Two families filed separate lawsuits against the Fairfield Board of Education in March 2026, alleging their children were wrongly removed from school over residency disputes. One case turns on a student who lived with his father in Greenwich while enrolled in Fairfield schools.
The details below are drawn from Greenwich Time's reporting on the cases and from court documents.
An 18-year-old student at Walter Fitzgerald Campus, Fairfield's alternative high school, lived with his father in Greenwich during the 2024-25 school year while attending Fairfield schools. The district provided him transportation to and from the Southport train station.
On Oct. 16, 2025, Robert Mancusi, executive director of special education and special programs for Fairfield Public Schools, informed the student he could no longer attend classes. District officials said neither parent lived in Fairfield.
The student's mother, Katharine Venice, says the timeline is more complicated. After a Department of Children and Families incident, the student moved out of his father's Greenwich home on Oct. 12, 2025, and went to live with Venice in a Fairfield apartment on Moody Avenue two days later. Venice claims she and her son were already Fairfield residents when the disenrollment message arrived.
District officials rejected her claim, citing mail she received at a former boyfriend's home in White Plains, N.Y., and a car registered to the same address. Venice provided an affidavit from the homeowner confirming she lived at the Moody Avenue property, but the district did not accept it.
Impartial hearing officer Kyle A. McClain ruled in the district's favor in December 2025, finding Venice failed to prove she lived in Fairfield. She could not produce a lease.
Venice filed suit in U.S. District Court against the board, Superintendent Michael Testani, Deputy Superintendent Zakia Parrish, and Walter Fitzgerald Campus Principal Karen Baldwin.
In a separate case, Denis and Rose Derosier say their daughter was wrongly removed from Fairfield Ludlowe High School on Nov. 29, 2023, shortly after they purchased a home in Easton. The Derosiers claim she remained a Fairfield resident while their Fairfield home was being renovated.
Fairfield schools assigned an investigator, identified as Mr. Lopes, to conduct surveillance. Lopes found the student left the Easton home on 13 occasions to attend school over a monthlong period and observed no activity indicating anyone was living in the Fairfield house.
Hearing officer Steven R. Rolnick ruled in February 2026 that the family failed to meet Connecticut's three-part residency test: that the student's residence be permanent, provided without pay, and not established solely for school enrollment purposes.
The district is seeking more than $63,000 in tuition from the Derosiers, according to Rose Derosier. A remote hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 10, 2026.
A court did allow the student to finish her studies. Judge Matthew Joseph Budzik granted a stay on April 10, 2026, citing "irreparable harm," and the student graduated from Ludlowe on June 16, 2026.
"It was great. She was nervous, but to me that's what we fought for. To me, that's winning," Rose Derosier told Greenwich Time after the ceremony.
Under Connecticut statute, districts must educate permanent residents ages 5 to 21. When parents live in different towns, state law allows a child to attend school in either district, but the arrangement must reflect genuine dual residence, not a choice made solely to access a preferred school.
Districts verify residency using deeds, leases, utility bills, tax records, driver's licenses, voter registration, and vehicle registrations. Families who lose a challenge can be billed tuition for the period of attendance, as the Derosiers' case demonstrates.
Formal challenges remain uncommon statewide. Matthew Cerrone, the Connecticut State Department of Education's director of communications, told Greenwich Time the state reviewed 11 residency cases in 2024, 16 in 2025, and eight as of July 13, 2026.
