BHUSD Finds 63 Students Violating Residency Requirements

Months after implementing new residency verification requirements, the Beverly Hills Unified School District has found 63 students illegally attending district schools.

As of this week, 63 students have been “disenrolled and sent back to their home district,” Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources told Patch.

The “disenrollments” have been the result of a combination of residency verification and the BHUSD’s regular ongoing residency investigations, she said. Last school year, 39 students were expelled as a result of normal residency investigations, according to Murakawa-Leopard.

BHUSD set a for parents to adhere to the new residency verification process and submit extensive documentation proving that their children live in the district. The documents included original leases or property tax bills, utility bills and a residency verification affidavit.

The strict requirements for students to attend city schools came about when the BHUSD became a last year. It now receives state education funding based on local tax revenues rather than traditional, per-pupil funding. Hence, its funding is the same no matter how many—or how few—students attend city schools.

District officials have tightened the definition of who qualifies as a resident. The Board of Education that students who attend BHUSD schools must live in the city seven days a week, up from a previous requirement of five days. The new policy also makes it more difficult for a student expelled for residency violations to return to the district after his or her family moves into the city.

Murakawa-Leopard said she could not provide additional information about the students who were told to leave the district because BHUSD is still in the process of contacting parents who did not submit the correct residency forms. Patch has made several inquiries to her about the residency verifications.

“My intention is to complete the process and then present our findings to the board [of education],” she said, implying that other students may be kicked out of the district.

Patch intends to follow up on what happens to parents who misled the district in order to enroll their children in city schools.

In a case that received national attention, an Ohio woman was convicted and jailed in January for lying about her residency in order to get her daughters into a better school district. Kelly Williams-Bolar of Akron registered her children at her father’s address in order to enroll them in a neighboring school district.