Mayor: Woman Charged With Enrolling Kid in Norwalk School Really Wasn't Homeless

The arrest last week of a 33-year-old woman of "no fixed address" on charges that she illegally enrolled her five-year-old child in Brookside Elementary School has generated lots of comment outside Norwalk about whether or not the woman should have been charged.

Tanya McDowell was charged by Norwalk police with first-degree larceny, a felony, and appeared in state Superior Court in Norwalk on April 15. Police said McDowell committed first-degree larceny because enrolling her child cost the city the equivalent of about $15,686—the average annual cost per pupil of education in Norwalk Public Schools in 2010.

"Typically, when there is a residency question, a private investigator is hired to handle the matter, authorities said, so why this time police were called in resulting in criminal charges is unclear," according to a report on the NBC Connecticut website. The Associated Press also covered the case, as did The Huffington Post.

Bloggers, including RiShawn Biddle of the "Dropout Nation" education blog and the Hartford Courant's "Confidential" blog—have commente on the case, as has The Root online magazine,

"And how exactly is putting this woman in jail going to help remedy the situation?" wrote Julie Ryan Evans in her "Stir" blog at CafeMom.com. "It's not like she's going to be able to pay the money back, and what of her child?"

Mayor Richard A. Moccia said Thursday that the assertion by McDowell that she was homeless is false, and that in fact she was living in Bridgeport when she enrolled her child in the Norwalk school system. He said McDowell was able to pay a woman$100 a week for babysitting services and was able to make bail, casting further suspicion. (See accompanying video.)

In September 2010, when McDowell was allowed to sleep in a home at 66 Priscilla Circle, Bridgeport, she stated in a school-enrollment affidavit that her son was living in an apartment rented by Ana R. Marquez at the Roodner Court public housing complex at 261 Ely Ave., Norwalk, according to police. McDowell stated on the affidavit that Marquez was the legal guardian of her son, according to a police statement filed in court.

It was a violation of Marquez' lease for McDowell's son to be living there, and Norwalk Housing Authority officials began eviction proceedings against her. On Jan. 14, a Norwalk Housing Authority lawyer notified police about McDowell's declaration that the child lived with Marquez, according to an affidavit filed with the court by city police.

The Hour of Norwalk and The Advocate of Stamford reported on the case first on April 15. Anywhere from 10 to 50 students in Norwalk public schools may be illegally enrolled because they actually live outside the district, but it costs less than the overall average to educate the typical student, Steven A. Colarossi, a member of the Board of Education, told The Hour.

Colarossi said the cost of special education is much more, and the enrollment of out-of-town students hurts Norwalk residents because their presence lessens the amount of time teachers have for other students.

The Hour also reported on comments by Boyce Watkins, a Syracuse University professor whose organization, the Your Black World Coalition, started a petition to support McDowell. The Hour quoted Watkins as saying, "We believe it's a gross injustice that parents are being prosecuted for trying to get access to the same quality of education that other parents are able to obtain."

In an interview with Norwalk Patch, Moccia responded to Watkins' statement, saying parents who don't live in a particular district can't be allowed to send their children to it without paying tuition. People who violate the law will get prosecuted for it in Norwalk, Moccia said.

School district officials told The Hour that—other than providing to the housing authority the enrollment statement by McDowell that her child lived in a Norwalk apartment in a housing authority complex— they were not involved in the investigation, which was done by Norwalk police after the housing authority lawyer contacted them.

If they had been involved in the investigation, school officials told the newspaper, they would have worked with the mother and child. In many cases, homeless children are guaranteed help from a school district, under federal law.

At Marquez' eviction hearing, Norwalk Housing Authority lawyer Donna Lattarulo told the newspaper, McDowell never said she was homeless—she claimed to be homeless when speaking later with police, Lattarulo said.

The police affidavit for the arrest warrant states that McDowell told them on Feb. 9 that she was "currently homeless" and "stays at the Norwalk Homeless shelter from time to time with her five-year-old" but that in September 2010, when she enrolled her child in the Norwalk school, she was "staying with a friend" at Priscilla Court in Bridgeport and "her friend would let her sleep there but she had to leave during the daylight hours until he returned."

The Advocate of Stamford reported that several observers and former Norwalk education officials said the arrest was unusual. The newspaper quoted Stuart Opdahl, former chief operating officer for Norwalk Public Schools, saying it was "absurd" to prosecute McDowell when the district would not even refer cases for prosection in the 20 or so times per year when it found out-of-town students illegally enrolled in Norwalk.

Michael Corsello, a Norwalk lawyer, told The Advocate that the case against McDowell might deter others from enrolling out-of-district children illegally in Norwalk schools, but officials probably could not get money back from a homeless woman.

MariAn Gail Brown, a columnist for the Connecticut Post, wrote in an article pubished Friday that the federal McKinney-Vento Act allows homeless people to enroll their children in the school district in which they are actually living. She pointed out that McDowell told her that her son typically would spend the night with her in her van in Norwalk. In cases where there's a dispute over where the homeless child is living, the child must stay in school until the dispute is resolved.

The McKinney-Vento Act allows states that homeless parents may "enroll the child or youth in any public school that nonhomeless students who live in the attendance area in which the child or youth is actually living are eligible to attend." (Section 722 (g) 3 (A) ii)

The act also states: "If a dispute arises over school selection or enrollment in a school (i) the child or youth shall be immediately admitted to the school in which enrollment is sought, pending resolution of the dispute; ..." (Section 722 (g) 3 (E) i)

Also, the act states: "The term 'homeless children and youths' means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence ..." (Section 725 (2) A)

Editor's note: The name of Tanya McDowell's son, which also had been made public in news accounts elsewhere, has been removed from this article as one small step in giving the boy more privacy. Unlike the situation with his mother, it isn't necessary to know the child's name to understand the situation reported or the public issues that arise from it.