Residency proof required annually in Bentonville School District

BENTONVILLE -- A new School District policy effective this summer requires parents submit proof of residency annually in order for their children to remain enrolled in one of the schools.

"We have a lot of movement in our community, so we thought it would be a good practice for us to start asking for this each year," said Tanya Sharp, executive director of student services.

Documentation

The Bentonville School District now requires two types of proof of residency from families of students. They may choose one of the following options:

• Current real-estate property tax receipt and an original current utility bill showing parent’s name and address

• Rent or lease agreement and an original current utility bill showing parent’s name and address

• Originals of current utility bills from two different utilities showing parent’s name and address

Those who don’t have one of the above listed items must provide documented proof that they live in the district at the district’s Student Services Center, 1000 S.E. 14th St., Bentonville.

Families with more than one student in the district need to submit to one school, while notifying the registrar the proofs must be sent to other schools.

Source: Staff report

Until this year, the district requested proof of residency upon initial enrollment of a child, but didn't ask again unless an address discrepancy somehow came to the district's attention, Sharp said.

School registrars will begin accepting proofs of residency on July 18. Students whose proof of residency has not been submitted by Aug. 25 -- 10 days after the first day of school -- will be disenrolled, Sharp said.

The district occasionally discovers people have moved out of the district without making officials aware. Sharp wouldn't estimate how often that happens, but said, "I think it comes up more often than you think."

Checking on students' residency annually is not an unusual practice, said Debbie Jones, interim superintendent.

"That is just part of us performing our jobs," Jones said. "It's a duty to the taxpayers. They are supporting the families living within their school district boundaries. We just want to do our due diligence to make sure we're supporting our families."

The Rogers School District also checks residency annually, but in a different way. Residents are not required to present documents to the schools. Instead, the schools send letters to their families' last known address each summer; if any letters are returned to sender, the schools follow up with those families to verify residency, said Virginia Abernathy, assistant superintendent of elementary curriculum and instruction.

The Fayetteville School District requires proof of residency annually, according to Fayetteville's public information officer, Alan Wilbourn. The Springdale School District does not, said Rick Schaeffer, communications director.

Requiring proof of residency allows the district to ensure students are in their appropriate attendance zone and understand the growth within those zones, providing better information on where schools need to be built and where zoning lines should be tweaked, Bentonville officials said.

"The smartest thing to do is look at our zoning and consider foremost where the student population is," Jones said. "Rezoning is painful. Removing families from schools is painful for parents and students. So we do want to be very smart about the planning and take into consideration where the greatest need is."

Bentonville plans to open an 11th elementary school and a fifth middle school on Featherston Road in time for the 2017-18 school year. A 12th elementary school and sixth middle school are planned to be opened by the 2019-20 school year, though no sites have been chosen for them yet.

"We are still looking at different pieces of land," Jones said.

NW News on 06/30/2016

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