SB 2802 Mississippi Senate · 2026 Regular Session

School enrollment; criminalize enrollment without establishing domicile within the school district.

SB 2802 makes it a misdemeanor for parents, legal guardians, or custodians to falsely claim residency (domicile) to enroll a child in a Mississippi school district without actually living there. It imposes fines up to $1,000 or up to six months in jail for such violations. The bill requires schools to notify law enforcement if a student is enrolled in violation of this rule and mandates that the school district deny future enrollment for the child involved. This directly affects families seeking to enroll children in districts where they do not reside, aiming to prevent fraudulent enrollment for school funding or other benefits.

Issues: ✗ Criminal Justice

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 19, 2026 Last action Feb 12, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced → Current version · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to restructure its organization and significantly increase penalties for fraudulently enrolling children in schools without proper residency. The original version focused solely on amending the school enrollment code, while the current version adds a new misdemeanor offense for fraudulent enrollment statements and expands enforcement mechanisms to include mandatory notification of law enforcement.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded from solely amending school enrollment procedures to creating a separate criminal offense for fraudulent enrollment statements, with broader enforcement requirements.

ENFORCEMENT

Added a new Section 1 that creates a misdemeanor offense for parents or guardians who make fraudulent statements to enroll children without establishing domicile, punishable by fines up to $10,000 or imprisonment up to 5 years.

Changed the notification requirement from requiring the department, school district, or school employee to notify law enforcement to specifically requiring the clerk of the convicting court to notify the school district.

REQUIREMENT

Modified the consequence for convicted parents from expelling the child to making the child ineligible for enrollment in the school district.

TECHNICAL

Added a provision stating that this section does not prohibit prosecution under other criminal statutes of the state.

Reorganized the bill structure to include a new Section 1 for the fraud offense and moved the original school enrollment amendment to Section 2.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 3, 2026

Upper · Passed

Title Suff Do Pass Comm Sub

upper

Jan 19, 2026

Committee

Referred To Judiciary, Division B

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors