APS to require proof of residency each year

Albuquerque families will have to annually show proof of residency when they register their children for school, under a policy narrowly approved by the school board Wednesday.

The school board voted 4-3 to approve the policy. Currently, families are only required to show proof of residency when they register their children at a school for the first time. Due to concerns that were raised when the board split 4-3 on the issue in committee, a provision has been added to accommodate homeless students.

Voting against the policy were board members Analee Maestas, Don Duran and Steven Michael Quezada. All three raised concerns about placing a burden on families, particularly those who don’t have stable addresses or are living in the country illegally.

“A lot of the citizens that are in my district, they move from cousins to cousins, from house to house. A lot of times they don’t have stable residency, for obvious reasons,” Quezada said. “But they want to keep going to the school that they are going to.”

He also said he is concerned the policy could discourage students from going to school.

“I need undocumented students in school, and not running around in the streets,” Quezada said.

Proponents of the policy said APS needs to have a clear sense of where its students live, and that the policy will address the problem of overcrowded schools. They also said many of the acceptable forms of identification, like utility bills or leases, are not tied to citizenship.

The policy will apply districtwide, but was developed largely in response to overcrowding at North Star Elementary in the Northeast Heights.

North Star is persistently overcrowded, and this year it is about 80 students over-enrolled. At the same Wednesday meeting, the board unanimously approved a boundary change, which shifts about 40 families from the North Star attendance boundary to nearby Double Eagle Elementary.

North Star families have been adamant that the district should enforce attendance boundaries more strictly, and an APS audit of enrollment at the school found some North Star families do not really live in the attendance area. The audit also found that the school would still be overcrowded even if residency requirements were strictly enforced.

Mike Mertz, a North Star parent who was involved in drafting the enrollment verification policy, urged the board Wednesday to pass it. He said it has been key to helping parents accept the boundary change.

If the policy isn’t passed in conjunction with the boundary change, Mertz said, “It will send a message, an unintended message, that those that follow the rules are kicked out to make room for those that don’t.”
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal