BigGH

We have a fixed date for our move to Florida of 2nd September, and have been pursuing a couple of different long-term housing solutions. Unfortunately both have now hit some snags. With no time to make another reccy trip we are considering just getting a short-term/holiday rental for the first few weeks while we look for something longer term.

My question is will we still be able to enrol my daughters at school given we will now be short of some of the required paperwork to prove we are in the schools district, i.e. utility bills, annual rental contract?

civilservant

Better to direct this question to the relevant school surely?

BigGH

The information you get from the schools is pretty standard. My reason for posting the question on here was to see if anyone has any real-world experience of being in a similar situation.

Michael

Since US law requires that all children of school age attend school or be approved for home schooling, somehow they have to accommodate you. Since you will be in a short term rental, they may require you to jump through some loops to regularly prove that you live in that district (if the district is highly rated) but I can't see them turning you down since not enrolling your child is against the law and they get federal and state money for each child enrolled.

penguinsix

Every school district has a different policy, often based on state legal requirements. So not only are their 50 different general requirements, there are 10,000+ individual standards that vary from school to school to school. You'll probably be on this messageboard waiting for quite awhile for someone living in that specific school district to have that specific situation.

Many districts will accept a lease as a proof of residency, but you'll need to check specifically with the school district in question. Have you tried calling them on the phone? Just call the school that is nearest to where you will be living and see if the admissions person can help answer your question.

I think this is a list of the residency items for Naples. If you are a new resident you have 60 days to provide the secondary items. Note also you will need a Florida doctor's form to sign off on their vaccinations. Form DH 680 it says.

http://www.collierschools.com/studen...eofConduct.pdf

BigGH

Thanks, this was helpful

Bob

going to be different for every school district...so you really are going to be better off asking the school district...

Wibblypig

As already said every county in Florida has different rules. When we moved over (22months ago) we weren't allowed to register the kids for school until we had a permanent home with proof such as lease or utility bills. Thankfully we had done loads of research and knew exactly where we wanted to live and found a house really quickly and were moved in within a few days. Once we had the lease we took it to the school with the other ID, immunisation certificates etc and the started the following day. From arriving to them starting school was 12 days. However it was a completely different story for our youngest and pre-k

LeavingLondon

How long did it take you to set up the proof of address (i.e. the utility bills in your name). Our lease start on 15th July, we move to the States on 23rd. I was hoping to try to a set up gas/electricity telephone etc to commence as of 15th so that I can hopefully print off something online with my name and address on, ready to take in when we arrive. Is that feasible?

penguinsix

If you have the lease available (i.e. can fax it, etc) you may be able to start the process for electric / gas / phone now with a start date of the 15th. The only rub is that if you are arriving "fresh off the boat" in the USA without a credit history you may have to provide a deposit for some of those utilities.

As with everything here, it varies from state-to-state, city-to-city, and utility-to-utility, but you might be able to get something online asap and have it pre-printed and ready to go on arrival.

kins

We moved into a short term let on Sept 1st and my daughter started school Sept 2nd. All I had was a lease. It wasn't any problem.

Bob

Not in the same school district as the OP though was it?

Our school district is pretty strict and does need either a lease/mortgage or letter from landlord if you're monthly/short term and a printed utility bill and if you're not a home owner, or a short term let, you needed another form of proof such as state ID/drivers license.

That got you registered. Full medical history allowed you to then start school.

So just goes to show how different it can be from school district to district, never mind the states.

Lbjen

School won't start until a month after you arrive so you have time to get it sorted.

I just registered mine in a new district, I needed the lease to get started and then I had 30 days to give them a copy of my state issued ID and a utility bill. I started getting bills within days of having the utilities turned on so it shouldn't take long!