As Foreclosure Rates Increase, So Do Efforts By School Districts to Verify Kids’ Addresses
One of the rising trends that is resulting from an increase in foreclosures is with regard to school districts and their efforts to verify kids’ addresses. In order to prevent children from attending school in a district that they no longer live in, some officials are employing private investigators to track down addresses. Some school districts, reports the Wall Street Journal, even offer “tip lines” that parents can call when foreclosures force kids in the neighborhood to move.
The idea is to try and prevent overcrowding in some districts and underfunding in others. However, the tactic may not be legal. The Wall Street Journal reports that children can’t be chased out of schools because of foreclosures:
Schools can get it wrong when they attempt crackdowns, because of unreliable public records or ignorance of education law. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, an updated version of a 1987 law, says school districts can’t deny enrollment to children who are homeless because of foreclosure or other economic hardship.
“No district should be chasing people away because of foreclosure, but we know they are,” says Laurene Heybach, director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
If the reason for forcing some kids to switch schools has to do with foreclosures, parents may have recourse. But that could end in even more funding difficulties for school districts due to lawsuits. Maybe the school districts should back off a bit.
It is already distressing enough for a child to be forced from his or her home. Kicking kids out of school — in the middle of a school year in some cases — and forcing another emotional upheaval by taking them away from their friends adds another layer to an already painful situation.
image credit: PRA, via Wikimedia Commons
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