Amid Housing Tumult, Schools Try to Draw Line on Residency: Kids Barred From Class As Districts Target ‘Crashers’

By Bonnie Miller Rubin, Chicago Tribune

Feb. 23–Boundary hopping-attending school in one district while living in another-has been practiced for years, as parents strive to get their children into better and safer environments.

But the recent flurry of home foreclosures and other financial woes has thrown more families into turmoil, forcing them to double up with relatives, creating more residency disputes and leading school officials to guard their borders more zealously than ever, experts say.

“With more people falling on hard times, these cases are totally out of control,” said Laurene Heybach, director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “The schools have the power, the resources, which they should be using to keep kids in school-not kick them out.”

Data from local school districts showIllinois had about 18,000 homeless students in 2006, but the state estimates the number could actually be as high as 60,000. And the figure may be rising as the sub-prime mortgage crisis sent Illinois foreclosures soaring to 64,310 in 2007, a jump of 25 percent over the previous year.

Meanwhile, school administrators face burgeoning enrollments and thin budgets that rely on local taxpayers, so they have little choice but to aggressively go after youngsters who are not legitimately enrolled, whatever the family hardships.

The ongoing case of Sebastian Fortson reveals how the housing crunch doesn’t just affect mortgage companies and real estate agents, but can upend the life of a 6-year-old boy. Sebastian and his mom moved in with her grandmother in Homewood after a one-two punch of divorce and foreclosure. The youngster spends several evenings a week with his father, who lives in a nearby suburb, while his mother works.

The arrangement led district officials to decide he failed to meet residency requirements and to dis-enroll him in December. On Friday, a Cook County judge issued an injunction against removing him from school while the case is pending. They return to court March 24.

Heybach and other advocates say schools continue to deny enrollment almost 15 years after a state law began guaranteeing homeless children? whether in a shelter or on a pull-out couch with extended family-an education. They are closely following the case, hoping it will rein in the schools’ authority to launch “intrusive” investigations.

“We’re definitely seeing more examples of children living with extended families,” said Matt Vanover, Illinois State Board of Education spokesman.

When there’s a question, the state encourages districts to have a “low threshold” for enrollment, said Darren Reisberg, general counsel for the state board. “We take a position of enroll first, ask questions later.”

Under the Education for Homeless Children Act, districts where homeless children are staying or where they last lived permanently must enroll them. The law defines homeless as those lacking “a fixed regular and adequate nighttime place of abode,” but many administrators, conditioned by years of going after “crashers,’ are immediately suspicious.

After all, someone has to pick up the tab, which can exceed $10,000 per student. In an earlier era, authorities might look the other way, especially if the “crasher” was a highachiever or a star athlete. But today, tax-weary constituents are demanding accountability from their officials.

“There’s not a superintendent who makes these decisions without genuine evidence,” said George Obradovich, who has logged 28 years in administration and is at the helm in Beecher, where Sebastian’s father lives. “After that, then our first obligation is to protect taxpayers.”

Activists say the first priority should be to keep kids in school, a tougher task during times of financial stress. In fast-growing Will County, where Obradovich’s district is, about 4,350 properties were foreclosed on in 2007, an increase of 38 percentover the previous year, according to RealtyTrac, an online database.

Ron O’Connor, the homeless liaison for Will County , has seen many middle-class families tumble down the economic ladder after a combination of factors: foreclosure, eviction, illness, divorce, unemployment.

“They end up going wherever there is a friend or a relative … and when that happens, it’s an automatic red flag for schools,” he said. “The districts don’t realize that it’s not Ozzie and Harriet out there anymore.”

Santosha Johnson is still smarting from her conflict with Oak Park-River Forest High School last year. She moved into the district because of a domestic abuse situation, she said. But when officials couldn’t contact the landlord, her 15-year-old son was kicked out. “He was crying … he had to leave immediately.”

Advocacy groups took up her cause, but Johnson, a mother of four and airline employee, found it easier to move.

But Kay Foran, the district’s community relations coordinator, said: “It remains the position of the district that the family never lived within the attendance boundaries of the district as a resident or under homeless status.”

Across the region, administrators have cracked down on cheaters, the ones who present fake driver’s licenses, utility bills, mortgages and leases at registration. They have little choice, given the amount and the audacity of the fraud, they say.

In August, Woodland School District, which stretches from Libertyville to Waukegan, initiated its firstever formal residency verification process, which will be repeated annually.

“We wanted to be proactive,” spokeswoman Jennifer Tempest Bova said.

Many schools turn to investigators for surveillance, staking out homes, bus stops and train stations, videotaping comings and goings. Superintendents make house calls, wanting to see beds, closets, toys and refrigerators.

Business is booming, said William Beitler, who runs National Investigations Inc. Three years ago, his Channahon- based firm handled 1,500 school cases. Now, that number has swelled to about 6,000-a portion of which he chalks up to more families dealing with transitions.

“In my opinion, some districts just go overboard,” he said. “Sometimes, they’ll say you have to live there 24/7. Other times, you have to reside with the primary breadwinner. These cases run a fine line, which you don’t need to tread. You can wind up in court … in a battle you don’t want to be in.”

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brubin@tribune.com

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