In January 1993, Appellants and their children moved into their present home. It's located 6 miles from Morning Sun and 4 miles from Wapello. Mr. Wonders testified that "if we resided across the road, we would be in Wapello School District." Appellants' oldest daughter was in first grade. Since they assumed that they were in Wapello, they transported her to school every day. In June 1993, Appellants were advised by Morning Sun that they needed to file for open enrollment, which they did for their daughter, Alexandria, and their daughter, Aerial. These applications were approved on August 16, 1993. When it came time for their son to attend school, Mr. Wonders followed the same procedures and was denied.

When asked by the hearing panel why he waited to file for his son's open enrollment, Appellant replied that he had not known there was a deadline and that it was never his intention to mislead the Board. We believe him. If Mr. Wonders had applied for open enrollment for Aaron at the same time as he had for his daughters, it would have been approved.

Aaron will only be spending one year in Morning Sun. The local board could have granted the application. Unfortunately, the local board felt it had been misled by the Appellants and denied the application for Aaron.

That the decision of the Morning Sun Community School District denying Aaron Wonders' open enrollment request was affirmed.