By Kelly Melhart, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Jan. 28–A new state law that allows some children to attend school in the districts where their grandparents live has school officials worried about a possible influx of students.
The law’s only requirement is that grandparents care for the children for a “substantial period.” School districts are left to define that period.
Few North Texas families have officially taken advantage of the rule, but for years students have used their grandparents’ address to attend school in a district where they do not live.
“A lot of families can be very creative in their guardianship and who’s watching the kids and how to get kids around the system already,” said Bob Templeton, a demographer who forecasts student-population trends for several area districts.
School officials say enrollments could increase as more people learn about the law, which took effect this school year.
So districts are trying to ensure that families do not abuse the privilege by shopping for sports programs or better-performing schools.
In Highland Park, the largest school district in Texas to have earned an “exemplary” rating from the state, grandparents and parents must sign affidavits stating that “grandparents are not providing care for the sole purpose of the student coming to our district,” said Julie Burton, the district’s director of personnel.
The high-achieving Carroll district, which serves most of Southlake, requires parents to sign affidavits that list the hours and days students will spend with grandparents. Any changes must be reported to the district immediately.
The Grapevine-Colleyville district defines “substantial period” as at least four hours a day four days a week, while the Fort Worth district handles the issue case by case. And in Mansfield, students in grades nine and up are ineligible; the district says they don’t need child care.
The school districts are walking a fine line. They must be responsive to family dynamics and follow the law, but administrators also know that increased enrollments could tax their budgets. In fast-growing districts such as Mansfield, Crowley and Keller, more elementary school students could mean a need for more teachers. The state limits class sizes to 22 students in grades kindergarten through four.
“The simple fact of the matter is we are among the fastest-growing districts in the area,” said Claude Cunningham, Mansfield school district assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “Any student above the forecasted growth is a problem. But we are a public school system, and we are required to take all of those children who live in our district or can legally attend our schools.”
The Fort Worth school district has for years allowed out-of-district students to attend, said Leslie James, assistant superintendent for student-support services.
“If a student was spending a substantial amount of time or residing with a relative in our district, then it made sense to try and educate them as close to where they are living as possible,” he said. “This just gave us more justification for what we had already done.”
According to the 2000 Census, more than 5.7 million people live with their grandchildren nationwide. Of those, 2.4 million are their grandchildren’s primary caregivers.
Beverly Ditman moved a little more than a year ago from Columbus, Ohio, to the Park Glen neighborhood in far north Fort Worth to care for her three granddaughters.
Child care is “superexpensive, and it is certainly not quality care,” she said. Her son is a single father.
On school days, Ditman arrives at her son’s home at 6 a.m. and wakes up the girls an hour later. They eat breakfast, and she takes the two older girls to school. The youngest goes to kindergarten in the afternoon. The children stay with the Ditmans until their father comes home from work.
Ditman traded open spaces and lots of trees for the compact Park Glen neighborhood, but she says she did it for the right reasons, carefully picking a home near her grandchildren’s Keller district schools.
“I didn’t want to disrupt their lives at all,” she said. “They seem to enjoy this arrangement we have.”
State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, saw the need for options when he offered the grandparent provision as an amendment to two bills that addressed student transfers to new districts, said Shyra Darr, Keel’s chief of staff. There were no objections, and Gov. Rick Perry signed both bills into law last year.
Most area districts do not monitor the number of students admitted under the legislation, but all say they believe the figure is small. In Birdville, which tracks students, four of nearly 23,000 students used the law to enroll, said Mark Thomas, district spokesman.
The law could be a boon for districts that want to add students, for wealthy districts that send money to the state and for poorer districts under Texas’ Robin Hood school-finance system, said Templeton, the local demographer. In many cases, the more students enrolled in a district, the more money it receives from the state or can keep under Robin Hood.
“The ability to draw in new students could be positive,” Templeton said.
Hurst-Euless-Bedford Superintendent Gene Buinger said payments to the state Robin Hood system declined when hundreds of student evacuees from Hurricane Katrina arrived.
And although no students in Buinger’s district have used the new law so far, Buinger said he sees firsthand the need for such legislation.
“There are many grandparents who are raising their grandchildren and many more providing assistance to their children by keeping their children on a regular basis after school or even before school,” Buinger said. “Child care is such an expense, and who is going to be more dependable than grandparents?”
“Child care is such an expense, and who is going to be more dependable than grandparents?”
Kelly Melhart, (817) 685-3854 [email protected]
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Copyright (c) 2006, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
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