Board approves CLEAR residency-verification contract; district will run full-district review this summer

The St. Charles CUSD 303 board voted on June 9 to approve a contract with CLEAR to provide residency verification services for student enrollment.

Board members asked how comparable districts used CLEAR and whether the tool produced taxpayer savings. District staff said CLEAR works with roughly 181 Illinois districts and initially flags between 1% and 3% of records for further review; staff described those as "potentially significant dollars" if out-of-boundary enrollments are confirmed. The district said CLEAR will use accessible data points to generate likelihood scores and return a categorized batch: high-confidence matches, "yellows" for further conversation, and a smaller set with high likelihood of out-of-boundary enrollment.

The district explained the process: schools collect registration paperwork and registrars forward questionable cases to the district office for CLEAR review; the district office will then follow up with families to determine next steps. Staff emphasized McKinney-Vento and other protected housing situations would be considered and that the tool provides data for human review rather than automatic removals.

Board members asked whether the contract includes an opt-out; staff confirmed there is a clause allowing the district to discontinue the service after one year if unsatisfied. Staff said the full-district batch would be completed over the summer and anticipated results could be available by July or August; they also agreed to provide a report to the board after the initial run.

The roll call on the contract recorded seven yes votes and the motion passed.