Columbus City Schools said Thursday that it is working with the state to bus about 120 charter and other nonpublic school students it says are at the center of an emergency motion Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed Wednesday with the Supreme Court.
In a statement Thursday, the district said it is working with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to ensure compliance with Ohio law in transporting the students of those families seeking mediation after the district declared them "impractical" to bus.
"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," the district said in a statement.
Under Ohio law, school districts are obligated to provide transportation for nonpublic school students who live within district boundaries and attend a school no more than 30 minutes from the public school they would attend if they were enrolled. Since the summer, the district has been declaring charter and nonpublic students "impractical" for transportation, but numerous parents have complained the district dropped their students at the start of the school year with little or no notice.
Ohio law requires school districts to continue transporting students when families seek a mediation process or pay a fine to the family. About 120 families have sought the mediation process, according to the district.
"The (CCS) transportation team has been diligently working to identify routes for the 120 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 statement said.
The district statement comes after Yost sued CCS earlier this month , seeking to force the district to provide transportation to hundreds of charter and nonpublic school students it has deemed impractical or ineligible, The Dispatch previously reported.
On Wednesday, Yost filed an emergency motion with the Ohio Supreme Court asking it to force CCS to immediately begin transporting students seeking mediation. The state's highest court has ordered CCS to respond by Monday.
Superintendent Angela Chapman previously said in a statement that the actions to declare students impractical was necessary to avoid significant logistical challenges related to busing additional students and the "previous transportation system that failed too many of our students — district, community and nonpublic alike."
The district previously said it has been compliant with state law in its busing actions and reiterated that in its Thursday statement.
"Columbus City Schools is working diligently with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to reach solutions to make Columbus City Schools transportation tenable for all students," the statement said, adding the district "will continue to follow Ohio law, as we have done throughout this process."
Cbehrens@dispatch.com
@Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus schools says it's trying to find buses for 120 nonpublic students amid court fight
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