Ohio AG filing suit against Columbus City Schools over charter busing policy

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he would be suing Columbus City Schools on Thursday, days after warning the district to resume providing transportation to hundreds of nonpublic charter and parochial school students the district said it could not transport.

It does not appear a suit has been filed yet in Franklin County as of Thursday afternoon.

Columbus City school board met Tuesday evening and voted on a new resolution saying it cannot transport some charter and nonpublic students because of the cost and disruption to its transportation services.

Under Ohio law, school districts are obligated to provide transportation for nonpublic school students who live within district boundaries and will attend a school no more than 30 minutes from the public school which they would attend if they were enrolled.

Columbus City Schools currently transports more than 37,000 children to school each day, including over 8,000 charter and nonpublic school students.

More: Parents angry, Ohio AG threatens lawsuit as Columbus removes more students from busing

Yost said Thursday afternoon on X that the district had been silent in its response to the cease and desist sent Tuesday, and said "state law is not a list of suggestions." Yost sent the district a cease and desist letter on Tuesday accusing the district of "strong-arm" tactics by refusing to bus charter school students.

After Yost said he was going to sue, CCS issued two statements Thursday afternoon: one from the district's legal team saying CCS was compliant with state law and another from Superintendent Angela Chapman saying the district could have done a better job communicating with families and promising to work toward a solution.

CCS lawyer: District's "actions are consistent with the laws"

In a letter to Yost released late Thursday afternoon, CCS attorney James Barnes said the district believed its actions are consistent with the laws" and "is complying with its legal obligations to transport students."

"Due to circumstances beyond its control, CCS found it necessary to re-evaluate its transportation operations," Barnes said. "Even with improved efficiencies, the re-evaluation led to the realization that it was untenable for CCS to continue to transport students that it is not required to transport."

Barnes said the district is working with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) and families daily regarding the district's determinations, as well as with the Ohio School Boards Association to ensure it is compliant with all the criteria required under law to consider a student impractical or ineligible for transportation.

"Your threat to file a lawsuit against CCS is an improper infringement upon CCS’s right to make ineligibility and impractical to transport determinations," Barnes said. "Your threat to file a lawsuit against CCS also serves to usurp and circumvent the authority of the General Assembly."

Superintendent Angela Chapman: 'our outreach could have been more intentional'

In another statement issued late Thursday afternoon, Chapman said while changes were necessary, the district "could have made a stronger and more sensitive effort to communicate with the families that have been impacted."

"If I learned weeks before the first day of school that the bus I was expecting to transport my child wasn’t coming, I would be upset and I would want answers," Chapman said. "In hindsight, our outreach could have been more intentional, and our tone could have better reflected the gravity of the decision."

Chapman said the district recognizes "that students who are not receiving district transportation still need to get to school," and her team will work on developing a solution for students that makes sense considering limitations caused by a nationwide bus driver shortage.

"We cannot return to the previous transportation system that failed too many of our students — district, community and nonpublic alike," Chapman said in the statement. "But I am committed to working with all partners to find a path forward for the sake of all our students."

Charter school parents and families say busing situation unacceptable

Parents, students and charter school administrators have previously told the district during meetings and told The Dispatch that they find the busing situation for charter and nonpublic students to be unacceptable.

Parents and administrators say that even though students have previously qualified for transportation, this year they were informed that the district can't transport them — with some warned just weeks before the start of school.

At Tuesday's meeting and other recent meetings, the district has declared some charter and nonpublic students "impractical" for transportation, meaning the district says it cannot transport them and agrees to pay families for the costs of transportation at the end of the school year. Families would be responsible for transporting those students themselves using their vehicles, COTA bus service or Uber, Lyft or cab services they pay for up front. The district has made several similar resolutions over previous meetings.

One charter school administrator even told The Dispatch that not only have many students at the school been declared impractical for transportation, some of the students have been declared "ineligible" for transportation, meaning they do not qualify for a transportation reimbursement from the district even though all the students live within Columbus.

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

@Colebehr_report

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Schools lawsuit: Ohio AG Yost suing over charter school busing