OCEAN CITY – The initial decision by New Jersey’s Acting Commissioner of Education Kimberley Harrington, to have the Margate parent of a child attending the Ocean City School District pay for a year’s tuition has been upheld by an administrative law judge (ALJ).
The judge’s decision, reached April 28, involved a petition made in June of 2016 by the parent (identified by the court as T.F.) of a child (T.N.) who was living in Margate, but attended the Ocean City school because the parent had used a vacated address in the Ocean City district as proof of eligibility.
The school conducted a residency investigation and found that the Ocean City address for T.F. and T.N. was an apartment which had an expired lease in T.F.’s name.
Mother and daughter were tracked down to the Margate home of T.F.’s mother. The children of Margate residents attend the Atlantic City School District.
New Jersey law states, “When a student’s parents or guardians are domiciled within different school districts, and there is no court order or written agreement between the parents designating the school district of attendance, the student’s domicile is the school district of the parent or guardian with whom the student lives for the majority of the school year.”
Sometime before the summer of 2016 the Ocean City School District notified T.F. via written notification that her daughter was ineligible for enrollment.
The issue was appealed by T.F., and it went before Commissioner Harrington. Upon review, Harrington ordered T.F. to pay the 2015-2016 tuition totaling $15,537. T.F. immediately moved to appeal that decision which then went before the ALJ.
According to a copy of the decision, on the Commissioner of Education’s website, a hearing was scheduled for the end of December 2016 to discuss the matter, but T.F. did not show.
With the Board of Education for Ocean City’s evidence and testimony being uncontested, the ALJ found in absentia to T.F’s no show that Harrington’s decision would stand.
T.F. was back on the hook for the previously established total. By law, the commissioner has the power to determine the amount of tuition owed if a motion is uncontested.
Although occurrences of tuition paybacks are rare, they have happened in the recent past.
In 2016 the separated parents of children attending the Branchburg School system were ordered to pay a year of tuition for their five children, amounting to around $55,000.
Under New Jersey law, T.F. can appeal this decision as well, which would be heard by Superior Court Appellate Division judges in Trenton.
To contact Christopher Knoll, email cknoll@cmcherald.com.
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