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Board previews $25,000 residency-verification software to track cyber and out-of-district enrollments
Summary
Administration described a proposed residency-verification software purchase (agenda item 5.02) that would run batch checks on student addresses; staff said the tool helped other districts find out-of-district students and could pay for itself if it identifies even a few inaccurate residencies.
District staff described a software tool the administration proposed to purchase to verify residency for cyber and other enrollments and to detect students who are attending but may not reside in the district.
The staff presentation to the board highlighted that the software costs $25,000 and can perform batch uploads and individual address searches. A staff member explained the product’s workflow and said it can flag records for further review; he said the district could run uploads for cyber charter rosters, individual schools or other cohorts at a cadence the administration chooses.
During discussion staff noted that special-education placement carries a higher per-pupil cost (staff cited roughly $30,000 per special-education student) and that typical general-education tuition-equivalent figures in the district range from about $15,000 to $18,000 per pupil. The staff member said Shippensburg’s first week of using the software flagged four students for further review and that West Perry is also using the product. He also noted the district had about 530 cyber students enrolled outside the district and that an attachment in the agenda materials estimated about $14,000 per out-of-district student in lost funding in some cases.
Board members asked whether the software could run inverse checks (identifying students who claim residency but may not be in the district) and how often the uploads would run; the staff member said the tool supports both batch and individual searches and that the district could run checks as frequently as they wish and then follow internal verification and letter processes. The board treated the item as a consent/finance question on the agenda and sought clarification about likely returns; staff said even a small number of findings would cover the software cost.
No vote was recorded at the Committee of the Whole; the item was discussed as an agenda/consent matter and staff offered to run pilot checks against cyber rosters and report back.
