Illegal students removed from Valley Stream schools

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Eleven nonresident students were removed from District 24 and the Central High School District between May and October, Clifford Odell, the high school district’s assistant superintendent for personnel and administration, reported at the Residency Advisory Committee’s semi-annual meeting on Nov. 19.

The number of students removed this past year was “identical” to the number of students removed from May through October 2017, Odell said.

The process of identifying and removing a nonresident student begins with a phone call to the residency advisory hotline or when a school official provides a tip, after which Newville Roberts, the high school district’s residency officer, conducts an investigation.

Roberts searches for the student’s address and observes the house for several months. If he determines that a student may not be living in the district, Roberts sits down with the family to discuss options — either leaving the school or contacting the district’s liaison for homeless students. Parents may appeal the committee’s finding to the state commissioner of education, who rules on whether the student can remain at the school.

Roberts is paid almost $69,000 to conduct these investigations for the district, according to his contract. The districts also contract with a private surveillance firm for extended surveillance when it is required. Last year, those extended investigations cost $16,000, about $3,000 more than it costs to educate one district student for a year. District 13 and District 24 are billed for their participation.

“We’re here to eliminate people who are in the district that should not be in the district,” Bill Stris, a member of the Board of Education who serves on the Residency Advisory Committee, said at the meeting.

There, Roberts said that he received six hotline calls, four of which were from the same resident and two of which are currently under investigation. Another six investigations conducted during the same time period resulted in two students being withdrawn.

The investigations also revealed that 29 students in the high school district were homeless, as well as seven in District 13 and two in District 24. The State Education Department classifies students as homeless when they “lack a suitable and fixed nighttime residence.” Students who fit that description are allowed to stay in the school district they attended before becoming homeless as long as they are transient. The school district is also required to provide transportation for the student for one year. If, after that time period, the student has found a suitable home in another district, he or she must attend school in that district.

“If they remain in one spot, they have to go to school where they are,” Christopher Shishko, an attorney for Farmingdale-based Guercio & Guercio, told committee members.

Odell also said that the district can no longer “hold” or bar students attending school while their parents are trying to prove that they are residents during registration, noting that State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia ruled that schools must register students within three business days, and the State Education Department is recommending that schools enroll a student in question, then conduct an investigation into his or her residency after the student is enrolled.

“That’s a change in how school districts have done business,” Odell said. “In the past you were able to hold them at the door until you were satisfied with the information you received, and then at that point you can make a determination.”

Additionally, he and Shishko said that the new ruling puts the burden on the school district to conduct an investigation, and Shishko added that Elia has also ruled that school districts cannot force a family to provide multiple proofs of residency. Instead, he said, the district has to “consider whatever information is possible.”

District 30 conducts its own investigations, which Superintendent Nicholas Stirling said are more cost-effective than those of the Residency Advisory Committee. Last year, Stirling told the Herald that the district uses public records to determine whether a student still lives in the district, and then he visits the houses of students in question. Those investigations cost about $50 an hour. 

Two of District 30’s investigations are still pending, and the district has not removed any nonresident students between May and October, according to Brian Phillips, the district’s assistant superintendent for business.

The Residency Advisory Committee is set to meet again on May 15 at 7 p.m. at the high school’s district office boardroom, at 1 Kent Road. At that meeting, Odell will present his report on how many nonresidents attended the school districts illegally since October.