Are trapped in failing districts because of their zip go code, Soledad Obrien discovered the illegal enrolment process in schools. Its 7 30 in the morning. Jack larkin is getting ready for school. We need to do the writing journal. I did. Your philosophy journal. I did. Jack and his parents live in millbrn new jersey, about half an hour from new york city, in a country that has some of the richest neighbourhoods and some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the state. Luckily for jack millbrn is a wealthy town, his School System is one of the best. How about a nice green apple . For a snack. Jacks mum, stephanie has a personal and professional take on the millbrn Public Schools. This is here in the hills. Shes a top real estate ate and knows the schools are the selling point of the neighbourhood. The suburbs are about the Elementary Schools. Love you, bye. There are five Elementary Schools. A middle school and millbrn high school which consistently ranks as one of the Top Performing schools in the country. App 98 graduation a 98 graduation rate. 70 of juniors and seniors taking and passing at least one advance placement test. In millbrn you get a great commute, fantastic community and excellent School System. Its the three things that most people are locking for. The schools are technically public. The price of administration to live in the township is a whopping 1. 3 million, the average sale price of a home. Average real estate taxes run around 20,000. There are lower priced rentals, but no officially designated affordable housing. The way it works is you go to school. Theres a zip code education system. Laura waters is president of the Lawrence Township school board in Mercer County and author of mjleftbehind. Millbrn offers 28 ap course, they have access to their academic interest in all sorts of ways. A few miles down the road its a different story. If you live 10 miles away from millbrn. In newark new jersey, you might go to Barringer High School as opposed to Barringer High School. They have about a 56 graduation. There are almost no ip courses. Most of the kids fail to reach proficiency. The reason those kids go to barringer is thats where their parents can afford to live. Barringer is considered a worstperforming schools. Violence is route ip. In october 2012 a male student was stabbed to death. Two years earlier a female student was sexually assaulted in a classroom. They dont have a choice, they are stuck. They cannot go another Public School. No. And that seems to me so unfair. Not everyone is stuck. New jersey does have Charter Schools and an Interdistrict Transfer Program for a small number of students. The High Performing School districts want to protect their borders. After all, its their local property taxes that are paying for the schools. Schools try to be vigilant about creating a Registration System that confirms that the children who are enrolled in the school actually live in the district because the people who live in a wealthy district are funding the education. They are personally funding the schools. It comes on the back of those taxpayers. If you say theres a kid from newark trying to sneak in, we are not going to pay for that. Private investigator knows the extremes that schools will go to to keep students out. Hes built his business on it. They verify residents. In response to the growing number of School Districts reaching out to him to make sure all the students lived where they said they did. Its a border control. Wall to wall monitors, and his partner tracked hun drds of students. How does it work. Walk me through the process. Does the school reach out to you and say we have a suspicion about a student . The school will reach out and say wed like you to do an audit of the student roster. We run the student names through a database. It will come off as out of district, out the town, out of state. In new jersey there was a lot of cases where the students lived in pennsylvania and new york city and coming to school in new jersey, and we can identify those kids. There are no real statistics on how many students are enrolled immediately in schools outside the district where they live. The School Board Association says they dont track the data. But there are more than 500 School Districts in the state. In many cases there are poorly performing schools, blocks away from highly performing schools. Border hopping happens all the time. Theres one district where its common to have students. They confront them, have officers that confront the officers. How do you feel about it personally. Like in theory everywheres Public School should be equif leftenlt as an vettor i try not to get involved in why people do what they do. Bottom line is they are breaking the law. For an educator its a little more complicated. That is something i struggled with. Adam freed is superintendent of Harrington ParkSchool District. As a teacher we know what we need to do. As a superintendent, because of our tax structure in the state of new jersey we have stakeholders that we are responsible for. How much of your budget here comes from the taxes of the people that live in the district. Its roughly 90 . Have you hired a private investigator before . We had to. It breaks your heart to do that. You though theres 5,000 Community Members that you are responsible for, and you have the ultimate responsibility. As an educator, thats the thing that drives your heart. In new jersey the consequences include expulsion or paying back the School Districts tuition. In ohio, pennsylvania and five other states, boundary hoppers can be charged criminally. I never thought i would go to gaol for lying about my zip code. When we return, parents locked up for stealing on education. Before the break special correspondent Soledad Obrien told us about boundary hopping, families that sneak their kids into the good schools. In the second half of Soledad Obriens indepth report we meet parents facing serious penalties for doing it. Kelly williams bonar is a 43yearold mother and teachers aid. She went to gaol in 2011 for illegally enrolling her children in the wrong School District. I had issues with my neighbourhood, an unsafe neighbourhood. I had a prowler around the home, someone that broke into my home. I talked to my father. He said send them to our school, my school. You are here every day, all the time anyway. Was it done to sort of sneak it in . Did you know you were putting an address you dont . Ive been working for the School System. I knew about a lot of students that did the same thing. Find on address, put it down. It wasnt so much that i found it, this was my dads address. We live off the same road. He lived in the township and i lived in the city. We literally live five minutes away. The township had better schools. Yes, they had good schools. She loved the school. Her daughter enrolled in her fathers district. They had thinks i never would think Elementary School had. We had a computer lab. We had the garden outside, the old greenhouse, and i was grateful to have been able to go there for just two years. Tell me how you were court. They would understand i had an investigator from cleveland area, and he would come down and watch and men they came to their conclusion saying they had clear and convincing evidence. Williams withdrew her children from school and enrolled them back in acron. It was a huge difference. It was huge. We didnt learn much. There was a lot of disruptive in classes. There was no resources. It was just completely different. I felt like i was not learning anything at all. Williams bowler was surprised when 18 months later she was indicted. What was the charges. Grand theft, which was the money. Then forgery she went to gaol for nine days. The judge said she wanted to send a message to others like her. You know, i had the swabbing of the mouth, i had the fingerprinting. I had the picture. Who was taking care of your daughters . My dad. My father. He had the he had to watch them and keep them. In his house in the district they allegedly never were in. Right, right. Williams bolars story generated outrage. A petition to free her went phial. Ohios governor pardoned her. I wouldnt have done it. I wouldnt have done it. People do it for their jobs, safety, education. So many Different Reasons why a parent would want to take their child out of that district into another district. Alicia of pennsylvania were also arrested and charged with theft of services or stealing on education. We got handcuffs like criminals with a belt. With a leather belt. We went to gaol, spend a couple of hours in gaol. Ham let garcia married alisia, a ukrainian immigrant. In 2011 they had marital issues and alicia moved out of home moving in with alicias father, a home owner in montgomery. They enrolled in kindergarten at pyne road. They reconciled and the girls moved back to philadelphia. They decided to let their daughter finish the school year in the grandfathers School District. Thats when the trouble began. The School District contacted us in april and said theres a problem with your residency. We came in to meet with the principle, and whapt. She keeps insisting i never lifted there the superintendent wouldnt talk to us. She made good on her threat and turned the case over to police. The garsias say they were cooperating. Alicia showed Voter Registration and other proof. We havent heard anything for maybe a month. And then in august he called us and said that we have a choice to turn ourselves in or he was putting out a warrant to arrest us. What was going through your mind while they were finger printing you and processing you. Disgusting. Disgusting. To the system, to everything. Everything came to my head of disgusting. I couldnt believe that it was happening in america over education. A 5yearold child. And i pleaded with superintendent. I said, look, we are good parents, we are good citizens, im a business owner, you know, i never did anything. I walked a straight line. The gars turned themselves in. The trial is set for next week. In the criminal complnt it was alleged they stole 10,000 from the country, the cost of one years education. The School District website reads sna in peninsula, as in all stateses School Districts get some federal and state funding. Property taxes are the primary source or funding Public Schools. The gap between rich and poor School Districts is so vast that the state earned a d on the National Report card on school funding. That report card is put out by the Education Law Center in new jersey. There would be an argument from a school saying, listen, we fund the school with taxpayer money, some state and some federal funds, but the people in the Community Pay for the school. Thats in this county. So you are not from here. You dont get to attend. I can answer the argument. My wife did live in that street. My father is a taxpayer that opens a house. I believe every child should have access to quality education, regardless of the colour of the skin, bagged, ethnicity. They say you go, its in philadelphia, not montgomery. My answer is thats wrong. We are members of the same country, do not treat me like an illegal alien wouldnt the argument be right, you should stay in philadelphia where you pay taxes. If the schools are unsafe. If you live in philadelphia because you are a person that dont have the money to live in monty python. Thats not your fault that you cannot make the same money. Is the school that is in your neighbourhood in philadelphia, is it safe. It isnt safe. They didnt pass the ayp, the no child left behind. The monty python assistant da cancelled a planned interview with us. The garcias think they are a test case. The lower moorland School District identified 10 families who had illegal enrolled there the same year. They were ousted but the only family being prosecuted is the garcias. The garcia family, to make an example, making sure everyone in philadelphia this can happen to you. Its an interesting phrase, cross the border. Thats the way they treat the citizens. We are talking about filly, not canada. Yes, well there is a line where we dont want people to cross. Soledad obrien reports to us that the garcias did offer to pay their debts, they were rebuffed. The garcias go to trial. Well follow up. Now to another movement in Education Learning at home. There are 1. 7 million Children Home schooled in the united states. Often we are told homeschooled children thrive, outperform their Public School peers. But as Sheila Mcvicar reports theres questions of risk and safety. Rowana ward works on spelling with her 8yearold son joel. Ward is home schooling, something she is passionate about. Parents set their own lesson plans and decide what and how to teach. There are no legislation. Oklahoma is the one state where the right to home school is enshlined in constitution. There was one in 25 states where there was little or no oversight. Home owners dont have to show that education is taking place. Ward is a member of a conservative Christian Organization with a powerful lobbying arm, fighting for and winning the deregulated environment. Theres a gap between the home school ideal and the reality. No regulations means parents dont have to register their home schoolchildren, and its up to the parents to make sure the kids are getting an education. Here at this gated housing we are told that there are dozens of kids, as many as 100 or more of all ages, who are not in school and not getting education at home either. Theres no way to know because no one is keeping any records. We are really concerned for the children. We hear stories of kids 10 years old who dont know their alphabet. Ulanda walked for the Oklahoma Office of juvenile affairs. This is a hidden issue, behind the vil of home schooling. Truancy laws dont fly. In many states theres no testing. Theres no oblesz on the part of the parents to show education is taking place. No, no one will check on you. Heather donty knows a thing or two about bad situations. Donty helped to start the coalition of an organization of home schooled kids pushing for oversight. We have kids in every state, some more than others. Dozens of cases. Until donty started her work there was not an attempt to keep track. Children removed from school or never sent to school in religious or dysfunctional ones. Starved, beaten or killed. Parents should not have the right to decide whether or not their child gets an education. America tonight had a tremendous online response to sheilas indepth story. Joining us to talk about the reactions out there in social media is our digital producer. You know, this really did its been some of the greatest emotion and conversation online on any subjects. We had hundreds of responses, people that wrote out fulllength stories. We had a lot of tweets. You can really look at the conversation that played out that eflects the fractured movement reflects the fractured movement. We hear so many things about home schooling. Its been around three decades. I thought there was a lot of testing that went on, a lot of supervision of home schooled kids. Its true, and its referenced in the report. From some of the people, it was, over time quickly deregulated. One of the people we spoke with, her name is rachel. She was home schooled in ohio. During a time when many parents, who were religious christians felt there wasnt god in schools. Her parents home schooled her and she thought change happened where regulations dropped and she saw a difference in education. They were very rigid at the beginning. We had to take the same tests that were being given in our local Public Schools, and then it moved to we had to take a standard achievement test, and it moved to we didnt have to be tested at all, we just needed a sign off. She saw that first hand. The books and kur ukulum changed. Every state is different, and some people have a great experience. You hear this, there has been extraordinary stories of kids that had gone on to colleges. And have been amazingly successful. One young woman we heard from is huder, and she was home schooled. Huder had a fantastic experience. One of the things she highlighted was that she said while being home schooled thee didnt have to deal with a lot of gender rolls. She didnt know about the stereo type of young women or girls excelling in maths. She was a maths and science nerd. She loved it. She told us more about how she was fully socially entrying crated. Thats a concern that many students bring up, is they had maybe not the most social experience. She had a great one. All her siblings were homeschooled and she went on to study at college. Shes an academic success story. Her parents didnt decide to home school her for religious reasons, but they moved from japan and had different requirements and different languages and felt in order to give their children a good education, the parent made sure they equipped them with individual needs that they had. But there have been some horror stories. There has been incr