<p>“Connecticut authorities have filed theft charges against Tanya McDowell, a homeless woman, alleging that she used a false address to enroll her son in a higher-income school district, The Stamford Advocate reports. If she’s convicted, McDowell may end up in jail for as many as 20 years and pay a $15,000 fine for the crime.”</p>
<p>How does a homeless person establish an address if she doesn’t consistently stay at the same place like a shelter? Jail time for this, let alone up to 20 years? If indeed the only reason the mom did this was to get the child good education, the kid has one good thing going for him in the middle of the mess he’s been put in.</p>
<p>This is extremely disturbing. The poor woman is homeless and what a good mother she is, trying to get an education for her child. I hope this gets national attention because there must be a lot of people in her situation, what can be done to rectify this situation? Where is the compassion? I think our educational system needs a good looking at because this just isnt right IMO. This is downright wrong and cruel and my heart goes out to her.</p>
<p>There is a federal law called the McKinney-Vento Homeless Program that is mandatory for school districts in the US. It provides some strong rights for homeless students, including:</p>
<p>“Homeless students may attend their school of origin or the school where they are temporarily residing.
Homeless students must be provided a written statement of their rights when they enroll and at least two times per year.
Homeless students may enroll without school, medical, or similar records.
Homeless students have a right to transportation to school.
Students must be provided a statement explaining why they are denied any service or enrollment.
Students must receive services, such as transportation, while disputes are being settled.
Students are automatically eligible for Title I services.
School districts must reserve a portion of Title IA funds to serve homeless students.
School districts must review and revise policies that provide barriers to homeless students.
Schools must post information in the community regarding the rights of homeless students, in schools and other places that homeless families may frequent.
School districts must identify a McKinney-Vento Liaison to assist students.”</p>
<p>It is an extremely strong law that puts some significant burdens on local school districts (particularly in the way of providing transportation from where the child may now be staying, even if that is outside the district in which the child originally lived) but it has been a godsend for homeless kids. (And note that homelessness is defined rather broadly – living in a motel, or bunking on a friend’s couch qualifies.) </p>
<p>What it does not do is allow a family to simply choose a school district where the child has not had either prior enrollment (when the family was living within the district) or where the family is staying homeless now, and that may be the problem in this case.</p>
<p>Or it may be that the family did qualify, but failed to assert McKinley-Vento rights or work with the liaison, or the school failed to have staff that understood the school’s responsibilities under the law. </p>
<p>Either way, I hope the prosecutors rethink this one and instead get social services involved to help facilitate the child’s enrollment in a suitable setting, and hopefully help the family out with long term housing support.</p>
<p>Not only is this woman being prosecuted, but the friend whose address she used has been evicted from public housing. The police even said it’s highly unusual for them to be involved in these sorts of cases - usually they’re handled by investigators hired by the school system.</p>
<p>DD has a friend who got to register at the local high school under the conditions of homelessness. Poor girl has been moved every which way in an effort for her mom to avoid going back to an abusive husband (girls father). High school let her register last summer but gave her a one year stipulation. Supposedly, she must gain provable residency in the district by this summer or she has to move on. Dont understand this? Does this mean she has to go to the neighboring high school and claim homelessness again to get a year of school there? This girl couch surfs from friend to friend to avoid going to her fathers house where Mom has had to go back to because she cant find anyplace to live. It kills me to think that this girl has to go back to that.</p>
<p>I would research this for your daughter’s friend. The intent is for her to get to stay in the same school. There is federal funding attached to it, I believe, at least it goes to the state.</p>
<p>Our school district has a reasonable problem with ‘illegal’ students. Initially I had sympathy for the kids, as the parents are breaking the law and teaching their kids to lie, however as I got to know who a few of these kids were/are, I toughened up, as they are some of the biggest discipline problems in our district. As a class parent who used to have to start the phone chain, it was obvious when the person wjp answered the ‘official’ phone number was fronting for them. I spoke with the registrar a few times to report them and it is a huge PITA to kick them out.</p>
<p>She and her friend should be prosecuted and may be given a suspended sentence. What she did was break the law. If she had just registered in the homeless shelter, she would be entitled to send her kid. </p>
<p>What about many who may deliberately use their friends address to send their kids to whatever school they wish to attend?</p>
<p>It had cost us a friendship some 15 year ago when one of our friend wanted us to do very similar thing.</p>
<p>Really there isn’t much ‘public’ about public education in the US, is there? The population isn’t remotely interested in paying for the education of the next generation, they are only willing to fund ‘their own’ (which by definition, is limited to their exclusive neighborhood) and sometimes, not even that. Heaven forbid tax dollars are used to fund everyone. Just look at the outrage directed at the audacity of poorer kids trying to take advantage of a better funded school district. It’s only a ‘crime’ because those that greatly benefit from this law made it so. Personally I can think of a lot more shameful things people can do (that are perfectly legal).</p>
<p>I have a student whose family was homeless this year. I’m happy to report that all of the family’s rights have been protected. A bus is sent to the new home they just moved into so that they are not uprooted again. I’m so glad we are looking out for these kids!</p>
<p>On the other hand, we are a great school in a district that is mostly bad. We occasionally find out that students are attending from outside our district and they are promptly sent to the school where they belong. It’s a sad situation when this is caught but in both cases admins are trying to follow the law.</p>
<p>What the woman did is called fraud, and if the person was married and happily employed, she would have gained no sympathy for fradulently trying to get her kid enrolled in a different school district.</p>
<p>I also don’t think that “higher income” school district directly translates to “better school district”. There are many things that influence the quality of a students education. The majority of that impact comes not from the school district, but from the parents and the role models they are. </p>
<p>People should not commit fraud to obtain something they want, regardless of whether or not that person is homeless.</p>
<p>I also don’t think the mom or student are innocent. The school district outed it when they hired an investigator to investigate, which they don’t do for all of the kids and wouldn’t do if it wasn’t for good reason.</p>
<p>People should not commit fraud to obtain something they want, regardless of whether or not that person is …
A hedge fund portfolio manager or a car/insurance salesman, or an attorney or MD…
Of course those people are stealing money- not trying to help their child.</p>
<p>Instead of arresting her, or berating her, shouldn’t she be invited to the White House and given a medal? By the end of the year, according to our education “czar”, 82% of schools will be failing schools. The law will require that parents be allowed to re-enroll their kids in schools that aren’t failing…if they can find one. </p>
<p>So she took “pre-emptive” action. Folks are always complaining that poor people don’t look out for the interests of their kids. Well, here’s a poster mother for school reform…</p>
<p>Regardless of her intentions or motives, she filled out a government form with some false information on it. That’s the real problem.</p>
<p>I took the time to read the original article, and I’m not exactly sure she is homeless. Her current address was in the other school district at a house, where a guy was allowing her to stay at night but she said she had to be gone during the day. But it was permenant enough for the article to say she had an address in another school district.</p>
<p>If she wanted to enroll in the higher income district, all she had to do was spend a few nights at the shelter there. If she actually was homeless, she could have asked any shelter the question “how do I get my kids enrolled and which school district would be good” and I’m sure someone at the shelter would have had resources on how to do that. Or, she could have called the school district directly and asked questions, although they may have given her the runaround.</p>
<p>I don’t blame her for wanting the best school district - we all do. But, there is a certain process a person has to go through (homeless or otherwise) to establish residency to meet the requirements. Falsifying information on government forms is just not a good way to meet the requirements.</p>
<p>(And to be clear again, I am not blaming her for trying or wanting. I am blaming her for doing illegal things in her quest to obtain what she is looking for rather than following the approved process that would make it legit.)</p>
<p>Really? Wouldn’t steal drugs to save your family member? Lie on a govt form in Nazi Germany to save a family? This is a High school level philosophy debate. A middling level of normal reasoning by Kohlbergs standards. Ethics is far beyond simply following a law.</p>
<p>Those are other situations and not the one we are talking about here.</p>
<p>In this case, I currently live in a poor school district with failing schools. It’s the poorest town in the county with a population of about 5 million people. Most kids are on free or reduced lunch, and the federal government provides free lunches for every kid age 1-18 all summer long to ensure that they are well fed when school is off season. </p>
<p>Now, when my child gets older, will I commit fraud by lying about the address to get her enrolled in a higher-rated school district? No. </p>
<p>I’ll either move our family to a newer school district, or I will find an approved method to have her enrolled in a different district, or I’ll decide the schools in my town provide an adequate education for her.</p>
<p>The interesting thing about this case is that the public schools in Norwalk, CT are only marginally better than those in Bridgeport, so this is not the more typical case of someone sneaking an inner city kid into a wealthy suburban school district.
Why do we tolerate “good” and “bad” public schools? Why should a child be relegated to a deprived school system just because his parents can only afford to live in a poorer community? If we believe every child is entitled to a free K-12 education, we should set a single standard for that education.</p>
<p>I can tell you my opinion, others may have a different one.</p>
<p>In my opinion, dividing school districts up as “good” or “bad” is an easy way for us humans to divide up the towns and try to separate them into different regions of desireable and undesireable areas. We like to classify, sort, and organize things as a human species, and applying a label to a school district is one such way.</p>
<p>It’s not different than picking colleges. I can tell you as a working professional that the vast majority of engineering colleges provide equal job opportunities, but prospective students still want to rank them into outstanding, middle, and low class schools when making their selection. They want to attend the best college they can.</p>