Appellant filed an open enrollment application for Daniel to attend Kanesville Alternative High School in the Council Bluffs District on September 20, 2001, after he had dropped out of school. Daniel had been receiving treatment for continuing difficulties with symptoms of panic disorder and moderate depression. He was first diagnosed with panic disorder and social phobia when he was a sixth grader. He was hospitalized for ten days, following a run away from school, triggering an extensive psychiatric evaluation.

Daniel received individualized help during his junior high years, which worked well, along with medication and counseling. As a freshman, Daniel began to experience more problems due to adolescence and the change to the larger high school. His doctors began to experiment with different dosages and medications. He was able to take a normal class schedule in regular classroom during his freshman and sophomore years.

During his junior year, Daniel missed 48 days of school due to his worsening panic disorder and social phobia. He was hospitalized for 8 days, during which he was suicidal. Daniel continued an outpatient program until the last part of November 1999. Upon his return to school, the District placed him in its Flexible Learning Center which was located in the basement and away from the majority of the students. In April 2000, Daniel attempted suicide and was once again hospitalized. By the end of his junior year, Daniel was behind 21 credits toward graduation. His condition worsening during the spring of 2001 when he realized that he did not have enough credits to graduate with the rest of his classmates. His medications were increased and he dropped to five classes per day. He was determined to get a Lewis Central diploma.

Daniel began the 2001-2002 school year, as a fifth year senior, at the newly constructed high school. The learning center was now located on the second floor of the main building and Daniel was forced to interact with the 900 student population several times each day. His panic disorder worsened and he missed 8 of the first 15 days of the school year. On September 14, 2001, Daniel told his mother he could no longer attend Lewis Central High School.

Daniel and his mother visited Kanesville Alternative High School. Superintendent Scott testified that Daniel's condition worsening after the opening the the District's new high school and he felt the District had done everything possible to help Daniel. The State Board concluded that the facts in this appeal presented a situation that cried out for intervention through its subsection 18 power. The only reason the Board denied Daniel's open enrollment was that it never approved late-filed applications.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Lewis Central Community School District made on October 1, 2001, denying Appellant's open enrollment application for the 2001-2002 school year was reversed.