The Richmond Board of Education says cross-boundary enrollment from past years is not the reason why some schools are now closing their doors to in-catchment students.
The board also said there is only so much it can do to verify addresses to avoid fraud.
Resident Leanne Williams wrote to the Richmond News last week stating that many students attending schools such as Blair are not from the neighbourhood.
She also claimed that some parents provided fake addresses, verified with false documents such as rental contracts from friends and family.
Williams believes this fraudulant practise has contributed to four elementary schools in Richmond stopping in-catchment students from attending them.
However, Eric Yung, board chair, said previous cross-boundary students are not the source of the problem. In fact, schools such as Blair haven’t accepted students from outside of their catchment area for a couple of years.
“In past years, when certain schools had space, transferred students from other areas were allowed,” Yung told the News.
“However, in certain cases, Blair being an example, schools haven’t accepted any transfers in...two years. So it’s possible that there are non-catchment kids in the school, but it’s not a recent problem.”
Yung said the board goes through a process to verify addresses, including asking for various forms of ID and utility bills. However, there is a limit to what it can do.
“...We are not a detective service. I would say that we do our best to understand the actual locations that our students come from,” said Yung.
“If someone seems to be taking advantage of the system, if we hear about it, and have proof of it, we will take action. But, in many cases, we simply don’t know.”
When asked if the board will implement stricter rules on address verification, Yung asked back, “How much stricter can we be?”
“We follow all the provincial guidelines…asking for identification of a home address,” said Yung.
“So, I would point out, in terms of corrective measures, this is what closing the catchment area is about.”
Some parents also asked if students who can’t go to their catchment area schools can go back to their catchment when they enter secondary school.
Yung said he expects most students will want to stay with their classmates and go to the secondary school attached to their elementary.
But if they want to go back to their own neighbourhood school, they can file an application.
