The Cupertino Courier

School district looks into residency of its students

Annual study ensures that no out-of-district students attend locally

By Katherine Petersen

With 15,000 children in the Cupertino Union School District, there are bound to be a few who aren't supposed to be there. The district has hired two investigators--a retired attorney and an off-duty deputy sheriff--to verify the residency of some students who attend CUSD schools, said John Erkman, assistant superintendent of instruction.

Last year, the investigators worked 220 hours, confirming that 152 students lived within the district's boundaries and that 97 did not.

The district doesn't have time to investigate the residency of all of its students, Erkman said. They investigate those whose relatives or guardians have signed affidavits that they live within the boundaries, questionable residencies reported by anonymous phone calls and letters, residencies questioned by principals, and students who live at addresses from which mail has been returned, Erkman said.

"We're validating the addresses of many of our children," he said. "We'll go to a house after an anonymous phone call, and we hope the complaint isn't true. We're not trying to catch people."

Sometimes, for example, a grandmother will care for a child who lives within the district's boundaries during the day, but the child lives somewhere else permanently. If this child is enrolled in the district and investigated, he or she will have to leave the district, Erkman said.

"It's very sad when, during the day, a child is in a day-care situation near one of our schools, but it's not a permanent home," said board member Roberta Pabst. "But we have a lot of space considerations."

Many times, kids will come to school and say they've moved, Erkman said. "We then will find out where they've moved to," he said. "Or if a student talks about being late for school because of traffic and he lives three blocks away, we will investigate the situation."

The district has an obligation to children who live within its boundaries, Pabst said. The district used to allow students whose parents worked in the district to attend CUSD schools, but because of space, this is no longer an option, Pabst added.

"I don't think people go out of their way to beat the system," she said. "I think they're trying to make their lives easier and better for their children."

Erkman feels bad that students are asked to leave the district. "It's very difficult for people. They have gone to great lengths for their kids to attend our schools," he said.

Students usually have 10 days to relocate to a new district, he said. This time limit can be flexible, he added.

Last year, investigators also discovered that 45 children were attending a school that was not their neighborhood school, Erkman said. "We moved all of them to their correct schools," he added. "Sometimes people move and then don't let us know about it."

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