During the 1996-97 school year, the Board allowed the Walnut Community School District bus to enter the A-H-S-T District to pick up the open-enrolled Dea children. The Deas live on the edge of the District boundary, so the bus from Walnut came only 1,300 feet into the A-H-S-T District. On June 16, 1997, the Board voted to establish a policy whereby no buses from neighboring districts would be allowed to come in to transport open-enrolled students. The administrative law judge and the hearing panel found that the policy was within the Board's legal authority to adopt, and the policy applies consistently to all open-enrolled students in the District.

Therefore, the administrative law judge and the hearing panel recommended affirmance of the A-H-S-T District Board's made on June 16, 1997, which denied the Deas' request for transportation from their home to their children's school in the Walnut Community School District