1-28-10 Ossining Board of Education Statement on Residency

BOARD OF EDUCATION STATEMENT

RESIDENCY

The Board of Education is committed to the re-registration process and its goal of ensuring that every student who attends the Ossining Public Schools is a resident of the school district. The Board will not, however, summarily exclude students in derogation of legal process, regardless of threats from members of our community who desire such an outcome. 

In the implementation of the re-registration process, the School District was legally required to properly notify all affected parents/guardians of the re-registration process, the requirements that must be met to re-register their students, and the consequences of the failure to re-register. It has and continues to be a heavily labor intensive process that needs to be accomplished in a complete and thorough manner so that potential outcomes will withstand legal challenge. The Superintendent of Schools, administration and Board of Education have adhered to the law, Commissioner’s Regulations and advice of counsel every step of the way and will continue to do so.

We recognize that the re-registration process has been a lengthy process. It should be noted, however, that neighboring school districts have taken up to one (1) school year to complete re-registration of students. We just started this process in October and have made great strides in securing the re-registration of the overwhelming majority of the students.

For those parents/guardians who have not responded to the School District’s reregistration requirement, they will be shortly receiving an exclusion determination in accordance with the procedures set forth in 8 NYCRR §100.2y of the Commissioner’s Regulations. These procedures, as well as decisional law, require the School District to provide written notification to the parent/guardian of the basis for its residency determination. In addition, the School District must provide these parents/guardians with the opportunity to meet with school officials to provide additional documentation regarding their residency status, and their right to appeal an exclusion determination to the Commissioner of Education. As such, the School District will be outreaching to these families to communicate its residency determination and scheduling conferences to provide these families with the opportunity to submit additional information to school officials concerning their residency status. These are legally mandated due process requirements associated with the exclusion process which must and will be followed.

The Board and administration will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the students who attend the Ossining Public Schools are residents of the school district.  We are fully committed to the re-registration process.

We are equally committed to ensuring that the process is conducted appropriately and in full compliance with the law.


BOARD OF EDUCATION

Alice Joselow, President
Cindy Winter, Vice President
Kimberly Case
Charles Cooks
Amanda Curley
Bill Kress
Dana Levenberg
Vanessa Muro

January 28, 2010