2nd grader school controversy

CRANSTON, RI (AP) - A second grader is told not to return to school in Cranston next year because her mother is no longer a resident.

However, her father says he is because he lives at the ACI.

State law requires children attend school where they live.

But one local student wants the city to consider her father’s jail cell home, so she can stay in her current school.

Cranston’s Dutemple Elementary School may have one less third grader next year after the city’s school department denied an enrollment request for 9-year old Jolina Correa Monday afternoon.

Her father, Joey is behind bars and will remain there until 2016, on multiple minor charges and probation violations.

“A child attends school where the child resides, the question is where they put their head down at night,” says Cranston Schools Superintendent Peter Nero.

The second grader, who now lives in Providence with her mom, was hoping to stay in school in Cranston, because her father is serving a prison sentence at the ACI. Advocates for the family say census data and the city already consider inmates as residents.

“If you’re going to count him as a resident, well that comes with extra responsibilities of taking care of your residents.”, says Bruce Reilly, Direct Action For Rights & Equality.

The debate comes as state lawmakers consider a bill to amend census data to count prisoners at their last known address. Now, as a little girl fights to stay with her class, the issue moves from the schoolhouse to the statehouse.

“This individual is not a taxpayer to the city of Cranston, he’s in a situation where he’s incarcerated,” says Mayor Allan Fung.

“They shouldn’t be getting extra political power if he’s not paying taxes and if he’s not a part of a community”, adds Reilly. “Then there’s all the more reason he shouldn’t be counted as a Cranston resident.”

The family is appealing the school department’s decision to the commissioner of education.