Buried on SchoolSpring’s job board is a Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) listing for a “Residency Investigator & Admissions Support Specialist.” On paper, the post claims to “uphold the integrity of the district’s enrollment process.” In reality, it reads like a blueprint for a miniature police state inside our classrooms.
The duties include:
- “Conduct surveillance in the community at bus stops to verify residency.”
- “Perform home visits” and “interviews” of families.
- Preference for candidates with “prior experience in investigations or law enforcement.”
In other words: KCPS wants to hire an undercover agent to follow children from their front doors to the yellow bus.
Why This Is Terrifying — Especially for Immigrant and Black Families
The United States has a grim history of policing Black and Brown students under the guise of “school safety” and “residency enforcement.” Just eight years ago, ICE agents dragged Romulo Avelica-González away while he dropped his daughters at school in Los Angeles, traumatizing an entire community — and the video went viral for a reason.
Now imagine a district-paid investigator staking out bus stops in a city where federal policy has already chipped away at “sensitive location” protections that once kept immigration enforcement out of schools. KCPS itself passed a “Safe & Welcoming Schools” resolution promising ICE could not remove students without a warrant…