Murrumbateman mother Roslyn Pengilly read on Facebook that she would no longer have a say in which Canberra public school her son could attend.
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Timothy will start year 2 at Maribyrnong Primary next week, and his family had hoped he would follow in the footsteps of his sisters in attending UC Kaleen High in his teenage years.
But the ACT government's decision to offer NSW children placement at only a handful of Canberra schools from this year onwards would eventually send the seven-year-old to Melba Copland Secondary School.
Attending a larger school with students in year 7 to 12 is a scary proposition for Timothy, who has sensory processing disorder and will be assessed for autism spectrum disorder next week.
The Pengillys were not told of the ACT government's decision as only families applying for placement in a Canberra school were notified.
"I'm kind of holding my breath at the moment to see how things are going to turn out," Mrs Pengilly said.
"Because it's only been two days since this news hit me I haven't really had time to go right, well what is our plan and what are we going to do - but he won't be going to Melba Copland, let me say that much."
The changes to cross-border enrolments mean students from NSW can now only attend certain public schools in Belconnen and Tuggeranong, billed as pathway schools.
Families in Yass, Bywong, Collector, Goulburn, Harden and Murrumbateman are among those who can now send their children only to Evatt, Florey and Charnwood-Dunlop primary schools, Melba Copland Secondary School, UC Kaleen High and Lake Ginninderra College.
Each school sets a student on a particular pathway, meaning children like Timothy already enrolled in a Canberra government school can only attend Melba Copland through high school and college.
Children in southern NSW, such as Braidwood, Bungendore, Jerrabomberra, Michelago and Queanbeyan, can attend Gilmore, Calwell and Richardson primary schools, Wanniassa School, Caroline Chisholm School, Lake Tuggeranong College or Erindale College, and again must follow a prescribed course depending on where they first enrolled.
The changes were billed by the ACT Education Directorate as "providing certainty" to NSW families, who in previous years were forced to wait until applications from Canberra children were considered and filled before being notified of their placement.
A NSW Education Department spokesman said the department was working with the ACT government, the Queanbeyan-Palerang Council and the Yass Valley Council to find long-term solutions for education services in the region.
"This includes considerations of whether a school will be built in Murrumbateman," he said.
Murrumbateman families have been pushing for a local school for years. Mrs Pengilly said her children attended Canberra schools as that's where the family once lived and where her husband, Geoff, worked.
She said parents were forced to choose between twice-daily 40-minute round trips to Yass or dropping their kids at a Canberra school near their workplace, an option no longer on the table.
"If parents have got to take their child to Melba Copland and they actually work in Gungahlin, that's just going to be crazy," she said.
About 4500 ACT students live in NSW, about 1800 of whom attend public schools. The figure is expected to grow due to large residential developments close to the border.
