Determining Legal Residency
Criteria for admission
The district will admit all children who live in Spartanburg County School District Two provided that the child resides with his/her parent/legal guardian or foster parent. A residence is that place where one has established his/her home and where one is habitually present and to which, when one departs, he/she intends to return. To entitle a parent/legal guardian/foster parent to send his/her children to the schools of the district, without paying tuition, the parent/legal guardian must be a bona fide resident of the district, i.e., he/she must not merely be within the limits of the district for the advantages of the school facilities, but must have an intention of making the residence his/her fixed home or domicile.
Merely superficial residence in the district, obtained for the sole or primary purpose of taking advantage of the school facilities therein, will not entitle the child in question to school attendance privileges.
New students seeking enrollment in Spartanburg District 2 must provide Proof of Residency. Please refer to the Residency Checklist for acceptable forms of proof.
The school and /or district will consider several factors in determining legal residence:
- address at which mail is received
- identity of the person in whose name electricity and water service is provided at the dwelling
- address at which the individual receives local, state and/or federal financial assistance
- individual whom the tax assessor’s office lists as the owner of the property
- existence of a deed identifying the owner of the property
- existence of a title and/or vehicle registration identifying the owner and resident location
- address at which the individual sleeps, eats, and carries on other daily activities
For students moving into the district after the school year has begun, the following guidelines that are established by the South Carolina High School League may be considered as well as other information available to district staff in determining legal residence.
- The student and the parent/legal guardian have a bona fide change of residence from the attendance area of the former school into the attendance area of the new school.
- The move must be with the intent of being permanent.
- Under no circumstances can a student / family have two residences for attendance eligibility purposes. Only primary residences will be considered. A primary residence is defined as the address at which the individual sleeps, eats and carries on other daily activities.
- The prior residence must be clearly closed as the residence of the family and must not be used by the family.
When a student and his/her parent/legal guardian move in with a family in an existing home/ apartment, the following documentation is required for admission to the district.
- The Owner of the property must execute a NOTARIZED SHARED HOUSING AFFIDAVIT that declares that the family is currently residing at their address.
- If the new address is an apartment, the apartment management must supply a verification letter that the student and the parent/legal guardian are residing at the specified address.
- Parents must be able to provide proof of receipt of mail at the residence. This proof may include a W-2, employment paycheck stub, bank account, vehicle insurance, voter registration card, and correspondence with State/Local Government services (WIC, DSS, Child Support, etc…) Please refer to the Residency Checklist for acceptable forms of proof for Parents/Guardians enrolling with a NOTARIZED SHARED HOUSING AFFIDAVIT.
All parents/legal guardians must provide proof of legal residence to the school/district.
- Spartanburg 2 will investigate and/or act upon all reports of alleged falsified documentation used as proof of residence. The district will also initiate random checks to verify addresses throughout the school year. Should any information presented by the parent/legal guardian or the district resident prove to be false, the student will be immediately withdrawn. Further, federal privacy laws prohibit disclosures of actions taken by the district and therefore will not be reported to the general public, or to those providing reports of false information. Members of the community, who have questions or concerns about tax registrations of local residents, should direct their concerns to the appropriate county auditor’s office.