Whitacker-Reid v. Pottsgrove School District, 168 A. 3d 905 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2017) The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court reverses the Pottsgrove School District’s exclusion of students based on parent’s alleged non-residency, holding that the exclusion was not supported by substantial evidence.
BACKGROUND
Marleitta Whitacker-Reid (“Mother”) enrolled her two children (“Children”) in the Pottsgrove School District (the “District”) using an address (“District Address”) that was her grandmother’s residence. The District was contracted by a resident concerning the Children’s attendance in the District which caused the District to investigate the Children’s residency in the District. Following an investigation by District employees and a private investigator, the District concluded that the Mother and Children did not reside in the District and notified the Mother that a hearing before a hearing officer would be held to determine residency.
At the hearing, the District offered testimony from the attendance secretary concerning anecdotal observations and attendance patterns that suggested a “residency concern.” The District also offered testimony from two social workers who surveilled the District Address on several occasions about the time the Children would be getting on the bus to go to school; however, they did not observe Mother at the District Address. An employee of a private investigation firm testified that he went to the District Address on multiple occasions at various times and, on one occasion, he observed Mother drive up to the District Address in a red car and enter the home at a time after the Children had left for school. The car was registered to another person at an address on Charlotte Street located outside the District. Although the investigator observed the red car parked at the Charlotte Street address, he never saw Mother at that address. The investigator also testified that a search through several “investigative...
