Starting in February, families will be required to verify their place of residency every year. Last month an All-Call went out to families notifying them.

“Residency verification has always been done annually in accordance with Education Code.  In the past we checked each emergency card for changes and updates and then contacted parents individually to request documentation if there were changes reported,” said Director of Student Information Services Patti Gaul.

This past fall parents were able to make demographic changes online through the Parent Portal.  Address changes made through the Parent Portal were then followed up by the school with information on the necessary documentation to fully complete the process.  Unfortunately not all parents took the time to look over the information in the Parent Portal and not all address changes were reported to the school, Gaul said.

Starting in February, parents will have to submit residency documentation. If students’ families do not live in the district, they cannot attend any of the schools.

According to Principal Tim Hornig, the boundaries are set so that the families receive the education and services that the educators are responsible to give. It is also necessary to make sure the funds and local tax revenues are being used for the population residing in the boundaries, said Gaul.

“A local education authority is expected to educate students in the population within the boundaries. There is a reason why we have boundaries, there’s a reason why we have school districts. I think it’s important that people are truthful and that people attend our school that should be attending our schools,” said Hornig.

The change in residency verification is not expected to affect a large number of students according to Gaul and Hornig. “I don’t think [it will affect a great number of students] and if it does it’ll just be people who ultimately either falsified where they lived or those who have moved who haven’t notified us of the move,” Hornig said.

The change in residency verification will not be a very big change for families as “many of our neighboring elementary districts already do this type of annual residency verification, so families coming to us from those districts will be familiar with it,” according to Gaul.