An affidavit for a Missouri statute passed in August 2014 has created a disconnect between Callaway County school district officials and the School Board Association.
The statute allows a relative caregiver to make education and health-care decisions for a child while under their guardianship, but only with the consent of the parents or if the parents cannot be reached before a decision is needed.
Before the affidavit was put into effect, caregivers other than a child's natural-born or adoptive parents could make decisions regarding educational enrollment and necessary health care whether it was necessary. Now, a relative caregiver, someone related to the child by blood, marriage or adoption, can be responsible for the care of the child as long as the child is living with the caregiver, according to Missouri Statute 431.058.1.
Although the statute doesn't clarify that the child's parents must be incapable of making these judgment calls, the affidavit was designed to allow a relative caregiver control over those decisions in the case a parent is unable to do so, Scott Summers, an attorney with the School Board Association, said.
"The relative caregiver statute is not designed to allow a parent, who is capable of taking care of the child to sign over rights to a relative caregiver without reason," Summers added.
The statute was designed to make it possible for relative caregivers to make these decisions and protect those decisions as long as they don't threaten the life, health or safety of the child, according to the statute. However, South Callaway and Fulton school officials agree residency is an issue and the affidavit affects enrollment.
South Callaway Superintendent Kevin Hillman brought up the subject of the affidavit during the Aug. 12 school board meeting in regards to possible enrollment changes following the first day of classes. However he didn't further discuss the affidavit at the time. Board member Kit Glover said the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was responsible for further clarifying the terms of the affidavit.
"I don't know if this will have a tremendous effect on enrollment either way, but it's just another avenue that defines what residency is," Hillman said. "I'm pretty supportive of the ruling as it's a natural case because there's been an issue with (residency) for a number of years. This brings clarity to those situations."
"There's no doubt for every action there's a reaction," Hillman continued. "My opinion is that this will really help with residency issues. I'm anxious to see how it plays out and we've got a couple of kids already looking at that. This might be something they utilize to stay in the district and hopefully they can use this to make necessary changes in their life."
Fulton Superintendent Jacque Cowherd also mentioned that the school encounters residency issues and have been forced to reject enrollment applications because the student didn't live within the school district boundary.
"We're aware of the statute and when people enroll we try to get as enough information as we can. If they fall under that statute we enroll them," Cowherd said.
Although the statue determines that a child must be residing with a relative caregiver for the caregiver's decisions to be accepted, the affidavit doesn't further discuss residential requirements or determine that the affidavit can be used for making residential decisions for educational purposes, Summers said.
Missouri Statute 167.020.1 further outlines residency terms for a student to be enrolled in a particular school district. Enrollment can be requested if a waiver is presented to the school board as long as the terms of the waiver meets the residency requirements set forth by the district.