Is this admission fraud? AIBU to report it?

[grammarmom]

Here's the situation.

We live in a grammar school catchment area that gets smaller every year. When we bought our house several years ago, it was very comfortably within the catchment for an excellent local grammar (very high in the league tables), and oh boy was it reflected in the price. Now we're right on the boundary. Among the thirty or so houses around us, some children got in last year and some didn't, literally a difference of a few yards.

Another child on our street, who is in the same class as my DC, only just passed the 11+ (a few points above the pass threshold). We live on the same road, but they are about 50 yards further from the school gate. Based on last year's distances, my child would likely get a place while theirs wouldn't.

Over the weekend, during a sleepover, the child mentioned that her mother has now rented a house much closer to the school to secure a higher priority for admission. The tenancy was apparently signed one day before the cut-off date, making it "legal" for admission purposes. She still owns their original home, but the story being presented is that relatives who were previously "homeless" will now live there free of charge, and all bills and utilities have been transferred into those relatives' names (I strongly suspect that the mother will in fact pay these bills as those relatives are penniless).

She's even moved the children's belongings to the rented property and makes them spend nights there (they hate it). There's no doubt that once the school place is obtained, they will move right back.

This effectively pushes my child down the priority list and means they may now miss out.

Would this constitute admissions fraud? It feels incredibly unfair that someone with £40k to spare for rent can effectively buy their way into a top grammar school, especially when their child didn't perform particularly well in the exam (despite being tutored for hours every day).

Should I report this? I have no more detail apart from what this child told me (and they obviously weren't too sure about some aspects of it due to age).

It really is.

Oh please, don't compare this to reporting child abuse/ violence .

This is more like all the Curtain twitchers in Covid who went out of their way to report anyone they perceived to be breaking "the Rules".

in this case reporting their friend after manipulating a child in their care into sharing personal info they had no business inquiring into.

.

She is clearly spiteful and jealous of her neighbour and used information she may have manipulated out of a small child to report the parents for trying to do their best for their child. She's just jealous another parent out-played her.
Buying a house as close as possible to the school is also gaming the system.
Hypocrite to boot.

Sorry sorry I agree. Got my wires crossed x

She's played the system yes, but so have you, by buying in the catchment? Both are buying a place at the grammar, in a way. If neither of you had the money to live in the area, your kids would not be going. She's just paid twice.

Apologies, I was not meaning to draw a false moral equivalence between fraud and violence, any more than it is appropriate to create a false moral equivalence between the OP’s purchase of a house and short term renting of a second address of convenience (only one of those is fraud).

I was just making a point that there is a continuum of illegal behaviour, from ‘minor’ to ‘major’, and our personal ‘reporting thresholds’ are different, for a host of reasons - and a supplementary point that wherever one lies in that spectrum, there can be downsides to not reporting as well as to reporting.

Yes, we had a funny one with DD. A girl invited her to go to her house after school for a playdate and dinner. When she got there the girls mother had practice papers and made DD do two tests and then told her she was surprised she didn't get a higher mark. DD passed the other girl didn't. I said to the Head that some of the parents were crazy, he put his head in his hands and agreed.

I had a bonkers experience like that with my middle child when she was 6 and we moved to a new area. We were invited for tea and play at a school friends house - we turn up and the dining table is set up like a school with lots of writing and reading activities. The other mum just wanted to see where dd was at as she had heard dd was bright and her dd had always been the cleverest girl in class - she wanted to make sure dd was no “threat” 🙄😂

Her daughter didn’t play ball and just harassed her about wanting to go and play in the garden until she gave in, so her plan didn’t work.

Some people lead such sad, odd little lives, it’s baffling.

This exact same thing happened once when I went to a friend’s house. The mother was training to be a teacher so I remember thinking maybe it’s something to do with that.

I then passed my 11 plus and her DD didn’t. Years later the DM was my DS’s reception teacher, she hated my DS and I really think it was because of the whole 11plus thing.

Dura Lex, Sed Lex.

It is not immoral to report a possible case of admissions fraud. You report to the relevant authority and that is the end of your involvement. They will decide whether it is worth investigating or not. It is no more immoral than reporting any other crime - if you saw someone stealing something would you not report it?

Admissions fraud - where it has been committed - is not a victimless crime. The victim of it is a child who should have got into a particular school but has been cheated out of it by the parent of another child who has broken the law by pretending something is true when it is not.

There was me thinking being invited round to "play" so mum could assess child was a one off and immediately hear if two more. There's more crazy around than I realised.

I felt like a victim when I was wrongly accused. Don't think it is ok to throw dirt, even if it doesn't stick it is nasty.

I’ve had 3 children. I’ve met A LOT of crazy parents in my time! They walk among us!

Hopefully, the school / LA (who might anyway have picked up on the timeframe of the address change) are neutrally factual in their investigation - simply that this application has aspects that make it look
worthy of investigation, so they are carrying out the investigation.

i don't agree with this at all. It's not OP's duty or business to report. I also don't agree that it is a "crime" or that there is a "victim".

It is classed as fraud. Is fraud not a crime?

If child A gets a place through fraud, and child Z does not because they are the last on the ‘place honestly obtained’ list, how is child Z not a victim? They have been deprived of something that is rightfully theirs, through a fraudulent act.

I don’t think it is a crime, in this case, because there isn’t an action against a company or person to defraud them of money or assets.

But it is fraud in a lot of areas if they don't move into and live in the property by a certain date and through a certain point in time.

Additionally, no intent/malice has to be proven (entirely possible for, say, divorced parents to believe they can use either address even if they aren’t 50:50)

The redress is to remove the place from the child who has used the incorrect address (assuming their correct address doesn’t also qualify!) and to give it to the next child on the list.

(Full Time)

Nah, It's unlikely to be a crime unless you forge documents or impersonate someone. Certainly in complying with the letter (if not the spirit of the law) it wouldn't be a crime. It's a civil/ administrative issue- the only repercussion would be loosing the place.
In terms of a "victim" the admissions process is fundamentally unfair. Why is OP's child more deserving of a place than another child just because OP can afford to pay a premium for a house in catchment? If one chikd is a victim by missing out so is another. The rules are as they are , both parents are playing them to the best advantage of their child within the means they have available.

Ah, ok. I had perhaps overstated the language.

There is obviously someone who is ‘doing wrong’ (deliberately or accidentally) and therefore there is someone who suffers ‘wrong done to them’, which can be rectified through re-assigning a school place acquired through wrongdoing.

I don’t think it is reasonable to say ‘school admissions are not perfectly fair to everyone, due to variables beyond school admissions’ control, so all breaking of the rules around school admissions is fine.’

That’s like saying ‘Everyone is not equally wealthy, so it’s fine to steal’