Ohio Supreme Court denies Yost's emergency motion on Columbus schools' nonpublic busing

The Ohio Supreme Court on Monday denied the Ohio Attorney General's emergency motion to compel Columbus City Schools to provide busing for hundreds of charter and other nonpublic school students.

The denial, filed Monday, does not explain why the Supreme Court opted to deny the motion. CCS announced on Oct. 3 that they would create new routes to begin busing a little more than 100 charter and nonpublic school students, The Dispatch previously reported.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit against the district on Sept. 5 after warning them to resume providing public transportation to hundreds of nonpublic charter and parochial school students the district said it could not transport on the grounds of it being impractical. That initial suit is still in litigation.

In a statement released on Sept. 5, CCS superintendent Angela Chapman said that while the decision to stop providing transportation to some charter and nonpublic school students has improved transportation for students overall, the district could have "made a stronger and more sensitive effort to communicate with the families that have been impacted."

"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 Sept. 26 statement. Those 9,000 students are in addition to the district's 37,000 students.

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 some 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.

Yost filed the emergency motion on Sept. 25 in an effort to compel CCS to immediately begin busing those nonpublic school students who sought mediation, The Dispatch previously reported. The district responded to the motion on Sept. 30, asking the Supreme Court to toss out Yost's initial lawsuit as well as the emergency motion on the grounds that neither of them had legal merit.

Yost's office on Monday night issued a response to the state Supreme Court decision on the emergency motion request:

“It shouldn’t take a lawsuit and an emergency motion to decide to follow the law. Columbus City Schools admitted the law was to transport the children. Glad these kids are finally getting the transportation they were entitled to.

But this is not the end. There are more kids who still are not receiving transportation despite the district’s clear obligation to provide it. Beyond the emergency motion itself, this lawsuit will continue. We’ll continue to fight for the students that Columbus Schools is leaving behind.”,

smeighan@dispatch.com

@ShahidMeighan

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Supreme Court denies Yost's emergency motion on Columbus schools' nonpublic busing