Part of the problem is the way schools get the money for students attendance and other programs. The money needs to be dealt with differently somehow.
We were a military family, moved a bunch. I ran into a problem with one state.
I went to the school in person, filled out paperwork and withdrew my son because we were moving. Made sure everything was clear—no library fines, no text books missing yada. Good to go.
We get moved, I go register son with his new school—a little hassle over something with his previous school (I don’t recall what now—shot records?)Everything worked out and he started attending his new school.
THEN, about 4 months later I get a letter from his old school threatening me with fines, jail—you name it, for his not attending class for all that time.
I figure fine, little flub on their part I’ll sort it out. Days and days of trying to contact them and get it cleared up, finally I talked to someone and I gave them the information of his new school and they assured me they would clear it up.
Couple of months pass and yet ANOTHER letter comes threatening me with fines, jail and all that. I had his new school fax the old school and they tried to clear it up. Taken care of, right? Nope.
This was when my son was in 9th grade and these letters continued all the way until he graduated. I finally had my *ah-ha!* moment and we just filed them and laughed.
They didn’t want to release my son from their records because as a military dependent attending the school in town—they collected money for that. They did not want to lose that money.
Impact Aid.
Exactly. Years ago when I was a teacher, I taught in an "inner-city" school. My classes had nearly 50 kids but only about 25 ever showed up. The kids that came would tell me a lot of these missing kids moved to other school districts or states.
I would tell the school, but they said they needed to keep the kids on the roster until THEY could determine why they were absent. It was rumored they marked them present a few days and gave them some non-failing grades to make it appear they were coming to class at times.
A lot of kids were being double- and triple-counted by schools so they can get their state aid. And, of course, it takes a LOOOONG time to figure that out.