News & Media

“In the last five years the Orinda Union School District has hired private investigators to conduct secret residency probes on seven elementary schoolchildren, costing about $6,000[.]”

The Mercury News: Orinda school district hired private investigators for seven residency issues

“A Texas-based crime stoppers organization is offering $5,000 for information on any student who should not be attending the school because they don’t live in the district.”

The Dallas Morning News: ‘Bounty’ offered for info on students who cheat to get into Booker T. has families in an uproar

“Pennsylvania school districts locked children out of class while investigating their families’ claims of homelessness[.]”

The Center for Public Integrity: Proposed law aims to lock in protections for homeless students

“[T]he investigators believed the student’s family was lying about living in the school district — and the team could prove it if her clothes weren’t at the address provided during enrollment.”

KCUR 89.3: This Missouri school district is aggressively investigating where students live

“The Hamilton Township Board of Education wrongly demanded $14,034 in tuition from a township mom who had properly enrolled her daughter at Greenwood Elementary School.”

The Trentonian: Decision: Hamilton school board wrongly accuses student of living in Trenton

“Hundreds of Fulton County high school students were not in class today, after learning the district has withdrawn them from Westlake High unless they can verify they live in that school zone.”

11 Alive: ‘This is their rightful place!’ | Parents confused, upset after students withdrawn from Westlake High

“Police…arrested, jailed and delivered in chains to a local courthouse a 33-year-old brown-skinned woman… Her alleged crime? Using her mother’s suburban address and enrolling her children in the Greece public schools while living about nine miles away in Rochester.”

The Nation: A ‘Stolen’ Education

“Statistically speaking, it is alarming that more than 50 percent of the families investigated for residency are minorities, when minorities make up such a minuscule percentage of the district’s population.”

The Mercury News: Orinda school district hired private investigators for seven residency issues

“School system personnel in Maryland … doubted guardians’ claims of homelessness”

The Center for Public Integrity: What we know about Maryland’s homeless education dispute process

“When districts do involve law enforcement, criminal charges and stiff fines often land on the backs of Black, Hispanic and low-income families[.]”

The 74: Report: In 24 States, Using False Address to Get Into a Better School is a Crime

“[W]hen families say they don’t have a permanent home, some school district officials suspect residency fraud.”

The Center for Public Integrity: Homeless students needed help. Schools showed them the door.

“Parents describe officials entering their child’s bedroom and surveying the art on the walls or clothes in the closet.”

WBEZ Chicago: Can you prove your teen lives here? Some schools make house calls.