In a previous post, we wrote about a Connecticut woman who was accused of stealing public education services by falsely claiming her son lived at her babysitter's address in Norwalk in order to enroll him in kindergarten at an elementary school in that district. According to sources, the woman had been living out of her car, various shelters, and staying at a friend's house in Bridgeport. Officials said the woman's should have enrolled her son in Bridgeport schools. She chose instead to enroll her son in Norwalk because of the quality of the school.

That woman appeared in court on Tuesday on a charge of first-degree larceny connected to the improper enrollment. Her attorney had filed a motion to dismiss the charge, but the judge in charge of the case denied the request, saying that her request should be made at trial instead.

The woman's attorney, who is the second vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Norwalk, filed the motion to dismiss on the grounds that the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act allows a homeless parent to enroll his or her child in a school of the parent's choosing.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton reportedly came to Connecticut on Tuesday to participate in an Equal Education rally. While Sharpton had little knowledge of the homeless mother's situation, he said that the woman's son shouldn't have to suffer because of the actions of adults. "My concern is not the past of the mother, but the future of the child."

The woman's larceny charge carries the possibility of up to 20 years in prison, $15,000 in fines and five years of probation.

Source: Middletown Press, "Sharpton joins Norwalk rally to support homeless mother arrested for theft of education," Angela Carter, 8 June 2011.