Principals in Washoe County School District have until the end of August to review variances for their schools, but school starts in just over a week.

Parents have reached out to us about their experiences.

Some say it's been easier; others still haven't heard if their child's variance is accepted.

One family we spoke with is in a difficult situation because one child was approved for the variance and the other was not. 

"It would be nice if they allowed sibling variances," said Charity Wagoner, mother of three. "If they're going to accept one sibling, they need to accept both because that's going to put a hardship on families because my son went their last year and I want him to stay with his friends. So, do I punish him as well and make him go to the new school with Nick?"

For the Wagoner family, last year both of their children attended the same school on a variance.

Their children, Mason and Nicholas went to Michael Inskeep Elementary School.

This year Mason was accepted, and Nicholas was not.

Nicholas is special needs with autism and cerebral palsy. 

After the family moved him from school to school, they say he finally made substantial progress at Inskeep.

"He is talking more," Wagoner said. "He is using complete sentences. He's learning his ABC's, numbers, colors, shapes. Whereas prior to that his teachers couldn't get him to open up enough to learn these new concepts."

The specialized program at Inskeep is now full, so Nicholas will have to go to their zoned school, Gomes Elementary School, unless room opens up.

"I'm afraid that now if we move him to another new school he's going to regress and not make any progress," Wagoner said.

After trying with the school district to get Nick a variance, the family decided to place both of the boys at Gomes to keep them together.

While the variance process hasn't gone great for some families, for one mom, she says the new policy is much improved on from the last one. 

"What we found through that process that once I knew somebody that knew somebody that knew the principal it was a lot easier," said Amber Falgout, mother of high school daughter. "So, that was super frustrating was the equity and the accessibility of variances seemed to be dependent on who you knew." 

Falgout said she hopes the new policy can give families more opportunities for school choice.

The new policy has alleviated a lot of stress from their family as they don't have to stress if the daughter is going to have to change schools.

"Without the threat of that she has seemed way more comfortable," Falgout said. "She's way more excited about going to school. She doesn't have all of that stress and then additionally me and my husband don't have that stress."

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