- OSSE Report: District Pays at Least $10 Million to Educate Non-Resident Students
- D.C. Investigating More Than 100 Special-Ed Students for Residency Fraud
- What’s In, and Not In, the D.C. Council’s Budget
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
May 16, 2012
The District has been trying to save a few dollars by reducing the number of special education students in expensive private schools at public expense.
According to a new report, that includes 118 students whose families don’t even live in the city.
Those are among the findings of a panel in the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) that studied suspected cases of residency fraud in 2011 enrollment data. D.C. is expected to spend $110 million in fiscal year 2013 to support 1,700 special education students in private settings --where annual fees run anywhere from $30,000 to $125,000 and up--because it was decided that the city can’t meet their needs. The Gray administration, which is trying to improve services at neighborhood schools, would like to shrink the number to 1,100 by 2014.
On Wednesday the state education agency reported 276 confirmed instances of students in the system illegally: 126 in DCPS, 32 in public charter schools and 118 in pricey “non-public placements.”
That’s less than one-half of one percent of the city’s 78,469 public and public charter students. But the costs mount quickly. Assuming an average of $75,000 in tuition for the 118 non-public students, the tab comes to $8.8 million a year. Add the minimum amount of per-student funding under District formula ($9,000) for the other 158, and you’re looking at a minimum of an additional $1.4 million.
“Education is free, but not without cost,” D.C. State Superintendent Hosanna Mahaley said in a statement. OSSE will press the families involved to pay non-resident tuition and make referrals to the D.C. Attorney General for collection and prosecution, if necessary, Mahaley said.
You can look at the OSSE documents here.
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
May 16, 2012
D.C. school officials are investigating 118 special education students who might not live in the District but whom taxpayers are spending about $7.7 million on to send to private schools.
Under federal law, the District must pay to send special education students whose needs aren't served by their neighborhood schools elsewhere, often to private school. Between tuition and transportation -- school buses regularly transport students to Baltimore and further -- the average cost per student is $65,000 each year.
A report commissioned by the Office of the State Superintendent for Education has found that District school officials couldn't verify the residency of 118, or 7 percent, of the students, and officials are investigating whether families committed residency fraud.
Marc Caposino, a spokesman for OSSE, said he believes most of the students under investigation are boarders at private schools, which are as far away as Pennsylvania and as close as the Washington suburbs. That's why families could fake their addresses without school officials catching on. Because they live at school, those students cost more than average.
Special education students sent to private school accounted for 43 percent of the residency fraud cases under investigation this year.
"Five or 10 years ago, I remember people saying they were going to move to D.C. because they knew they could sue the school system to get their kids a quality placement in private school," said Yetta Myrick, the president and founder of D.C. Autism Parents.
But Myrick said she believes that the appeal of getting -- or faking -- a D.C. address has fallen as school officials focus on cutting the number of students in private placements. The city has said it has saved $40 million in the last year and a half by doing just that.
The probe extends beyond special education students: OSSE also is investigating 126 students enrolled in D.C. Public Schools, as well as 32 enrolled in public charter schools.
Non-resident tuition varies by grade level but can reach more than $12,000 each year. There were 72 students in DCPS or charters that were identified as non-residents at the beginning of the school year and charged $743,315. Only $156,006 has been collected.
Caposino said a simple "lack of payment" was to blame. Some parents withdraw their students when they get the bill, but never pay for the time their child was enrolled.
Schools are responsible for collecting non-resident tuition, but it becomes the responsibility of OSSE if parents refuse to pay.
"Education is free, but not without cost," State Superintendent Hosanna Mahaley said.
Of the students potentially committing residency fraud, most were in high school.
Tenleytown's Woodrow Wilson Senior High School had 37 students under investigation at the beginning of the school year. As names have been cleared or students have left, 22 cases remain.
The Washington Post
By Martin Austermuhle
May 16, 2012
Yesterday the D.C. Council passed a $9.4 billion 2013 budget on a first vote; a second and final vote will come on June 5. The council’s spending plan for the coming fiscal year made a number of changes to the proposal presented by Mayor Vince Gray (D) in late March, though much of what Gray proposed remains. Here are some of the things you should know for the 2013 fiscal year, which starts in October.
●No new taxes.
●Good news for affordable housing in D.C., which is quite scarce these days — D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown (D) reinstated $18 million to the Housing Production Trust Fund and added $4 million to a local rent subsidy program and $2.5 million to the Home Purchase Assistance Program.
● Gray and council member David Catania (I-At Large) worked together to save $20 million in funding for the D.C. Healthcare Alliance, a program that offers health care to 19,000 undocumented immigrants in the city.
●Bars won’t be able to stay open an hour later on weekdays and weekends, as Gray had proposed, but will instead enjoy extended hours on 19 days, including the weekends coinciding with New Year’s Eve, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. (Longer hours will also come with the next two presidential inauguration weekends.) Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) included an amendment that would require Gray to report on how the extended hours affect D.C. neighborhoods. Liquor stores will remain shuttered on Sundays, but retailers — including supermarkets, corner stores and liquor stores — will be able to open two hours earlier than usual, at 7 a.m.
● In other booze news, the budget will allow distilleries to sell their spirits directly to consumers. The owners of New Columbia Distillers, who we spoke to a few months ago, pushed for this change so they could host tasting and sell their gin and whiskey once they start operations in the next few months.
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