Fayette County’s parents are justifiably proud of their school system. For years, parents and business leaders have pointed to the school system as one of the best marketing tools to lure the best and brightest to the county.

But in the last few months, some residents are complaining that more and more illegal students are being educated in the school system at the taxpayers’ expense.

Since the beginning of the school year in August, the Fayette County School system has dismissed more than 145 students for not living in Fayette County.

School Coordinator of Safety and Discipline C.W. Campbell said that number is about average for the school system and he takes pride in making sure that only Fayette County students attend the schools. He’s also not sure where recent criticism of his office’s unresponsiveness to parents is originating.

“My office has received a total of three calls about this and we’ve returned the calls except for a person who didn’t leave a number,” Campbell said.

At the beginning of each year, the school system does a system-wide residency check for new students that have moved into the system and students who have a change in educational level, such as an eighth grader moving to high school. This year, 70 students were found to have misrepresented their residency and were dismissed from the school system.

Since school started, Campbell said his office has investigated 301 residency checks and has already dismissed 75 students. He added that 120 students were able to provided legitimate residency proof, while 106 cases are still under investigation.

“We pursue these cases each and every day,” Campbell said.

Campbell’s office starts investigating cases after hearing complaints from individual schools, which is where he suggests parents voice their questions.

“The schools have much more information and can often determine the issue fairly quickly,” he added.

If the school thinks there may be a residency problem, the issue is forwarded to Campbell’s office. One of the big indicators that many parents think is a giveaway of an out-of-county student is a car tag from a different county, but Campbell said that’s not always the case.

“You could have people who have paid their car tags in August and are not going to turn around and pay it again to have a Fayette tag,’ he said.

There’s also the issue of non-traditional families, where parents may live in different counties. The student may be living with the Fayette relative, but having the other parent drop him off at school.

Another situation involves teachers who live in other counties.

“There’s not too many perks in the educational system, but a teacher is allowed to have her children attend school in the system she teaches,” Campbell said.

Campbell is determined to make sure that only Fayette County students reap the benefit of the school system.

“I encourage parents who may have questions to contact their school with these residency questions.”