How do public schools check addresses
Behind every smoothly running classroom is a hidden challenge that keeps school administrators up at night: keeping track of every student’s address and contact details across the entire district. Beyond more than just paperwork, these lists are the backbone of how funding is distributed, shaping the resources each school receives. With so much riding on accurate information, states now require districts to verify exactly where every student lives.
How can schools ensure they get the funding they deserve without drowning in a sea of paperwork and outdated records? The answer lies in a fast, reliable public records database, which can help districts stay organized, compliant, and financially secure all year long.
How do schools check addresses?
Public schools typically verify student addresses through documentation requirements and verification processes.
While public school districts come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, all of them rely on public records information to some extent. Most school districts have a central office where parents can go to register their children for class in the months before the school year begins. There they fill out a form with their information (such as driver’s license, demographics, primary residency) but usually must also provide additional proof that the information they gave is accurate. This proof of residency can include utility bills, tax documents, and other similar papers.
Most school districts today try to manage this process digitally by allowing parents to fill out the forms online and then sending follow-up emails if necessary. But that’s far from a foolproof system, as parents may overlook the emails, or simply ignore them. What’s more, many families don’t have reliable internet access. So, the more that the administrators can find themselves, the better.
Some districts may conduct additional verification through home visits, address verification services, or by requesting updated proof of residency annually to ensure students are attending schools within their assigned boundaries.
Challenges both ways
Clearly, this is a massive amount of data to gather and manage, and it can cost school districts a great deal of time and money. That expense only goes up when parents neglect to bring the additional documentation they need when they fill out the forms, which happens often. And even when they do, the district staff have to check those documents for accuracy – for instance, calling the sanitation company to find out whether it has been receiving payments from the address on the bill. There can also be other, more rudimentary challenges as well, like getting information from parents whose first language isn’t English. The challenge can become even more complex when families attempt to register in what they perceive as a better school district than the one where they actually reside. When little things start piling up, this already-difficult task can become overwhelming.
Every student matters
This verification is important to school districts for several reasons, especially as students transition from middle school to high school. This is because most school districts get a dollar amount per student, and those dollars are significant and crucial. In Illinois, for example, that figure per student is about $24,000. State laws regarding student residency are strict because taxpayers trust that their tax dollars is being distributed fairly and effectively, which is why several states, including Illinois, require that students actually live in a district’s boundaries in order to attend a school there. This verification process differs significantly from private school admissions, which operate under different funding models.
Over 40 states and the District of Columbia allow students to attend schools outside their neighborhood or district (including charter schools), schools still need to verify student information for other reasons, such as to confirm a families’ eligibility for things like bussing support and food programs.
Incorrect residency information can be costly both for districts and for students. And that’s not just in terms of funding. If the information is incorrect, a district may be forced to have the child leave a particular school, which is a painful situation for the child, the parents, and school staff.
The CLEAR approach
One way to ensure trust in the process — and also to save time and resources — is by leveraging a more reliable public records system like Thomson Reuters CLEAR. CLEAR is a cloud-based public records application that collects and analyzes thousands of state and federal data sets which can help with validation. It then displays the search results via a customizable, user-friendly dashboard.
While school districts can tap public records on their own to determine student residency, that’s a time-consuming process – one that CLEAR has automated. It offers a fast and easy way to check all of this information, saving districts time and resources, and helping them keep parents, taxpayers, and state education administrators happy.
To address these challenges, districts can tap into a bulk-data search capability with CLEAR Batch Services. This tool quickly digs through current and historical public records in order to verify the home addresses of every student with a single search. CLEAR Batch Services also keeps districts current on students’ address changes.
To make sure that your district is ready to serve every student, learn more about CLEAR for your public records needs.
Disclaimer
Thomson Reuters is not a consumer reporting agency, and none of its services or the data contained therein constitute a ‘consumer report’ as such term is defined in the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681 et seq. The data provided to you may not be used as a factor in consumer debt collection decisioning, establishing a consumer’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, government benefits, or housing, or for any other purpose authorized under the FCRA. By accessing one of our services, you agree not to use the service or data for any purpose authorized under the FCRA or in relation to taking an adverse action relating to a consumer application.
