Ms. Hall and her two children, Tyler and Daniel, live in the Fremont District. Tyler is in the fourth grade, and Daniel is in the fifth grade. When the family moved into their home in December 1996, Ms. Hall thought it was in the Eddyville-Blakesburg District. The children began attending school at Eddyville-Blakesburg. The children were picked up by the Eddyville-Blakesburg bus when it used the Hall's driveway as a turnaround. In April 1997, Ms. Hall learned that the family home was actually located in the Fremont District. She had applied for open enrollment for her sons so they could continue at Eddyville-Blakesburg. The application was granted by both districts and the children continued to be picked up by the Eddyville-Blakesburg bus.

In October 1997, the bus driver told Ms. Hall that some one had complained to the Fremont District and he could no longer pick up her children in their driveway. Since then, Ms. Hall drives her children one mile down the road into Kirksville. The children board the bus at the stop there. Ms. Hall then follows the bus back to her driveway where it turns around and then takes the children to school.

Eddyville-Blakesburg agreed to pick up the Hall children if Ms. Hall received permission from the Fremont District. Her request to the Fremont Board was denied on November 17, 1997. Ms. Hall then contacted the AEA and was advised that Eddyville-Blakesburg had never gotten approval to enter the Fremont District to turn the bus around. Shortly after that, the Eddyville-Blakesburg District requested permission from the Fremont District to turn its bus around at the first available safe place ? which was the Hall's driveway. The Fremont District agreed to allow the Eddyville-Blakesburg District to do this for safety purposes only at its December 15, 1997, meeting. The AEA Board approved this route on January 13, 1998. The basis of the approval was for safety reasons.

On January 19, 1998, Ms. Hall's second request to allow her children to board the Eddyville-Blakesburg bus which turned around in her driveway, was denied at the January 1998 Fremont Board of Directors meeting. The basis for the denial was the Superintendent's concern that if Board allows the Hall children to be picked up, then other open-enrolled students will also request permission to board Eddyville-Blakesburg buses in the Fremont District. Since the two districts have agreed that they will not enter each other's district to transport open-enrolled students, the Fremont District will abide by that agreement and not make any exceptions.

As the State Board of Education has recognized on several occasions, Iowa law is clear that parents who open enroll their students are responsible for transporting them to a designated stop in the receiving school's bus route. Iowa Code section 282.18(10)(1997). The Iowa legislature has also made it clear that an exception to this law may be made if the boards of the receiving school district and the sending school district agree that the receiving school district may send buses into the sending school district to pick up open-enrolled students. Both of these districts have decided that administering exceptions to the "no transportation policy" would be too cumbersome and difficult. The State Board has traditionally respected the districts' legal right to do this.