Amnesty Deadline Today for Those Attending Albany Schools With False Residence

More than 60 families with students in  have admitted living outside the city .

These families have come forward in the last few weeks as part of an amnesty for transfer students without permits, which ends March 31. The superintendent through the end of the year if their families report accurate addresses by the end of the day Thursday.

The amnesty is part of an effort by the Albany Unified School District to curb the number of out-of-district students who lack official permission to attend district schools.

Meanwhile, a team of staff members has been designated to investigate potential violations. Around 200 cases have been investigated, according to . Two hourly employees have been assigned to the task. 

Earlier this week, Albany Patch reported that Stephenson  who attend Albany schools without permission. (The other 100 were determined to be out-of-date, but legitimate, address changes within the city.)

Students who are discovered without the proper documentation after March 31 could be removed from the district immediately, the superintendent . 

Stephenson said the effort is an attempt to curb out-of-district students in Albany who have not entered through the proper channels, and allow more room for transfer students currently on the waiting list. Many of the 100 or so students on the list have been waiting for up to two years, said Stephenson.

But getting into Albany schools from the waiting list is still a real possibility, she added.

"This is not the time that I want to be in declining enrollment," said Stephenson. "Given our current fiscal situation, we are looking, at this point in time, for stabilized enrollment. But, at the end of the day, I still want to know who lives in the district and who does not."

As of the 2010-11 school year, Albany from the state for each student. Local parcel taxes can spend significantly.

AUSD ENROLLMENT

Year

Total Enrollment

API

Non-Resident Enrollment

2010-11

3,821

N/A

471

2009-10

3,807

871

586

2008-09

3,838

864

633

2007-08

3,810

850

685

2006-07

3,652

860

623

2005-06

3,598

862

644

2004-05

3,423

858

586

2003-04

3,314

854

512

2002-03

3,145

862

388

Transfer students are generally accepted into Albany schools in the higher grades to matriculate them more quickly, according to Stephenson.

Transfer students come into the district mainly from Contra Costa County, especially from cities such as El Cerrito, El Sobrante and Richmond. Students from Berkeley and Oakland do not make up the majority, Stephenson said.

Potential red flags for illegal transfer students include returned mail, P.O. Box addresses, and word-of-mouth from community members, teachers and staff. The process for verifying student addresses includes sending letters and emails to parents asking them to come in and re-verify their residency, and eventually sending staff to knock on doors.

The district has yet to determine what the optimum number of transfer students for Albany schools should be, said Stephenson.

She said transfer students have placed added strain on the overall capacity of Albany schools, but denied that the schools are overcrowded. 

Claims that out-of-district students threaten the academic integrity of the district were also denied by the superintendent, although the evidence, she said, is at this point only anecdotal.

"My initial impression is that [transfer students] may improve test scores," said Stephenson. "Parents care enough to drive them into town every day. That means they care about their child's education. The anecdotal evidence would be that the parents care enough to provide homework support and want to be in an Albany school, which is a high-performing school."

Stephenson said the district is planning to track transfer students more closely in the coming years to determine their effect on academic attainment and diversity.

"I can't provide evidence but, now that I'm beginning to identify who is out-of-district, I will be able to track their scores," said Stephenson. 

Stephenson and began an effort to reduce the number of transfer students in the Albany Unified School District three years ago. The economic downturn, coupled with a new parcel tax on the ballot, drew the community's attention to out-of-district students. 

"The complaint was that these inter-district transfer families do not pay parcel tax so they don't pay their fair share for the cost of an Albany education," said Stephenson.

Since a peak, in 2007-08, of 685 non-resident transfer students, this population had decreased by about 31 percent as of this year.

Enrollment has been relatively stable since 2007-08, after several years of steady growth in the earlier part of the decade.