks school district on the edge of Houston, the lure is full-day pre-kindergarten. David Schrandt, coordinator of student admissions, attendance and transfers, says the program, which is not mandatory in surrounding districts, is attractive to many families who want to cut daycare costs.

"A lot of people use false information to get access to our school district. They may say they are living with somebody in the district. They may offer fake leases. Those are things that we catch," says Schrandt, who supervises four truancy officers. "In the case of the fake leases, we actually had the manager of the apartment complex fired."

Last year, more than 1,545 suspected cases of illegally enrolled students were referred to Schrandt's office for investigation, leading to the expulsion of 865 students. Referrals grow by about 10 percent annually. "For us, the number is only getting bigger each year," he says.

The Cypress-Fairbanks school district does make exceptions for those families willing to pay for the privilege. For high school students, the tuition is $3,000 a year, and up to 50 students typically take advantage.

The 23,000-student Hazelwood school district, outside of St. Louis, has removed up to 250 children a year who were enrolled illegally. An investigator and an intake officer work with assistant safety and security director Audrey Cherry to sort through suspected cases. The burden of proof of residency is placed squarely on the parents, and their excuses for faking residency are as varied as each case, Cherry says.

"Every situation is different. Sometimes mom and dad may work and they want a school close to work," she says. "Sometimes grandma lives in our district and the family lives in the adjoining district and they want grandma to take care of those kids. A lot of it will come down to convenience."

Hazelwood has taken a handful of chronic residency violators to court. Publicity on the new policy and its consequences, says Cherry, has cur the number of violators almost in half over the last two years.

State Encouragement

For all the school systems that are fighting illegally enrolled students, others are being encouraged through state legislation to permit inter- and intradistrict transfers.