FAKE ADDRESSES CAUSE EL CAMINO EXPULSIONS.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

More than 40 students were kicked out of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills this year for using phony addresses to win coveted spots on the award-winning campus.

Such cheating occurs across the Los Angeles Unified School District, prompting schools to regularly check student rosters for fraud and investigate suspicious cases. But officials said Thursday that the San Fernando Valley - and the West Valley particularly - account for the largest number of cases.

``It's the high-profile schools with the good test scores,'' said Michael Guillemet, coordinator of pupil services and attendance for the LAUSD. ``Those types of schools tend to attract this.''

Parents have long used fake addresses to slip their kids into Los Angeles' best public schools, sometimes using the homes of friends or relatives as a front. But officials said the problem appears to be worse as swelling school district enrollment cuts the number of students that schools can admit from outside their neighborhoods.

For administrators of top-ranked schools, the situation is flattering but frustrating. It can prove traumatic for kids caught with fraudulent addresses, who are then transferred to their appropriate neighborhood school. And it crowds out other students who deserve a spot on campus.

``I don't ever want to be in the position of having a Woodland Hills youngster who should be able to go here having to get on a bus for somewhere else because we've got kids who shouldn't be here,'' said El Camino Principal Ronald Bauer.

The Los Angeles Unified School District does not tally the number of students found each year under false addresses, said Guillemet. But during the 1997-1998 school year, district personnel investigated 5,409 suspected cases, he said.

Pressure to cheat

In El Camino's case, the students lived outside the area El Camino serves and had not entered through open enrollment, Bauer said. And they were transferred to their appropriate neighborhood schools, he said.

Bauer and others in the district say they know why some parents cheat. Just as affluent Angelenos scramble each year to place their kids in the right private academies, many parents want only those public schools with the highest test scores and don't mind lying to get their children in.

It's easy to see why.

El Camino, home to last year's national Academic Decathlon championship team, consistently ranks far above district average in most tests. So does Granada Hills, which Assistant Principal Joan Lewis said catches about as many students with phony addresses each year as does El Camino.

``We understand the anxiety that families have trying to place students where they want them to go,'' Lewis said. ``We don't do this with any pleasure, turning people away. But we have to follow the guidelines.''

Prime real estate

Teachers and administrators at El Camino say they have even seen real estate ads pitching homes as being in the ``El Camino area'' in an attempt to lure parents.

``Several agents approached me a couple of years ago about using (Academic Decathlon) in their ads, and I said that's not what Deca's about,'' said decathlon coach David Roberson.

In the past, those who didn't live in the area still had a chance to get into the school through open enrollment, although space was tight. This year, Bauer said, the school won't have any open enrollment spots available.

``Victim of our own success is the operative term,'' he said.

While part of that population growth is due to the school's strong reputation, part is a reflection of the district's steady growth. At 697,000 students this year, the school district expects to pass 700,000 this fall and reach 738,000 five years from now.

``We're at the seams, close to bursting,'' said Richard Eidson, assistant principal at George Ellery Hale Middle School. He estimated the school finds 10 to 20 fake addresses each year.

Creative schemes

Spotting those frauds can be easy or difficult, depending on the craftiness of the parents. Many get caught up front, when they bring their children in to register for a school.

``They'll come in, find out they don't live in the area, walk out the door, walk back in immediately, and say, `My son's going to live with my sister,' '' said Granada Hills Principal Mary Kathleen Rattay. ``They weren't gone long enough to even get to their car. They just huddled outside.''

Others are far more creative. Since the district requires utility bills to demonstrate residency - usually coupled with a mortgage or rental agreement - parents have been known to briefly rent apartments in the desired area and start a utility account to get their children in, Lewis said.

Schools often spot such cases once newsletters mailed to the parents are returned to the school. They then send field workers to the address to talk with neighbors and find out whether the family actually lives there.

Even the gumshoe approach, however, doesn't always work. Guillemet said one couple once faked a divorce and claimed the wife and sons had moved in with a friend in the desired school's attendance area. She even had checks made up with the new address, he said.

District workers went to the father's house - outside the attendance area - and were told by neighbors the family was still intact and living at that address. But none of the neighbors would talk on the record, Guillemet said, and the family got away with it.

``We really didn't have a case, because in order to catch them, we needed someone to go on the record,'' he said.