Post by SyZyGy on Mar 10, 2005 11:54:26 GMT -5
This is worth discussing! What is WPS/BOE & Dr. Proctor doing about this problem of illegal students in the WPS? What is the extent of this problem in Wethersfield? How do fellow students feel about this? What are their/your ideas? Sy
By CAROLYN MOREAU
Courant Staff Writer
February 27 2005
WEST HARTFORD -- The woman was unaware she was being watched as she clasped her daughter's tiny hand and led her up the walkway to Charter Oak elementary school.
It would probably be one of the last times the little girl in the bright pink parka trudged to her kindergarten classroom in that school. The mother's effort to skirt residency rules almost worked. She had given school officials the address of a real home, and walked her child from the building to school every day.
But after two weeks of daily observation, an investigator for the West Hartford schools was able to prove the girl was from out of town. Every morning, the mother pulled into the driveway, but she and the girl never entered the home.
Faced with increasingly sophisticated schemes to dodge residency rules - and the $10,000-a-year per student price tag for educating students - West Hartford is cracking down. The town has hired an additional investigator and is investing in high-tech software to keep track of where families live.
School officials say it's understandable that some parents are desperate to get a good education for their children. But they say they cannot justify spending sizable sums on outsiders when they are trying to avoid cutting programs for those who live - and pay taxes - in town.
The crackdown points to a paradox in the state's educational system. While lawmakers and others - spurred by the Sheff vs. O'Neill lawsuit - are searching for ways to break down the racial divide separating urban and suburban schools, local districts are finding new ways to make sure town boundaries are not crossed.
"We are doing education wrong. Something is terribly wrong when so many people are trying to get a different educational experience," said Elizabeth Horton Sheff, a Hartford city council member and mother of the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
West Hartford officials stepped up efforts to catch children from outside the district after realizing the number of removals had fallen off dramatically. In the mid-1990s, after hiring the district's first residency investigator, West Hartford was removing about 150 children a year from local schools. By 2004, the number had dropped to 78.
Ten years ago, families typically used any old address when registering children for school - a vacant lot, a carwash, or a restaurant - and all it took was driving by the address to establish it was false, said Richard Gable, registrar for West Hartford schools.
But as West Hartford and other towns created residency offices and demanded proof of residency before enrolling children, families became more sophisticated about sneaking in, Gable said.
In one case, Gable said, a family would drop their kids off on the street behind a Farmington Avenue building every morning. The kids would enter through a rear door and exit the front.
The family, who owned a home in Hartford, even got their mail at the West Hartford building. But a lengthy investigation showed their so-called apartment was an office where the father worked as the building administrator.
To deal with increasingly sophisticated measures to beat the system, West Hartford hired a part-time investigator in December to work through a backlog of about 30 cases of questionable residency.
To remove a non-resident, the district is legally required to show the family did not live at that address for at least 14 days while the child was attending school. One case required 37 days of observation, Gable said.
The town also has bought special software to track address changes at the post office. Every 30 days, investigators run the program to see if any West Hartford families changed addresses without informing the school district.
"We find that people will not change their driver's license and motor vehicle registration [when they move], but they will change postal delivery," Gable said. "It will save us so much work."
Many things can raise suspicions of the residency office: a child says something in school, a mailing goes out from the school and comes back saying no one of that name is living at an address, a telephone number is disconnected.
As a former police officer, Gable takes a dim view of parents who try to beat the system, but he said he does feel sorry for the children, who can't make friends with classmates for fear their secret will be discovered.
Many come from families on the edge of poverty.
At Duffy Elementary School, many of the out-of-district students are children who originally lived in West Hartford. The parents often fall behind on their rent and are forced to leave West Hartford, but don't want to pull their children from school.
"The parents do it because they do not have confidence in Hartford schools and in some cases their fears are warranted," Principal Kathleen Tracey, principal of Duffy, said.
School social workers try to help families at risk of losing their housing so children can remain in school. In one case, Tracey remembers a struggle to help a single mother with five children keep her apartment
"We got her youngest child through elementary school, but then she had to move back to Hartford," Tracey said. "She was working two jobs and she was always just above homelessness."
Robin Drago, who teaches parenting skills for the Bridge Family Center, said parents are making sacrifices to stay in West Hartford so their children can attend the schools. A two-bedroom apartment costs about $800 a month in the most affordable parts of town.
"I have seen families who are renting and are afraid they will have to move [out of West Hartford]," Drago said. "They say, `I will work two jobs if that's what it takes to stay.'"
Soon, the mother of the girl in the pink parka will have to decide how hard she wants to fight to keep her daughter at Charter Oak School. She has a right to demand a residency hearing with the town, and she could appeal that decision to the state Department of Education.
About 20 percent of families who are caught move to West Hartford and enroll their children legally, but most parents in that position just quietly pull their children. West Hartford holds just two or three residency hearings a year.
"It is all wrong for all the right reasons," Gable said. "They want the child to have the best education, but truly they are stealing from a community."
www.courant.com/news/education/hc-sneakin0227.artfeb27,0,1789236.story
Illegal Students: Wrong For The Right Reasons
By CAROLYN MOREAU
Courant Staff Writer
February 27 2005
WEST HARTFORD -- The woman was unaware she was being watched as she clasped her daughter's tiny hand and led her up the walkway to Charter Oak elementary school.
It would probably be one of the last times the little girl in the bright pink parka trudged to her kindergarten classroom in that school. The mother's effort to skirt residency rules almost worked. She had given school officials the address of a real home, and walked her child from the building to school every day.
But after two weeks of daily observation, an investigator for the West Hartford schools was able to prove the girl was from out of town. Every morning, the mother pulled into the driveway, but she and the girl never entered the home.
Faced with increasingly sophisticated schemes to dodge residency rules - and the $10,000-a-year per student price tag for educating students - West Hartford is cracking down. The town has hired an additional investigator and is investing in high-tech software to keep track of where families live.
School officials say it's understandable that some parents are desperate to get a good education for their children. But they say they cannot justify spending sizable sums on outsiders when they are trying to avoid cutting programs for those who live - and pay taxes - in town.
The crackdown points to a paradox in the state's educational system. While lawmakers and others - spurred by the Sheff vs. O'Neill lawsuit - are searching for ways to break down the racial divide separating urban and suburban schools, local districts are finding new ways to make sure town boundaries are not crossed.
"We are doing education wrong. Something is terribly wrong when so many people are trying to get a different educational experience," said Elizabeth Horton Sheff, a Hartford city council member and mother of the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
West Hartford officials stepped up efforts to catch children from outside the district after realizing the number of removals had fallen off dramatically. In the mid-1990s, after hiring the district's first residency investigator, West Hartford was removing about 150 children a year from local schools. By 2004, the number had dropped to 78.
Ten years ago, families typically used any old address when registering children for school - a vacant lot, a carwash, or a restaurant - and all it took was driving by the address to establish it was false, said Richard Gable, registrar for West Hartford schools.
But as West Hartford and other towns created residency offices and demanded proof of residency before enrolling children, families became more sophisticated about sneaking in, Gable said.
In one case, Gable said, a family would drop their kids off on the street behind a Farmington Avenue building every morning. The kids would enter through a rear door and exit the front.
The family, who owned a home in Hartford, even got their mail at the West Hartford building. But a lengthy investigation showed their so-called apartment was an office where the father worked as the building administrator.
To deal with increasingly sophisticated measures to beat the system, West Hartford hired a part-time investigator in December to work through a backlog of about 30 cases of questionable residency.
To remove a non-resident, the district is legally required to show the family did not live at that address for at least 14 days while the child was attending school. One case required 37 days of observation, Gable said.
The town also has bought special software to track address changes at the post office. Every 30 days, investigators run the program to see if any West Hartford families changed addresses without informing the school district.
"We find that people will not change their driver's license and motor vehicle registration [when they move], but they will change postal delivery," Gable said. "It will save us so much work."
Many things can raise suspicions of the residency office: a child says something in school, a mailing goes out from the school and comes back saying no one of that name is living at an address, a telephone number is disconnected.
As a former police officer, Gable takes a dim view of parents who try to beat the system, but he said he does feel sorry for the children, who can't make friends with classmates for fear their secret will be discovered.
Many come from families on the edge of poverty.
At Duffy Elementary School, many of the out-of-district students are children who originally lived in West Hartford. The parents often fall behind on their rent and are forced to leave West Hartford, but don't want to pull their children from school.
"The parents do it because they do not have confidence in Hartford schools and in some cases their fears are warranted," Principal Kathleen Tracey, principal of Duffy, said.
School social workers try to help families at risk of losing their housing so children can remain in school. In one case, Tracey remembers a struggle to help a single mother with five children keep her apartment
"We got her youngest child through elementary school, but then she had to move back to Hartford," Tracey said. "She was working two jobs and she was always just above homelessness."
Robin Drago, who teaches parenting skills for the Bridge Family Center, said parents are making sacrifices to stay in West Hartford so their children can attend the schools. A two-bedroom apartment costs about $800 a month in the most affordable parts of town.
"I have seen families who are renting and are afraid they will have to move [out of West Hartford]," Drago said. "They say, `I will work two jobs if that's what it takes to stay.'"
Soon, the mother of the girl in the pink parka will have to decide how hard she wants to fight to keep her daughter at Charter Oak School. She has a right to demand a residency hearing with the town, and she could appeal that decision to the state Department of Education.
About 20 percent of families who are caught move to West Hartford and enroll their children legally, but most parents in that position just quietly pull their children. West Hartford holds just two or three residency hearings a year.
"It is all wrong for all the right reasons," Gable said. "They want the child to have the best education, but truly they are stealing from a community."
Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant
I'm going to have to say it's bad enough my taxes go up and up and up, it's almost all for education and I have no kids in the system. I'm not happy paying for somebody else's kids, but to ask me to pay for somebody else's kids who don't even live here and pay the nut, well, it's not happening.