Confusion over their address is costing a New Jersey family over $10,000.

A woman who lives in Brick, but has a Howell mailing address, has to pay the Howell Board of Education after she mistakenly enrolled her child in the neighboring district.

In New Jersey, mailing addresses often do not follow municipal boundaries.

The student actually attended Howell schools for three years after being enrolled in 2014. The family was notified of the residency problem in December 2016, but the student finished the school year in Howell.

An administrative law judge ruled last year that the family was unaware of the mistake until Dec. 9, 2016. The judge ruled reimbursement should only apply to days the student attended attended Howell schools after being alerted by the district, not the total time the student was enrolled in the district.

The bill still came to $10,445.76 for 124 days for the remainder of the 2016-17 school year. The day rate was listed in the finding as $84.24.

The child's mother, who was identified by the initials T.K., appealed the decision, but the New Jersey Commissioner of Education reviewed the petition and upheld the amount in a ruling issued last week.

The family's address was not listed in the decision. While Brick and Howell are in two different counties, there is a small section of Brick west of the Garden State Parkway along the Howell border.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook.