Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Hoboken Issue - Out of District Students

Hoboken Issue - Out of District Students

One of the hot button issues in Hoboken Schools is the assertion that a large number of students are attending Hoboken Schools that are not from the City of Hoboken. It is important to note that there are legitimate examples of that and one such example would be a special education student approved to participate in Hoboken schools from another district through proper means.

Already under Peter Carter, the interim Superintendent of Hoboken Schools, 12 such students have been found not to be living within the Hoboken School District. That is a start and it is certainly there will be more such out of district students when a thorough investigation is completed.  Since the total number is a bit of speculation, I figured I would add a poll to see what readers who follow the Hoboken Schools feel will be the correct number. Note: At the request of the current Hoboken BOE board, all students have been asked to re-register coming soon.

For your edification a source of mine has given me these links to explain the NJ State regulations on the issue of registering students. It is my hope that this will create a more informed debate on the topic. Regardless of your individual opinion on what should be done, the Board and Administration must follow these rules to properly handle the issue of out of district enrollments. It's the law.

NJ BOE Out of District Regulations:

Sample Forms

The Department of Education has developed the following package of sample forms, notices and informational materials to facilitate implementation of the laws governing a student’s right to attend public school based on domicile or residency in a school district. The package is intended to aid in the understanding of the rights and responsibilities of districts, and of persons seeking to enroll students in school, under N.J.S.A. 18A:38-1 and N.J.A.C. 6A:22.

http://www.state.nj.us/education/code/current/title6a/chap22sample.pdf

Regulations

http://www.state.nj.us/education/code/current/title6a/chap22.pdf

Here is the poll on what readers feel is the current total number of out of district students:



Editor's Note:

For those who expect a panacea of savings from this, don't expect too much, Savings or cuts that is. It is most likely that the students who could be found to be out of district more or less evenly distributed amoungst classes. The resulting class size reductions would necessarily mean any reduction in the number of classrooms since the ratio fof students to teachers would be again likely to be within state regulated guidelines. ◦
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