9-Year-Old Caught In Middle Of School District Debate In Westchester: 'I Feel Like I'm Missing Out On Learning'
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Westchester County mother says her daughter is stuck in some sort of learning limbo, after her 9-year-old was kicked out of her elementary school more than a month ago.
Why was she forced to leave? CBS2's John Dias got answers on Tuesday.
Sofia Pignatelli has a backpack full of books, but it has been nearly five weeks since she has used any of them.
"I feel like I am missing out on learning," she said.
That's because on Jan. 24 the third grader was kicked out of Park Avenue Elementary School, with no replacement. Her mother said it happened because school leaders don't believe the family lives in the Port Chester Public School system, though Sofia has been going to the school since 2015.
"You really can't let my kid finish out the year? I mean, we are so far in," mother Melissa Pignatelli said.
Melissa Pignatelli has been fighting the district, appealing the decision to the New York commissioner of education, and has even tried to re-enroll her daughter three times. But nothing has come out of it.
"It's defeating. It's defeating," she said.
Melissa Pignatelli said they live with her mom blocks away from the school -- Sofia even has her own room -- but the school district hired private investigators to look into the matter.
Pictures show the family leaving her ex-boyfriend's home in the Harrison Central School District. That district would welcome Pignatelli's daughter if she can prove residency, but she has continued to stand firm that the kids don't live there, adding they only spend some nights when she works her second job.
"I am very open with the fact that, yes, they spent X amount of time at this house. They were there more than usual, but does that negate the fact that this is their home?" Melissa Pignatelli said.
The single mother said never once did investigators stop by her Port Chester home, or school officials do a wellness check in any form.
Since Sofia has already missed a significant amount of school days, her mother said she is worried about her falling behind.
She spends her days at her great-grandmother's house, learning on her own from educational websites, but her mother said she knows that's not enough.
"That's my biggest concern, that she will either have to repeat the year, she is going to end up in summer school," Melissa Pignatelli said. "She has student testing coming up in the next few weeks, which she most definitely is not prepared for."
Melissa said her youngest daughter goes to private daycare and is not yet impacted by this, adding she plans to fight this matter until the end.
The school district has yet to set Sofia up with a tutor. For the past two days, CBS2 reached out to the superintendent of the Port Chester School District, but he has yet to respond.