Not That I'm Implying Anything with that Icon...

[amberfocus]

...though I did make it just for this post.  If I have to jump through one more hoop for the school district I think I am going to go freaking insane!  Like Fiona, who does not put up with this sort of BS, I am rapidly reaching my boiling point.  School district needs to join the 21st century and realize that people do not necessarily have land lines anymore and accept cell phone bills as proof of residence.  Gah!


So, we just don't have anything in our name that they will take.  Since we are living here until we sell our house and we don't have a formal rental agreement with Mom and we are just giving her money to pay the bills instead of putting them in our name, we are having problems.  But in order to switch the utilities to our name it would cost a lot of money because this city treats everything like a new connection fee even if all they are doing is changing the names on the paperwork.  No, I don't want to shell out $400 to get all the utlities transferred, thank you.

Things they won't take as proof that are in our name:

Car payment statement with our new address on it
Car insurance statement with our new address on it
Health insurance statement with our new address on it
Life insurance statement with our new address on it
Cell phone bill with our new address on it
Hospital emergency room bill with July date of service on it with our new address on it
Bank statement with our new address on it (acct. # crossed out)
Credit card statement with our new address on it (acct. # crossed out)
Propane (which is a freaking utility) bill from our old place but with our new address on it  because anyone anywhere can buy propane for a 500 gallon tank apparently (but why would you want to?) so it's not considered a gas bill
Pay stub from Chris's job

Yeah, so I have that many things but they don't count, because I would so go and change my entire life around just to sneak into your school district when I didn't live there.  I don't f'ing think so.

Finally they agreed that they would take the car regeistration (the thing you get with your tabs when you pay your yearly license fee), only it still has our old address on it.  So I went down to the courthouse to get a new one with the new address.  You want to know what I had to do to prove to the county that I lived at my new address?  Hmm?  TELL THEM.  They just typed in the new addy over the old one in the computer and printed me a new one, with a $5 charge.  THAT WAS IT.  No proof of residence.  No driver's license (which still has the old addy even if I did change the info with the state).  Nada.

So if I want to sneak my kids into a school district in future, I'll remember that.  No, not really, but honestly.  These are both government run entitites.  Why is it so fricking hard to get into a public school system that by law my kids are mandated to go to if I am not homeschooling them, but I can walk into the seat of county government, which has metal detectors for goodness' sake because they trust no one, and yet they will just take my word for it?


If they don't accept the registration after all this crap when I go down there tomorrow I am going to be seriously pissed off.  This...this is just pissed off.  When I add the seriously in...I'll be like my mother.  The entire school district was afraid of dealing with my mother.  I don't want to be her, but I CAN be.  School district, you DO NOT WANT THIS.
 

Comments

[bratflorida.livejournal.com]

*applauding* Ohhhhhh....how I HATE dealing with the schools. I had the same problem a few years back, it ende up that I had to get a notarized letter from the person I was living with stating that I lived there. HUGE waste of time, several trips back and forth, and down here, we have what's called 'School Choice'. While you're running like a chicken trying to get the paperwork they want, the seats in the school you want are being filled with other kids. ARRRGHHHH. Ahem. Hope it goes well for you, leave the automatic weapons at home though, just in case...

[corusca.livejournal.com]

See, nonsense like this is why I never stopped homeschooling. My parents refused to deal with that stuff, haha.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what we had to do, which is what I asked about on the first day. This could have been taken care of a week ago if they'd not given me such a runaround.

[juliet316]

Ouch. My sympathies. Reminds me of the crap runaround the DMV gave me when I was renewing my ID a few years back.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yeah, if we ever get the special license for crossing into Canada we'll have trouble presenting the same sort of stuff. Probably not worth it to go to Canada again until we've bought a new house of our own.

[aibhinn.livejournal.com]

I asked about why the districts here are so picky about how they get their proof of residence, and it's not really their fault; it's a state law. I think it has to do with federal monies, but I'm not really sure. But don't blame the school district too much; go talk to the Legislature. (In fact, I have a few bones I'd like to pick with them.)

Sorry for all the frustration. :(

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know it is, but the state isn't here telling me all this stuff, it's the people here. I try so carefully not to let out my frustration on them because I'll have to deal with them in the future. But I definitely think there's going to be a congress person or two who will be getting annoyed letters from me next month.

[jellybean728.livejournal.com]

I had a similar issue last year when we moved. My kids finished that school year at their old schools and were to transfer this past fall to their new schools. We told the old school to transfer my son's records, and told the new school to expect them. Then, two weeks before school started when I had yet to get anything from them, they told me that because I hadn't physically gone to the new school to register him, they weren't holding a seat for him. Then they threatened to bus him to yet ANOTHER school because they didn't have the room. I had to appeal to the Superintendant of Schools to stop it.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Seems like everyone has issues with their school districts. It's ridicuouls.

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Hee. My mom sounds like your mom. NOBODY messed with her babies! LOL

It's utterly ridiculous that they wouldn't take any/all of that stuff as proof of residence...I mean, what the hell, people?? A land-line phone bill is required? I'd be screwed. I've got VOIP right now and I'm about to can it and just go to my cell phone. The plans are all way too freakin expensive for someone who makes as few calls as I do. Stoopid school system...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Mama bear protects the cubs. I know, it's silly. It's not even the best school district in the area. If I were going to sneak my kids into any district it wouldn't even be this one. *laughs*

[amyo67.livejournal.com]

OMG. I'm so sorry you have to go through this. I fully understand hoop jumping and how infuriating it can be.

*hugs you*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I know you've been through all sorts of things as well. *hugs*

[klb89.livejournal.com]

There just seems to be a lack of common sense anymore. I see it in my job all the time-both from the company and customers. I fear for the future of the human race. I'm beginning to think if it became 'cool, cutting edge and hip' to jump off a cliff-there goes most of the American public.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yes, and all over the place, too. I just wish the people in charge of teaching our kids to think would learn to do it once in a while themselves.

[glory_jean]

That is pathetic. You know what I'll be submitting? My driver's license and my phone bill - which is in my FIL's name (long story.) Maybe it's because we are in a voluntary homeschooling program for the free books and teacher-who-copes-with-the-paperwork-stuff which the district still gets money for. But I think I gave similar stuff when we swapped over from private school and were actually *in* school.

And on a side note: all I can say, if you have a scary-mom roll model, embrace it. My mom was so scary (to the same district) we swear there was a party thrown when I graduated. I tried to be nicer. In the end, it was better to be scary. The principal now jumps to attention when I approach him. /close mommy!rage. ;)

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

That's like the homeschooling program we were doing the last two years, sounds like. But the kids really, really wanted to go back to public school this year. I've told them both they are bloody well staying in for the whole year. I am not playing these sorts of reindeer games again this school year.

My default personality is to be nice. It's hard for me to be scary or angry at people. I CAN, but I dislike it immensely. Still, for my kids I'll do just about anything.

[kitsune17.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, when my mom lived in New London, she had to go through rigamarole like this for my sisters every year. Where she lived was maybe one city block from the local elementary school, yet the districts were so oddly arranged that my sisters were supposed to go to this school halfway across the city. So every year, my mom was stuck having to complete 'out of district' forms that had to be noterized and approved by the head of some school committee thing. It was ridiculous.

I'm sorry for your school drama. It sucks.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

What a pain. I'm beginning to think there is no school district out there with a lick of common sense.

[jessalrynn.livejournal.com]

My mother used to terrify school districty people, too. The Superintendent very nearly pulled the scene from Boomtown to avoid her once. Admittedly, he had a bathroom in his office, but still. You go girl! Be a bully!Mommy - it is GOOD for them!

I don't understand these schools. All the time they complain that parents aren't involved, parents won't come talk to them, parents won't follow the requirements, and then, you try to go talk to them or follow the requirements, they want to play dog games with you and ask for a letter from your first grade teacher and a pint of blood to prove you really are you. Twits.

Good luck, honey.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I don't understand them either. The last school I dealt with before I pulled them out, the teacher wouldn't work with us, wouldn't read the notes from home, kept feeding him the "healthy" free snacks that were donated to the school even though he was allergic to things like apples, grapes, and raisins. I thought they wanted parents to work with them, but at the last place that was obviously wrong. They just wanted to do what they wanted to do. This is a whole other school district, though. A better one. We just need to make it through the last hoops and we're set.

[yavie-namarie.livejournal.com]

I think my icon pretty much says all that I have to say on this matter...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*snorts* Yes, I agree.

[wildwinterwitch.livejournal.com]

While I totally understand your furstration I must say I am fascinated to see how things do (not) work in your corner. Bureaucracy is bad no matter where you live, but in this regard I must say that I am totally floored by the hoops they have you hop through.

When I moved all I had to do was go to the residents' registration office, fill in a form and had my ID card updated with my new address. No proof of residence (i.e. tenancy agreement) was necessary for that... and they do not accept, what, nearly a dozen documents that you actually live where you live? Madness.

Registering your kid at a school is equally simple. And since most schools are state-run they have to give your kid a seat as long as they are required to attend school (homeschooling isn't possible in Germany).

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yep, if it's not the right document they won't accept it. Even when it was one that apparently the day before was the right document. *shakes head* Hopefully when the morning gets here it will all finally be taken care of.

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

I think the Jefferson County School administration probably breathed a collective sigh of relief when my son moved in with his dad and my daughter graduated a few years later. No more having to deal Leah. Not to mention that good ol' Leah started telling other parents who to take their complaints to. Yes that was evil and I considered it a public service.

Be the Oncoming Mom!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I like that, the Oncoming Mom.

[capemaynuts.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that you are having so many frustrations but if it makes you feel any better, we have the same silly requirements here in NJ. Up here, the issue is that because the local property taxes pay for the schools, they don't want any outside kids. So our town actually has someone on the payroll whose job is it to confirm that all the kids actually live in our town. You'd be amazed at how many people have moved out of the town, even out of state, but are still sending their kids to our schools because the school is closer to their jobs!
I have to provide all the same proof of residency each time one of my kids advance up the school ladder, and I work for the school system! My kids live at the same address that they mail my paycheck. I'm not looking forward to the Spring of 2012, when both my kids switch schools.
But then again, if you think its hard to register your kids for school, you should try and get a driver's license in NJ. LOL