At the time of this appeal, the Francis girls were attending elementary school in the District for the 1999-2000 school year. Traci and Trudi, twins, are in the fourth grade and Kayla is in the second grade. The Francis family's residence is in the District, although it is close to the line dividing the District and the Pocahontas School District. The Francis children have always attended school in the Pomeroy-Palmer Community School District. In the spring of 1999, however, two situations oc-curred which prompted Ms. Francis to seek open enrollment of her daughters into the Pocahontas Community School District.

In the spring of 1999, the Pomeroy-Palmer District decided, due to financial concerns, to close its attendance center in Palmer. The effect of this decision to close the Palmer attendance center is that all of the District's students will attend grades kindergarten through twelfth in one building located in Pomeroy. Ms. Francis is concerned that the housing of all the students in the Pomeroy building will result in overcrowding and scheduling problems. The Pocahontas District, by contrast, offers a separate elementary building. The Pocahontas District could accommodate the twins in separate classrooms, which they would prefer. The twins have successfully been attending school in the same classroom since they started kindergarten in the District.

." Ms. Francis filed open enrollment applications for her daughters on May 10, 1999. The Board met on May 17, 1999, and denied the open enrollment applications for Traci, Trudi, and Kayla because they were filed after the January 1 deadline. Ms. Francis testified that she expected the Board to approve the open enrollment requests because she felt that there had been an unwritten Board policy to allow late-filed open enrollment requests.

The evidence showed that on one occasion on July 30, 1998, the Board had approved a late-filed application for open enrollment for two children whose mother had just taken a position with the Pocahontas Community School District. The family had moved into the District from another city. Ms. Francis argued that the Board's unwritten policy on dealing with late-filed application was applied inconsistently in the past, particularly in the July 1998 incidence.

We conclude that the Francis family's situation does not constitute good cause for a late-filed open enrollment applica-tion as defined by the Legislature and the Departmental Rules. The Francis family's situation involves neither a change in family residence nor a change in the status of the District. The decision to close the Palmer attendance center does not constitute a change in the status of the children's resident district.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Pomeroy-Palmer Community School District made on May 17, 1999, denying Appellant's open enrollment applications for her daughters, is be affirmed.