Appellants are the parents of 8 children. They adopted 7 of them between November 1992 and November 1994. Ronald, who is the youngest, is in kindergarten. On May 30, 1996, Appellants filed for open enrollment into the Newell-Fonda homeschooling assistance program, seeking open enrollment in the fall of 1996. On June 17, 1996, AC-T Board of Directors denied the applications because they were filed untimely without good cause.

Appellants moved into the AC-T District on November 1, 1995 and felt they were covered by the "good cause" rules relating to change in residence. The superintendent disputed Appellants' testimony that they had moved into the District after October 30th. Appellants provided a letter from their landlord, stating Appellants moved into his farm house on October 31, 1995; a newspaper article, stating they "moved to the Albert City community November 1;" and a videotape of the adoption hearing on October 30, 1995.

The superintendent disputed the reliability of the newspaper article and the validity of the video tape. He maintained that the decisive fact was not the date Appellants actually moved into the District, but the date on which they had requested their children's educational records be sent from their old school. For open enrollment purposes, does the change of residence occur when the parents physically move into the district or when the parents evidence intent to mve into the district by transferring student records? The answer is obvious. Iowa Code section 282.6 states, "a resident" for the purposes of tuition-free educaiton first requires that the person be physically present in the district. The hearing panel could see no reason why Appellants would misrepresent their residence in the District Court of Plymouth County while testifying at an adoption hearing or when being interviewed by a local newspaper.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Albert City-Truesdale Community School District made on June 17, 1996, was reversed.