Education

I lived in one district. I had a long commute where I worked in another county.

Because my work plus commute time did not allow me to drop off/pickup my daughter when latchkey was open, she was not able to attend the free public school in the city where our residence was. So yes - she was allowed "in theory" to attend public school where I lived but the only way in real life that could have happened was if I quit my job so I was physically in that district when the building opened and closed.

My work schedule would have allowed us to drive to the city where I worked and put her in school there with some time in the afterschool latchkey. However, public schools in Michigan are not required to accept students from another county. They do not have open enrollment.

I'm not sure why people are having a hard time understanding that problem. I'm not the only person who ever commuted outside of their district to work. You can look up the policies here - districts in Michigan are not required to have open enrollment for students from other districts. http://mb2.ecs.org/reports/report.aspx?id=268

People here are acting like I'm making shit up, but look at the chart - most states have exactly the same policy I'm describing - no interdistrict open enrollment.

Where I work, incidentally, we have students that fall into the same catch-22 I had before. We had one family that lived an hour and a half away from our school but both parents worked in our general area. So they drove the kids in with them each morning - and unlike other "public" schools in our area, we allowed them to enroll. Then they commuted home with their parents each night.

If there's any part of that explanation that wasn't clear, please let me know where I lost you.