Yorba Linda Family Wins School Transfer Fight : Education: Fullerton district yields to public pressure and waives policy forcing girl from troubled family to change schools.

School officials in Fullerton announced Wednesday that they have reversed an earlier decision requiring the transfer of a 14-year-old Yorba Linda girl to Troy High School.

J. Kenneth Jones, superintendent of Fullerton Joint Union High School, said the district’s board of trustees changed its mind at a Tuesday meeting because of press coverage surrounding Danielle Dudics’ transfer and concern about her brother’s welfare.

Danielle’s family had argued that she should be allowed to stay at El Dorado High School, in the Placentia district, because her brother suffers from serious depression. Her family worried that transferring Danielle would separate her from her friends at a time when her home life is already stressful.

“I’m very grateful that this appears to have been worked out at last,” Greg Dudics, Danielle’s father, said Wednesday. “It’s really gratifying to see that, despite all the setbacks, the system really worked.”

Earlier this week, Placentia Unified School District officials, who had said they were willing to accept Danielle’s transfer, were forced to take her off the attendance rolls at El Dorado because Fullerton would not approve her transfer.

Danielle continued to attend El Dorado, but she did so without receiving credit. As soon as the decision was announced Thursday, she was re-enrolled.

Frustrated by the Fullerton board’s rejection, Greg Dudics waged a public battle on Danielle’s behalf, soliciting media attention and calling on a battery of political leaders to bolster his pleas.

Elected officials from the local, state and federal governments pledged their support and publicly urged the board to reconsider. Danielle’s brother had been granted a transfer, and several elected officials or their aides argued that the district should not split up the family.

Through it all, Fullerton officials remained mostly silent. Even Wednesday’s statement gave few new indications as to what had swayed the board.

“The district does not, in fact cannot, legally release details about individual students,” the statement said. “Therefore, it is not possible to explain how and why decisions are reached in individual cases, which are considered confidential.”

The only hint in the statement involved media coverage of the case and Danielle’s brother.

“The board last night believed it now had the responsibility to reconsider the decision based upon ongoing coverage in the press, which, in the opinion of board members, the administration and the district’s head psychologist, has the potential to be damaging to the health and well-being of Danielle’s brother,” Jones said in his statement.

Greg Dudics, however, blamed the Fullerton district for having jeopardized his son’s health and credited attention to the case with helping to restore order in his family’s life.

Dudics praised local officials who offered support during the past week. Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange) was the first of several officials, including state Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) and U.S. Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), to offer assistance.

Aides to those officials commended the decision.

“We’re extremely pleased,” said Kevin Parriott, Lewis’ administrative assistant. “There obviously was no other decision than this.”

Lewis was the author of a state law that merged the Yorba Linda and Placentia school districts. That law, approved by residents of the two districts in 1988, was at the center of the Dudics debate because it requires Yorba Linda residents to send their children to Fullerton high schools after completing their elementary education in Placentia schools.

The law prevents requests for transfers from being appealed after Fullerton rules on them. All other inter-district transfers may be appealed to local county boards of education.

With the Dudics case apparently resolved, Parriott said Lewis and other officials now will turn to amending the law to prevent similar disagreements from cropping up again.

Meanwhile, while Fullerton officials were meeting to reconsider their decision, Danielle was at cheerleading practice.