Schools take different approaches to address fraud

Schools across the nation are dealing with a problem that has grown over the past decade: school district address fraud. And local schools are no exception.

At the Elmont Union Free School District’s Board of Education meeting, on Jan. 18, a district resident, Jeff Weisbrot, raised the topic.

Weisbrot, who lives in New Hyde Park, said that the parents, other family members or friends of students who fill out fraudulent address forms so they can attend the district illegally are taking from taxpayers, who have to pay those extra expenses. Although Elmont’s cost per student is one of the lowest in Nassau County and its cost per educator is the lowest in the county, district residents are still paying more than they should due to address fraud, Weisbrot claimed.

But district Superintendent Al Harper said that the district has been going to great lengths to ensure that money is not being spent on out-of-district students. The district budgets $35,000 to $40,000 each year to investigate suspicious addresses, and nearly 60 students have been dismissed since last year, he explained.

Each student costs the district around $16,000, so investigating suspicious addresses is well worth the cost, Harper said, adding that many address fraud cases involve a number of students. And although the district has always investigated fraudulent addresses, it has beefed up those investigations over the past five years, he said.

The investigative process usually begins with a referral of a teacher or bus driver, but returned mail is often an indicator of a fraudulent address, Harper explained. The district registrar’s office will conduct surveillance of a student or students coming from a suspicious address or to determine whether students are actually coming and going from their listed address.

Harper said he believes Elmont’s district sees a large amount of address fraud due to its proximity to the Queens and the reputation of schools there. “Gotham Avenue is right on the Queens border,” he said. “Queens High School has approximately a 50 percent graduation rate, and Elmont Memorial has a 97 percent graduation rate. … You get a better quality education.”