Decision No. 13,632

(July 10, 1996)

Dee Estelle Alpert, Esq., attorney for petitioner

MILLS, Commissioner.--Petitioners appeal the determination of the Board of Education of the North Shore Central School District ("respondent") to exclude their children from district schools on the basis of residency. The appeal must be dismissed.

Petitioners and their two children, Carly and Ryan, moved out of respondent's school district during the 1995-96 school year. The move began in November 1995 and was complete in January 1996. Respondent notified petitioners that their children would be excluded from district schools because they were no longer district residents. This appeal ensued. Petitioners' request for interim relief pending a determination on the merits was denied on March 1, 1996.

Petitioners allege that other similarly situated children have been allowed to finish the school year in respondent's schools, that they based their actions on what they perceived as the district's policy, and that it is in their children's best interest to complete the school year in the district. They also challenge respondent's procedures in excluding their children. Respondent contends that it applies its policy uniformly and distinguishes the circumstances of the other children to which petitioners refer.

The appeal must be dismissed because it is moot. Petitioners requested that I compel respondent to permit their children to remain in the district's schools until the end of the 1995-96 school year, which is now over. Since the Commissioner only decides matters in actual controversy and will not render a decision on a state of facts which no longer exist or which subsequent events have laid to rest, the appeal is moot (Appeal of Nash, 35 Ed Dept Rep 203; Appeal of Warner, 32 id. 533; Appeal of Langenmayr, 30 id. 322).

THE APPEAL IS DISMISSED.

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