Just over a year ago, Thalía Sánchez became the proud owner of a home in Alsip. She decided to leave the bustle of the city for a quiet neighborhood setting and the best possible education for her daughter.
However, to this day, despite providing all required paperwork including her driver’s license, utility bills, vehicle registration, and mortgage statement, the Alsip Hazelgreen Oak Lawn School District 126 has repeatedly denied her daughter’s enrollment.
The denials, that are documented through the school district’s online portal and through emails with Sánchez, prompted her to follow up with the school district.
“I contacted the person that's in charge of the students of the enrollment and addresses… she was the one that informed me that my license plates are being tracked,” said Sánchez.
According to the school district, her daughter’s new student enrollment form was denied due to “license plate recognition software showing only Chicago addresses overnight” in July and August. In an email sent to Sánchez in August, the school district told her, “Although you are the owner on record of a house in our district boundaries, your license plate recognition shows that is not the place where you reside.”
Sánchez is adamant she and her daughter have been steadily living in their home since moving in. As for the location of her car—she says she loaned it to a family member in Chicago last summer. Now it’s back in her driveway.
When it comes to the school district knowing the location of her vehicle, Sánchez wants to know how they have access to license plate reader information. She contacted NBC 5 Responds and Telemundo Chicago Responde to get answers.
Through records requests, we obtained a contract between the Alsip Hazelgreen Oak Lawn School District 126 and Thompson Reuters Clear. According to the company’s website, it’s a “License Plate Recognition (LPR) tool… that links nationwide location information, including surveillance camera data, with vehicle ownership data.”
School District 126’s contract with the license plate reader company shows it’s paying a total of $41,904 for a 36-month-long contract that began in December of 2024 -- the same month that Sánchez and her daughter moved into their new Alsip home.
The plate reader company touts “Accurate residency verification does more than protect the financial health of public schools—it safeguards the trust and equity at the heart of public education.”
The school district’s website states “District 126 uses the CLEAR software program as a component of our residency verification process. Residency verification is completed several times throughout the year.”
NBC 5 Responds and Telemundo Chicago Responde contacted the school district numerous times to get a better understanding of how the plate readers are used in the student enrollment process. Our phone calls and emails requesting an interview have not been returned.
We also contacted Thompson Reuters Clear, but we didn’t hear back.
As for Sanchez, her daughter is currently attending a private school 45 minutes away from her home. She hopes something will change.
“I do not understand. Why am I being denied something so important, which is a child's education," she said. "I am living here, I do pay taxes, I contribute to all those things and I don't have access to that [public school].”
