Publisher: NBC Chicago / NBC 5 Responds (PJ Randhawa, Leigh Lesniak, Alfonso Gutierrez, Ronald Zachara, Raul Quinones)
Date Published: March 11, 2026
Relevant To: Thomson Reuters CLEAR school residency verification vendor; contract terms; erroneous denial case
Verification Status: Verified
Notes: Confirmed via full-text fetch. NBC 5 Responds/Telemundo Chicago Responde investigation: Alsip Hazelgreen Oak Lawn School District 126 (suburban Chicago) has repeatedly denied a mother’s (Thalía Sánchez) daughter’s public school enrollment despite her providing a driver’s license, utility bills, vehicle registration, and mortgage statement proving residency — because license plate recognition data showed her car parked overnight at a Chicago address in July/August (she says she’d loaned the car to a family member; it’s since returned to her driveway). The vendor is Thomson Reuters CLEAR (a license-plate-recognition tool linking nationwide location/surveillance-camera data with vehicle ownership records), NOT Flock — the article includes an explicit editor’s correction noting an earlier version wrongly showed Flock camera footage, and that Flock confirmed to NBC 5 it has no involvement with this district or with Thomson Reuters CLEAR technology. Via public records request, NBC 5 obtained the actual contract: $41,904 for a 36-month term beginning December 2024 — the same month the family moved into their home. The vendor’s own marketing language claims residency verification “safeguards the trust and equity at the heart of public education.” The district did not respond to multiple interview requests; Thomson Reuters CLEAR also did not respond. As of publication, the daughter was attending private school 45 minutes away. DIRECTLY RELEVANT to BPA’s school-tech-privacy project — a documented case of a THIRD-PARTY LPR VENDOR (not Flock) being used specifically for student residency verification, with a real contract dollar figure and a concrete case of erroneous denial. Also a useful companion/contrast to the Katy ISD in-person residency-check story also in this library — illustrates two different (both flawed) residency-verification methods.