This is a factually complex situation involving residency and open enrollment. The Puderbaugh family has lived on a farm near Peru, Iowa, for 16 years. The farm is located in the Interstate 35 Community School District. Mrs. Puderbaugh maintained an apartment in Des Moines for six years, ending September 1, 1996. This was because she worked full-time teaching at the School of Nursing at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and also worked part-time in the critical care unit at Iowa Lutheran Hospital. The family farm was located over an hour away from her employment so she often spent the night in Des Moines after working all day. Her daughters, Sarah and Mary, both attend Edmund's Academy in Des Moines. Mary attended preschool in Des Moines and continued in the Des Moines District, where she is now a third grader. Sarah is a first grader.

Because Mary has a congenital heart disease, Mrs. Puderbaugh was frequently called to school due to this condition. That's why the Puderbaughs decided to enroll Mary in kindergarten in Des Moines. At the kindergarten orientation, Mrs. Puderbaugh obtained an open enrollment form which she filled out and sent to the I-35 District in a timely manner. However, the I-35 District failed to act on her application because the District considered Mary (the daughter) to be a resident of the Des Moines District. Similarly, when Mrs. Puderbaugh enrolled Mary in the fall, she explained that she had an apartment in Des Moines and was told she should use that address for enrollment purposes. Mary has attended school at Edmunds ever since.

When it was time to enroll Sarah in kindergarten at Edmunds for the 1996-97 school year, Mrs. Puderbaugh told the girls' teachers that she would not keep her apartment after September 1, 1996, so she gave the farm as her home address. At that time, no one told her that she needed to reapply for open enrollment for the girls so she did not do so. About this same time, I-35 hired a new superintendent. He became aware that Mary and Sarah were residing in the District with the rest of their family but attending school in Des Moines, so he counted them as District residents in the September 1997 enrollment count. Later that same month, one of the girls brought home open enrollment application forms for the 1998-99 school year. Mrs. Puderbaugh was told they were suppose to be returned by the following Monday. She thought she was being asked to fill out these forms because of her address change. Therefore, she did not mark anything on question 11, which is the "continuation of educational program" question. This is marked if parents move their residence but want their children to remain in school at their former district.

When Interstate 35 District received the applications from the Des Moines District on October 8, 1997, the years 1998-99 were crossed out on the top of the forms and the years 1997-98 were written in. Mrs. Puderbaugh testified that she did not make this change. When the Interstate 35 District Board saw that the forms were marked 1997-98 at the top, they assumed they were applications for open enrollment for the current school year and denied the applications. This appeal followed.

Once the facts were sorted out at the appeal hearing, it appeared that the most equitable result for these children would be to let them continue their education in the Des Moines District since they were treated as residents of the Des Moines District by both school districts until Mrs. Puderbaugh gave up her apartment. Ordinarily, the girls would have qualified under the "continuation" provisions. Therefore, in finding that under these unique set of circumstances, Mary and Sarah should be allowed to continue their education at Edmunds, the administrative law judge and hearing panel recommend that the State Board exercise its discretion under Iowa Code subsection 282.18(18) to overlook the regular statutory procedures and allow Mary and Sarah to continue their education in the Des Moines District. It was recommended that the decision of the Board of Directors of the Interstate 35 Community School District made on October 20, 1997, which denied Mrs. Puderbaugh's applications for open enrollment for her children to continue attending school in the Des Moines District, be reversed.