Lawyers for the school system and a parent group argued before the state Court of Appeals on Wednesday whether parents need to give permission for their children to attend year-round schools.

If the school district gets a favorable ruling in the next two months, school board members say they may not seek permission to send students to year-round schools this summer. That would sweep in 2,900 students who left year-round schools this year.

"Once we get a ruling, we'll have to look at all our options," said Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board. "We haven't made a decision yet."

The school district is currently limited by a lower court ruling in May that requires parental permission for assignment to year-round schools.

Wake complied with the ruling this school year by mailing letters to parents of more than 30,500 students, asking for consent to send their children to year-round schools, as well as those that follow a modified calendar. Students whose parents declined to grant the consent were sent to traditional-calendar schools.

School officials said 90 percent of the families gave their consent. But the refusals of 2,900 students were enough to create crowding at traditional-calendar schools. It also left many empty seats in year-round schools.

School officials think the consent forms cover only one year so parents would have to opt out again to stay out of year-round schools for this fall.

School administrators say they're not basing their new reassignment plan, which was released Tuesday, on whether they'll win or lose the appeal.

But they're not planning to send consent forms and recommend traditional-calendar assignments until at least March. They say they want to know first the results of a lottery in which parents can apply in February to attend magnet schools, year-round schools or traditional-calendar schools.

Initially, only 900 families applied to pull their children from year-round schools last year. Critics say parents who wanted their children to attend traditional-calendar schools could only apply to an online lottery. As a result, many parents didn't know they had an option. After the court ruling, many more families opted out of year-round schools.

Families that apply in February have no guarantee that their application will be accepted. If they're rejected, they'd be able to get out of a year-round school by saying no on the consent form.

But the consent forms could become a moot point if the Court of Appeals rules on Wake's appeal before the letters are sent. The court has 90 days to issue a ruling.

Leaders of Wake CARES, the group that sued over year-round schools, are suspicious that the school district would be quick to use a favorable ruling to drop the consent forms.

"The school board is not above doing anything they think will protect their interests," said Dawn Graff, a co-founder of Wake CARES.

But school board members stressed that it's not a given they'll ignore asking for consent this summer if they win the appeal.

"My hope is that the Court of Appeals will rule before the consent forms are sent," said school board member Kevin Hill. "If and when a ruling is issued, I feel very confident that the school board will take a very careful look at what direction to take."