Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday sent a cease and desist letter to Columbus City Schools, saying the district needed to resume provided transportation to hundreds of nonpublic charter and parochial school students it dropped without warning or face a lawsuit.
Yost’s announcement in a media release came just hours before 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.
In an email response to The Dispatch the district said it had received Yost’s letter and would “respond as appropriate.” A spokesperson told The Dispatch at Tuesday’s meeting that the district would issue a statement about the letter.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the CCS board voted on another resolution declaring more students impractical for transportation. The Dispatch has requested the district provide how many children the district has already said it cannot transport.
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.
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.
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The district says it transports more than 8,000 charter and nonpublic school students in addition to CCS students.
Charter parents, students, administrators: busing situation ‘unthinkable’
During Tuesday’s meeting, Saturn Messina, 16, a student at the Metro Public Early College High School charter school, said that forcing female students to use COTA transportation to get to school every day threatened girls’ safety.
“I have lost my ability to feel safe making my way to school,” Messina said. “I am consistently afraid to ride COTA every morning.”
Messina said that for many young girls, there is a constant threat of sexual violence from using public transportation.
“I am not delusional enough to think that I can change your mind,” Messina said. “But tonight, when you go home, please look at the young women in your life, and think they deserve to feel safe on the transit that they have to use, and so do I.”
Ignazio Messina, parent of Saturn Messina, told the district last week that he received his notice that his child was ineligible for transportation just 12 days before school started, and that the district has failed to continue to provide transportation during a mediation process as required by law.
He said he and other parents have been met with either rudeness — or silence — from the district as they tried to sort out their children’s transportation situation.
“I think we should be reminded that for many parents in the district, transportation required by law is a need, not a want,” Messina said. “They need this.”
Andy Boy, CEO of United Schools Network, a network of central Ohio charter schools, said the “kinds of challenges that have have been put in front of families are just unthinkable or unacceptable.” He said that many parents were informed of busing impracticality just a week or two weeks before school starts in some cases.
He said some parents have even had to immediately withdraw from United Schools as a result.
“The consternation of their families is off the charts. We’ve got mothers, grandmothers, families and tears like, ‘What am I supposed to do? I worked so hard to set this up for my family to make sure that this is working,'” Boy said.
Jennifer Griffith, principal of Franklinton High School, a charter school, told The Dispatch that she was glad to see Yost taking action against CCS because “someone is standing up for underserved families who want school choice for their children.”
She said that not only have many students at the school been declared impractical for transportation, 20 students have been declared “ineligible” for transportation, meaning they do not qualify for a transportation reimbursement from the district.
“This is just flat out erroneous as all of our students live within the Columbus City Schools district and our school is located in Franklinton,” Griffith said.
‘Strong-arm tactic:’ Yost threatens suit against CCS
In a prepared media release, Yost called the district’s move to decline transportation of some charter and nonpublic students “a strong-arm tactic.”
“The solution of ‘Well just come back to Columbus City Schools because we’re great'” doesn’t work, Yost said. “The parents have already made the decision that they want to avail themselves of the other options. This kind of strong-arm tactic will not stand.”
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Yost said the district was refusing to comply with state law to transport children. He said in a video statement that the cease and desist letter warns the district that if it don’t resume transportation to charter and nonpublic students, the Attorney General’s Office will take CCS to court.
“Columbus City Schools has decided not to comply with state law — you don’t get to do that — state law has to be followed,” Yost said.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio AG threatens Columbus City Schools with suit over busing policy
