by J.D. Davidson
Ohio’s largest school district will resume busing more than 100 charter and private school students next week as a lawsuit continues over its transportation changes.
Columbus City Schools sent a letter to those parents who rejected payment instead of busing and requested mediation, saying new routes will be added and transportation will resume while the mediation process is ongoing.
The district said the change could also impact pick-up and drop-off times for more than 1,000 other charter and private school students.
“Routing additional students will most likely create hardships for students already being transported, including the more than 9,000 charter and nonpublic school students we already transport. Any and all changes to pick up and drop off times will be communicated to all affected families and schools,” the district said in a statement on schools’ websites.
Families of 102 students wanted mediation through the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, and Ohio law requires school districts to continue transporting those students or pay a fine to the family.
“The transportation team has been diligently working to identify routes for the 102 students who are currently in mediation and trying to minimize the negative impact this will have on the thousands of other students who rely on us to get to school,” the CCS statement said.
As previously reported by The Center Square, Attorney General Dave Yost filed an emergency motion late last week asking the Ohio Supreme Court to grant immediate relief to those families.
Yost followed through on a threat in early September to sue the district after it eliminated busing for charter- and private-school students, notifying parents about two weeks before school began in August.
State law requires districts to provide transportation to all K-8 students who live more than 2 miles from their school. It also says a school can refuse to transport students if it’s found to be unreasonable or unnecessary or takes more than 30 minutes of direct travel time.
In a statement last month, Columbus Superintendent Angela Chapman said the district continues to fight a nationwide bus driver shortage and established the same busing guidelines for private- and charter-school students as it did for public school students who go to a school outside their assigned district.
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An Ohio native, J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. Davidson is a regional editor for The Center Square.
