Big flag error I can see right away is joint custody where a parent lives out of the zone.

Every time the parent who doesn't live in the exact neighborhood drops the child off the car is flagged.

Then what happens when they look into this? Does the child automatically go to the school zoned for the parent with a "better" school or a "cheaper" school? Who makes the decision?

What about paid caregivers or family members?

This is a huge waste of time/money for everyone except for the company who sold the school on the "need" for it. There are way better ways of combating fraud which don't introduce mass surveillance.

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phil21 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Where I grew up it was "technically" whichever parent had primary custody, which back then was usually very clear - especially during the school year. So much like taxes are "6 months and a day" for residency, it was similar for school.

In reality it was basically just "one parent lives in the district with a legal mailing address that works" - and very rarely enforced or even looked into. Especially if a kid was already enrolled and then later had a life event.

It more competitive/exclusive districts though this gets taken very seriously, with certain parents tattle-telling on others, etc.

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reactordev 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is all around a bad idea. Not only because of the scenario you mentioned but because modern “families” look different today. Zones split right down neighborhoods… even living one block away puts you in another school.

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philamonster 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Right. I am in that bucket described by parent comment but also live literally at the edge of the district boundary our second child will eventually attend that I intentionally took up residence in a few years ago when we split. All kinds of motivation as to why a SD would do this but I don't need that decision influenced by a company that has no presence in the state let alone the district I live.

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reactordev 3 hours ago | parent [-]

In areas where school choice isn’t available, it’s to keep the affluent districts, affluent. It’s racism and bigotry disguised as protecting children.

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bobthepanda 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The inequality of school districts is probably one of the biggest systemic barriers in our society.

That being said, school choice isn’t that helpful. The most segregated school district in the US is NYC, which has had citywide school choice for a long time.

> In 2018 in New York, 90% of black students attended predominantly nonwhite schools, while Latino student enrollment in predominantly nonwhite schools has remained roughly stable (84%). Almost two out of three black students and over half of Latino students attend intensely segregated schools, where less than 10% of student enrollment is white.

	▲	reactordev 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Just because they are there statistically doesn’t mean there isn’t an underlying reason. Maybe the “best” districts do what was done to me when I was growing up and purposefully test me harder, then get upset when I passed. Trying to justify that I didn’t belong but I ended up scoring a 99.9% on their stupid aptitude tests. There’s a whole host of reasons why someone with choice still chooses shitty…

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philamonster 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah well aware after ~17 years in public/higher ed in multiple states and what crossed my mind first when I read the parent's name in the article though trying not to generalize as I know nothing of the district mentioned.

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nativeit 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Major paradigm shift: What if, hear me out, the school administrators talked to the students and their parents?

I’ll pause for everyone’s minds to finish blowing.

	▲	john_strinlai 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		which happened in this case! and then the school administrators said, paraphrasing, "despite owning a home in the district, fuck you"

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nonameiguess 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is "falsehoods programmers believe about addresses" on steroids. Six years ago, I couldn't drive due to injuries and gave my car to my dad, who took it to California. I was pretty diligent about making sure the ownership records transferred and he registered it, but I'm imagining the state of Texas using this as a pretense to deny my ability to vote, and California deciding I owe them income taxes.

	▲	ghaff an hour ago \| parent [-]
		State taxes can be a bit of a mess, E&Y (accountants) were enlisted to started looking at expense reports at a long-ago former employer to be sure people were staying within the guidelines. There are "jock" taxes mainly intended for pro athletes and entertainers but they theoretically apply to everyone for even a one night stay in some states. (Shortish stays for "normal" people were ignored but not sure how kosher that actually was.)

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HexPhantom 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A kid could legitimately split time between two homes or be dropped off by whichever parent is on duty that morning

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themafia an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> This is a huge waste of time/money

Right. And when you see someone so dedicated do it there is almost certainly a hidden variable which causes this to occur. I imagine the nature of funding of these schools and the distribution of public monies has a lot to do with it.

> ways of combating fraud

Imagine being the richest country in the world and _caring_, honestly, about school location "fraud."

	▲	angiolillo 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The country as a whole may be "rich" in terms of GDP but school districts are funded locally and many towns are struggling or underwater in terms of finances. I lived in a working class town with a school district that built up a great reputation, especially for special needs students, due to the hard work of some amazing teachers. Ultimately the district had to scale back many programs dramatically because the number of students, especially special needs students, started growing much faster than the tax base and risked bankrupting the town. Most of that was an increase in the ratio of families moving to town for the schools, but there were some fraud cases as well. A better solution would have been to fund education more equitably at the state level, but that was not a lever that the school district had at the time.

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Zigurd 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The American system of school funding strongly encourages pulling up the ladder behind you. Real estate values are influenced by school ratings, too. Hence Karen as-a-service.