Appellants and their family reside in the Clear Creek-Amana Community School District, close to its boundary with the Iowa City District. They adopted their son, Edward, on May 10, 2001. Edward arrived in this country from Russia on May 27, 2001. He is fourteen years old and has spoken only Russian until coming to the United States. Although he has not yet been tested for placement in a particular grade, his parents believe that he would probably be ready for seventh or eighth grade.
On August 10, 2001, the Schmidts filed for open enrollment with Clear Creek-Amana for Edward, listing the Iowa City District as the requested receiving district. The Clear Creek-Amana Board approved the application on August 13, as a sending district. On August 14, 2001, the Iowa City District Board denied the open enrollment application, as a receiving district, on the basis of insufficient space in its English-as-a-Second Language Program ["ESL"] at Northwest Junior High School.
The District's ESL program grades K-12 currently serves 200 students who speak 28 different languages. "The student population changes daily in Iowa City," according to the District due to the presence of the University of Iowa. In 1993, the ESL enrollment was about 150 students. There are 1.5 staff personnel assigned to the District's K-12 ESL program, including a recently added half-time position to accommodate the District's growing ESL resident population. The District testified that its ESL program has operated at a $200,000 deficit for the past several years. The Board denied Edward's open enrollment application because of inadequate classroom space in its ESL program at Northwest Junior High.
The Iowa City Board has determined for the past seven years that there is insufficient classroom space in the District's ESL program. The program struggles to serve its own resident students who need to be in the ESL program. The ESL program has operated at a $200,000 deficit for several years. The law provides that the Board makes the determination of insufficient classroom space based on the factors in the rules and the Board's own policy, which include "finances available." The Board has made the determination that there is insufficient classroom space in its ESL program for Edward or any other ESL student who wishes to open enroll into the District. The evidence presented by the District supports this determination.
The Board's determination that it will first look to the needs of its resident pupils is reasonable and is to be supported. Prior cases of the Department of Education called similar determinations "highly responsible." In re Ji Yoon Jeong, 18 D.o.E. App. Dec. 7 (2000); In re Alida Congden, 15 D.o.E. App. Dec. 169, 173 (1998); In re Amanda J. Baker, 12 D.o.E. App. Dec. 210, 212 (1995). The Board has applied its open enrollment/insufficient classroom space policy consistently. To allow the Schmidts to open enroll Edward into the District would violate the policy. The District correctly looked at the impact of not just Edward's application, but of all similarly situated applicants. We affirm the Board's determination that there is insufficient classroom space in the District's ESL program.
That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Iowa City Community School District made on October 9, 2001, that denied Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt's open enrollment application for Edward, was affirmed