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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost recently filed an emergency motion in the Ohio Supreme Court against Columbus City Schools over busing issues that have plagued the district.
This is part of an ongoing lawsuit Yost filed earlier this month against the state’s largest school district over issues related to busing charter and private school students within the district’s boundaries.
“Every day of inaction from Columbus Schools puts parents between a rock and a hard place,” Yost said in a statement. “Parents are being forced to quit their jobs, rearrange their lives and scramble for transportation, while the school board fails to meet its legal duties.”
Columbus City Schools did not respond to the Ohio Capital Journal’s request for comment.
Ohio school districts are required under state law to provide transportation for nonpublic school students who live within district boundaries and go to a school no more than 30 minutes from the public school they would attend.
Columbus City Schools had 470 yellow bus routes and 445 bus drivers on staff to bus 37,731 students — including 9,433 charter and nonpublic students as of Sept. 20, according to the district. According to school board documents, the district’s targeted goal is to have 610 bus drivers — meaning they are operating at about 72% capacity.
Columbus City Schools decided some charter and private school students were impractical to transport at the start of the school year, according to Yost. The school district offered instead to pay to reimburse families for transportation, for instance, by covering ride share, taxi, or gas mileage costs.
Some impacted families have requested mediation to challenge the district’s decision and, under state law, the school district must continue transporting those students while the challenge is ongoing.
“The district continues to refuse to transport students even after their families request mediation to challenge the district’s initial decision not to provide transportation,” Yost said.
The emergency motion requests the district to provide transportation to any student who has requested medication.
School busing issues are multifaceted. There is an ongoing national school bus driver shortage with no end in sight. And Ohio’s expansion of school vouchers has also compounded transportation issues for public school districts, said Doug Palmer, senior transportation consultant for the Ohio School Boards Association.
“More students are attending nonpublic and charter schools located far from their homes, straining public school bus services,” Palmer said in an email. “This, in turn, has increased logistical complexity and costs, longer bus rides, and more routes, particularly in districts where voucher use is widespread.”
Ohio lawmakers expanded private school voucher eligibility to 450% of the poverty line in 2023 through the state’s budget. K-8 students can receive a $6,166 scholarship and high schoolers can get a $8,408 scholarship.
“The more kids who are subsidized by the state with their private school tuition, the more of a challenge that creates, and, I think, the harder it’s going to be for public schools to meet that requirement that they transport all kids,” Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said.
Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, doesn’t think the expansion of the school voucher program will have a significant impact on school busing.
“The private school students have been eligible for busing services for such a long time, so there hasn’t been a change from a busing perspective,” he said. “They’ve been required to bus students to private schools, whether they’ve been on a voucher or not for a long time.”
Bus driver shortages
Ninety-one percent of school leaders recently surveyed said transportation operations are limited by school bus driver shortages, according to HopSkipDrive’s latest State of School Transportation Report.
School bus driver numbers have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. There were 192,400 school bus drivers in September 2023, down 15.1% from September 2019, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
“All school districts, no matter the size or location, are struggling to fill bus driver positions,” Palmer said in an email.
Ohio school districts are using various strategies to transport students including route consolidation, giving public transport passes, adding van transportation services and adjusting school start times, Palmer said.
School districts are offering higher wages, signing bonuses, paid training, attendance bonuses and referral bonuses in attempts to entice potential bus drivers, Palmer said.
Ohio had 18,902 active school bus drivers as of Aug. 19, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.
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