HARTFORD, Conn. – A homeless single mother’s arrest on charges she intentionally enrolled her son in the wrong school district by using her baby sitter’s address is raising questions about uneven enforcement of residency rules as budget-conscious cities nationwide crack down on out-of-towners in their classrooms.
Tanya McDowell’s arrest in Norwalk last month came a few months after Kelley Williams-Bolar of Akron, Ohio, was convicted of falsifying records for using her father’s address to send her children to safer suburban schools.
Yet in Connecticut, Ohio and elsewhere throughout the U.S., officials acknowledge parents are routinely caught doing the same thing but rarely face criminal charges.
McDowell and Williams-Bolar are low-income Black single mothers, a fact that disturbs civil rights activists who question whether they are being singled out unfairly.
McDowell returns to court on Wednesday in Norwalk, where she is charged with felony larceny for stealing $15,686 of educational services by enrolling her 5-year-old in kindergarten last fall under her baby sitter’s Norwalk address. The baby sitter was later evicted from her home.
McDowell’s attorney did not respond to several requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Norwalk school officials found 26 other children illegally enrolled during the same time, but McDowell is the only one facing criminal charges. And, in the Ohio case, the Copley-Fairlawn district removed about 50 out-of-towners from its schools in the past few years but only Williams-Bolar ended up before a judge.
