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Bellwood Girl's 6-Week Suspension Ends After School Board Verifies Her Residency

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Crystal Yednak, Chicago Tribune

Feb. 21--A 7-year-old girl has returned to her Bellwood school after a residency dispute with Berkeley Elementary School District 87 kept her out of classes for six weeks.

The dispute started when the school board said the girl's mother, Alice Bey, had to allow their investigator into the family home--and into the child's bedroom--to prove residency. Bey objected, saying she had provided enough proof and that the family shouldn't have to let someone inside the home.

The district barred her daughter, Amirah Mason, from school Jan. 3, after the family refused to allow the investigator inside.

School officials say they follow strict residency policies because out-of-district students overburden district budgets and class sizes.

With a federal mediator involved, the two sides agreed late last month that instead of sending the district's investigator into the home, a representative from the Illinois State Board of Education would visit the home to clear up the matter.

The representative visited the home a little over a week ago.

"He looked at her room, that's it. He took some identification," Bey said.

Supt. Joseph Palermo said the representative reported that he saw a bed and clothing to prove the 2nd-grader lives at the home.

"It's resolved. That's all the [school board] was asking for from the beginning," Palermo said.

The girl returned to Jefferson Elementary School last week.

The residency questions were raised after school officials said Bey's daughter made comments to a teacher about living in Chicago. Bey said that at 7 years old, her daughter doesn't understand the difference between Bellwood and Chicago, especially because the two recently relocated from Las Vegas to her brother's Bellwood home.

Once the questions were raised, the district sent an off-duty police officer to conduct surveillance outside the family home. The officer reported that on four days the girl did not come out of the house between 7:30 and 9 a.m. to go to school.

Bey and her baby-sitter said the girl was at the baby-sitter's home in Maywood during the morning, then the baby-sitter would bring the girl to school.

cyednak@tribune.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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