Fayette County modifies residency checks for students

After an exhaustive effort last fall to verify the residency of all students enrolled in Fayette County, the Board of Education voted 5-0 recently to adopt a tiered system for the next school year.

Fifteen out of 20,058 students were withdrawn as unverified in December and an unspecified number of others withdrew voluntarily. The less-intensive tiered system would survey students among about 9,000 homeowners, another 2,750 families who lease property and just over 1,200 students who attend based on affidavits (such as children living with grandparents).

Superintendent Jody Barrow called the change “reasonable,” but board member Leonard Presberg said it was still “probably overkill.”