Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told Columbus City Schools the district has to bus thousands of charter and non-public school students who were told they ineligible to receive transportation.
The district was relying on a law that states public schools don’t have to bus those students if their travel time is more than 30 minutes. About 1,380 students were notified that they wouldn’t receive bus transportation, according to CCS.
The board declared another 1,378 students were impractical to bus and instead offered financial compensation to the students' parents. This year, the Ohio Department of Education set compensation between $583 and $1,167 — numbers based on last year's cost for bus services, according to a March DEW document.
Yost sent CCS a letter on Tuesday, saying it’s the district’s “clear legal obligation to transport most if not all” of the affected students.
The letter also claims the district didn’t give families enough notice about the transportation changes.
“For many of the affected students, their families received no notice of the district’s refusal of transportation until days before the start of the school year,” the letter reads, which goes on to say that state law requires at least 30 days notice.
Two ineligibility letters provided to WOSU by Columbus City Schools are dated for June 18 and Aug. 20, but it is unclear when families received them.
Yost says his office could take the district to court if it doesn’t change its bus transportation strategy.
Columbus City Schools said Tuesday afternoon that it received the letter and "will respond as appropriate."
The school board is scheduled to meets 6 p.m. Tuesday at Columbus City Schools Southland Center located at 3700 South High Street.
