Holly Bergen is a junior at McKinley High School. The Roosevelt County Human Services Department takes Holly into physical custody and removes her from her home on November 13. Holly’s schoolwork has suffered recently. She has stopped participating in extra-curricular activities and is exhibiting physical symptoms of anxiety and depression.

The caseworker, Jeanne Carter, takes Holly to the home of her grandmother, Martha Bergen, where Holly’s mother Darla, Holly and Martha have all requested that Holly be placed. Martha Bergen lives in the neighboring school district.

At the same time, Jeanne gives the principal of McKinley High a consent for disclosure of school records signed by Darla Bergen. Jeanne requests information that will help her make a judgment about the appropriateness of Holly’s current educational setting and a determination as to whether her best interests would be served by placing her in a different school district.

The principal assigns one of Holly’s teachers, Tom Garcia, and the school counselor, Janice Murphy, to meet with Jeanne Carter, and the three of them discuss her academic progress, level of engagement in school and social connection to the school.

Jeanne meets with Holly who requests to be transferred to another school, “to just anywhere else”. The social worker decides, with input from McKinley High as well as Holly and her family, that it is in Holly’s best interests to transfer.