Filed: May 19, 2000, Iowa Board of Education.

Nature of Case: A dual enrolled home school student was denied funds for community college courses that are available to public and accredited nonpublic school students, but not to home school students who are dual enrolled. The state law under which students are receiving the funds is called the Post Secondary Enrollment Options Act ("PSEO"). State law provides dual enrolled students with access to all educational benefits available in the district, but a seven-year-old ruling of the Department of Education concludes that the Legislature could not have intended to include dual enrolled students in the PSEO because it would cost too much. The issue before the Board of Education was whether a dual enrolled student is eligible for the PSEO.

Ruling: Following a December 7, 2000, state board of education hearing, Administrative Law Judge Susan Anderson overturned the declaratory ruling, stating that the policy behind Iowa's PSEO "is to expand the academic opportunities available to high school pupils." Judge Anderson concluded that the "plain language of the Act, when coupled with the dual enrollment statute enacted four years later, requires inclusion of dual-enrolled students in the Act's benefits." The Stone's daughter "should not have been denied benefits…."

Last Updated: January 22, 2001.

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