SEEKONK — The state Department of Education has told the Seekonk School Department to relax its residency rules, saying that the current policy may be “unnecessarily duplicative and burdensome.”

The ruling is in response to a complaint by one local parent, who has refused to provide the school district with the mandatory affidavit of residency or any of the three required supporting documents.

For now, the school system will require only one supporting document — a utility bill — to supplement the residency affidavit.

The school district has targeted out-of-town students since last fall. Students from outside the district inflate Seekonk’s class sizes and cost the district money because their parents don’t pay Seekonk taxes, school officials have said.

As of this month, 141 families have failed to fill out the residency forms and another 45 have submitted incomplete information, Schools Supt. Emile Chevrette said.

Chevrette warns that the children won’t be allowed to attend Seekonk schools in the fall if their parents continue to withhold the forms.

The School Committee may need to reword its policy in the wake of the state’s decision, but Chevrette said the policy’s intention is sound.

“The School Committee does have a right to seek information supporting students’ residency,” Chevrette said yesterday. “To all fairness to the other families who submitted their forms, we’re going to continue. It protects the taxpayers. We’re doing the right thing. Why should Seekonk be educating students from other communities? The School Department is not going to drop this.”

Last fall, Seekonk began requiring parents of students in all grade levels to fill out an affidavit of residency for their child and provide three forms of supporting documentation: a copy of a mortgage deed or a rental agreement; a utility bill; and a copy of a property tax bill, bank or credit card statement or W2 form. Parents were advised to block out all personal information on those forms except for their address.

Under the current policy, families are required to resubmit the residency forms as their child advances from the elementary to the middle school to the high school grade level, to ensure the student is still living in Seekonk. Families enrolling their children in the school system for the first time must also complete the forms.

Last school year, about 16 students left the district — half of them voluntarily — because they were found to be living outside of Seekonk.

The Education Department’s recent advisory is a response to a complaint by parent Theresa S. French.

French wasn’t allowed to register her son in the upcoming kindergarten class at Martin Elementary School because she didn’t provide the requisite residency forms.

In a letter to Martin’s principal, French wrote: “I am a life long resident of Seekonk and so is my son. Therefore, there should be no reason not to register him for kindergarten classes.”

French contended that the school district is violating state law by excluding her son from Seekonk public schools. She said she had already provided the district with a copy of her driver’s license and her son’s birth certificate, but refuses to provide copies of her “mortgage, bills, or bank accounts.”

“I do not feel that these documents prove anything but to invade my privacy,” French wrote in a letter to the school district’s lawyer. “I could very easily own property in Seekonk, rent with utilities included, and bank in Seekonk, without being a resident. So what have you proven? I could also be a resident, not have a mortgage or any bills in my name, and have my mail go to a P.O. Box. So again, I ask what have you proven?”

French subsequently filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Education Department, saying the school district’s residency rule violates her privacy.

An Education Department official advised the school district that it may require supporting documentation to prove a student’s residency.

But, the ruling said, “School districts must be flexible regarding what information they will accept as documentation of a student’s residence to ensure that they do not deny admission to students who are actual residents.”

French could not be reached for comment yesterday.

School committees, under state law, do not have to enroll students who live outside their school district. Students must pay tuition — $8,500 annually in Seekonk — to attend an out-of-district school. A student is considered a resident if he or she lives in a community on a majority of weekdays.

In a related ruling, the Department of Education last January ruled that a Hurley Middle School student who splits his time between his father’s house in Seekonk and his mother’s in neighboring Pawtucket can continue attending school in Seekonk because he has, in effect, two residences. The ruling supported a complaint by parent Renee George-Kuczek.

mwims@projo.com