What was once a rare occurrence has become a common violation of the law: Parents lying about their residency in order to send their kids to better schools.

This unlawful act, punishable with time in jail, has increased in recent years, especially among the poor and single mothers.

Verify Residence, a New Jersey-based company that helps public schools identify out-of-district students, has gone from doing one investigation a month to performing two or three of them a day.

Yolanda Miranda of Rochester, New York, spent the night in jail on charges of grand larceny three years ago for “stealing an education” for her children by sending her children to school in the nearby suburb of Greece.

“They put me in a holding cell. They accused me of grand larceny, for stealing education, and I had to laugh,” Miranda told The Daily. “How can you steal an education?” Her charge was later reduced to lying on the school enrollment forms, a misdemeanor to which she pleaded guilty.

But so far Miranda’s fate isn’t as extreme as that of Tanya McDowell of Bridgeport, Connecticut. When AllGov last visited her story in April, McDowell had been charged with first-degree larceny for enrolling her son in a kindergarten in a neighboring school district instead of her own. The Norwalk school district claimed that she had stolen the equivalent of the $15,585 it had spent teaching her son for four months, an amount they later lowered to $6,200.

She was later arrested for selling marijuana and crack cocaine to undercover officers. On February 22 of this year, McDowell pleaded guilty to the school-related offense and drug charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. Prosecutors took the position that she was using city services to facilitate her drug dealing.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Homeless Mom Faces 20 Years in Jail for Enrolling Son in Better School District (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)