Electronic Residence Verification
Dear Community Member,
We are happy to share that we are updating our district practice for the annual residency verification process. In an effort to honor parent and staff time, we will be using the latest technology to verify residency by working with a third party software service.
The software will allow staff to conduct electronic residency verification for the district. The intent of the software is to:
- Significantly reduce parent time needed to satisfy annual residence verification.
- Significantly decrease staff time taken for the annual residency verification process.
- Conduct residence verification in an efficient manner.
Electronic Residence Verification (ERV) is a newer technology that has been proven to be highly successful; we will be using this technology service for the annual residence verification process starting February 13, 2020. Based on our pilot tests, the Electronic Residence Verification process will provide residence verification for 80-90% of IUSD families. This will leave approximately 10-20% of families that will need to provide site staff with standard residence verification documents for a manual review.
School site staff will be sending annual residence verification announcements in the coming weeks. If you would like more information on electronic residence verification, please review our FAQ sheet here. After reviewing the FAQ, if you have additional questions, you can contact StudentServices@iusd.org.
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FAQs
Why do I have to have my residency verified EVERY year?
In California, school attendance and funding is based on where a student lives, therefore California Education Code requires parents and guardians to prove residency in district boundaries. The Education Code also allows districts to establish practices and procedures for residency. IUSD has established annual residence verification practices.
The Education code also allows for both the releasing and incoming districts to approve or disapprove interdistrict transfer requests due to the funding tied to residency.
Why is residency important to Irvine Unified School District?
Our district is committed to providing students with the highest quality educational experience we can envision. As a district we leverage our collective resources to serve families in our community. We are one of only a few districts in Orange County that continues to grow, even still, we remain one of the lowest funded districts in the state. All of these reasons make it important to ensure that we are serving students and families who reside in our district.
Is there an efficient alternative method of conducting annual residence verification that protects my privacy rather than providing hard copies of documents every year?
Yes. Starting with the 2019-20 school year, we have a new process which will allow a majority of our families to have their residency verified without providing hard copies of documents. The Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) will be using an electronic residency verification program called Clear Batch by Thomson Reuters. This service will provide a secure database search used for residency verification only. This process will save families and the school office staff hours and hours of time, and therefore will save the district money as well.
Will it work for everyone?
Unfortunately no. There will be some residencies which will not come up with a “best match.” The estimate is that between 10% to 15% of residencies might fall into this category for various reasons. In those cases, site staff will contact those families to turn in the standard paperwork for residency verification.
When will the families that need to provide the standard paperwork be notified?
This process will take place in late March and early April. If you are not contacted for additional paperwork, your residency was verified electronically and there is nothing more you need to do to enroll a student who is already attending IUSD schools. If you are enrolling a new TK or K student, you do need to contact your school’s office to get enrollment paperwork. All new students MUST first go through the standard paperwork verification process.
What if I prefer not to go through the electronic residence verification process?
If you prefer to turn in the standard paperwork for residence verification, you will need to provide all updated residence documents to school site staff prior to the publicized residence verification deadline. The Electronic Residence Verification process will be based on addresses that have not been verified after the deadline date. Please check with your student’s school on Residence Verification deadline dates.
What if a student doesn’t live in the district?
If a student is attending on an intradistrict transfer, those students must reapply every year.
If a student has moved, parents/guardians must notify the school office of their new address within 5 days. If false or fraudulent address information is provided or a parent/guardian does not notify the school office of a move out of the district, the student may be disenrolled.
Where can I find IUSD policies on residency?
Board Policy on Residency:
https://iusd.org/about/board-education/board-policies/admissionresidency
Administrative Regulation on Admission/Residency
https://iusd.org/about/board-education/board-policies/admissionresidency/admissionresidency
What happens if a student’s residency is not verified through either the Electronic or the standard paperwork process?
Students who do not have residency verified through either of these processes by the last day of each school year will not be placed on a class list or in courses for the upcoming school year. Please contact school staff for specific site information.
For further questions, please contact studentservices@iusd.org.