BY OLIVIA VEIRA

On Aug. 31, Atlanta Public Schools sent a letter to students announcing it would be removing out-of-zone students from Grady. In the letter, students living out-of-zone were encouraged to leave Grady and enroll in their zoned school. APS director of media relations Keith Bromery said by sending out this letter, APS attempted to ameliorate overcrowding.

To Emily* an out-of-district student, this letter seemed like another of APS’s empty threats, until she received a personalized version of the letter. The letter surprised Emily because it was sent to her home, rather than the address that she gave APS in order to go to Grady.

“It was strange,” she said. “It was suspicious. We took that as a sign. All we knew was that a course of action should be taken before something worse happens.”

Emily’s family used a fake address to enroll at Grady. Her real address is just outside Grady’s zone. Her family decided to enroll despite being out of district because they felt Grady excelled academically compared to other APS high schools.

“While the district is encouraged that so many parents believe Grady High School is the appropriate choice for their child, we also have a responsibility to ensure that students currently attending Grady are there appropriately,” regional K-12 executive director of schools David White wrote in the Aug. 31 letter. “As a result, we will be examining all aspects of registration documents, including affidavits. The enrollment affidavits signed during enrollment and registration verify under oath that the information provided is true and correct.”

Emily and her mother decided to take the letter’s advice and she transferred to her zoned APS school, hoping to later return to Grady. At her zoned school, she quickly realized she would not be challenged academically.

“First of all, they didn’t have Spanish 4,” Emily said. “I couldn’t take any AP classes and within [my U.S. History class] I already know the information just by reading the first day [of class]. I already knew what they were talking about for the next three days, so it was kind of a waste of time. And then in my lit class all we did was packets and my teacher didn’t interact with us at all and then they weren’t informative.”

In addition, Emily could not participate in any of the extracurricular activities she enjoyed at Grady.

After a few days of attending her zoned school, Emily found out a family member had purchased property within Grady’s zone and they would allow her to use the address to enroll. She reenrolled at Grady using the new address.

APS’s letter describes the consequences of fraudulently enrolling a student at Grady and states that parents engaging in such fraudulent activity may face prosecution or fines.

“That’s the last resort for us,” Bromery said. “We’re not looking to put people in jail or to fine them, but if we have to incur costs to do investigations, which would be to redirect social workers from their normal work to investigating that or to hire private detectives, which we do on occasion to try to look into these matters, we have the right to recover these costs from individuals who have engaged in fraudulent activity to enroll their students in schools [to which they] are not zoned.”

During redistricting, APS measured the projected population at each school. The projected enrollment at Grady is 1,342 students whereas enrollment as of Sept. 7 was 1,432 students. Grady and each of its feeder schools are currently overcapacity. Bromery said APS decided to audit Grady after noticing almost 100 more students were enrolled than expected.

To carry out the auditing process more thoroughly, APS set up an anonymous hotline to report out-of-district students. Bromery said it has been useful, though he is unsure of how many individuals have been reported via hotline.

Bromery said there are several problems with illegally registering students. First, it forces students to lie.

“They have to buy into the fraud,” Bromery said. “Is that a good lesson to be teaching your children in terms of you getting them into a school? That you would lie and get them involved in something criminal?”

Emily doesn’t feel like she has to lie about where she lives. Most of her friends are aware of her situation, and she knows many other Grady students who live out of zone.

“I just think a lot of people have been living out of district and going to schools and nothing has happened to scare people so nobody’s really thinking about it until it personally affects them,” Emily said.

Bromery said APS has been trying to reduce the population in overcrowded schools and if parents and students lie about their residency in order to attend overcrowded schools, APS redistricting efforts will go to waste.

“It doesn’t do any of the kids any good to have a school that’s beyond capacity,” Bromery said. “We took measures with the redistricting and the rezoning to try to alleviate the overcapacity situation at Grady and if people are circumventing that by using various fraudulent means to have their kids [attend] Grady even though they don’t live [in zone], that’s contributing to the overcapacity situation that we’re trying to alleviate.”

In 1990, the state board of education voted on a resolution to limit class size. The board decided that class size should be capped at 39 percent of the funding size in core classes, which would be 32 students for APS high schools this year, according to APS’s Capacity/Utilization Study 2011. Schools that did not comply with these limitations would not receive some of the allocated funding.

In response to budget cuts, however, the state board designed a waiver that allowed schools to receive funding even if their class sizes were larger than the suggested ones. Despite the state waiver, APS implemented its own student-to-teacher ratio. APS mandated that classes have a 25:1 ratio in core classes.

The Southern Regional Educational Board, an organization that helps southern policy makers draft legislation that concerns schools, suggests that school districts hold off on reducing class sizes when budgets are stretched.

“Reasonable estimates suggest that it may be one of the most expensive single education initiatives states undertake,” an SREB policy report said. “Scholars at both the RAND Corporation and the Brookings Institution estimate that shrinking average class size by even one student would cost the nation more than $10 billion per year.”

After a week and a half of waiting, Emily received an email from APS stating she was able to enroll at Grady. She is attending the same classes as before and has begun to enjoy Grady’s potpourri of extracurriculars again.

APS will continue to audit Grady and its cluster schools to relieve overcrowding. Emily understands APS’s actions, but hopes that they will begin to sympathize with students in her situation.

“[My zoned school] is an up-and coming school,” Emily said. “But it’s my junior year and I don’t have time to wait for [my zoned school] to be up to par.”

Despite being fraudulently enrolled at Grady, Emily said she tries not to worry.

“My mom is worried,” Emily said. “I don’t allow myself to worry about it because I shouldn’t have to. Just because I can’t afford a house, it’s not fair.”

*Name has been changed at source’s request.