Photo by NCinDC

D.C. Attorney General Irv Nathan announced this afternoon that he had filed suit against a D.C. woman for falsifying the residency of a student who lived with her mother in Maryland in order to get her free education in D.C. public schools. Said a press release from Nathan’s office:

The lawsuit was filed in D.C. Superior Court against both the D. C. resident, Darnetta Paige, who is an employee of a D.C. public charter school, and the student’s mother, Jacinta L. Mason. The District is seeking to recover from Ms. Mason the $31,294 tuition owed as a result of her daughter’s attending a D.C. public high school for four years. The District is also seeking an award and civil penalties under the False Claims Act against Ms. Paige, who allegedly made the false statements about the student’s place of residence.

As part of the lawsuit, Nathan has asked the resident and the student’s mother to pay back $31,294 for four years worth of tuition. According to Ted Gest, Nathan’s spokesman, the student attended McKinley Technology High School in Ward 5, which was recently named a National Blue Ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education.

According to an audit performed by the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent for Education, of the 45,191 students in D.C. public schools, only 198 are non-residents. Of the 31,562 students enrolled in public charter schools, 38 were from outside D.C. The audit found that 126 of the 198 non-resident students in DCPS avoided paying their way; in charter schools, it was 32 of the 38.

The cost of educating an out-of-state students runs between $6,709 and $11,986 per year.