CCS wants to dismiss Ohio AG's lawsuit in dispute over busing charter students

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Columbus City Schools asked the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss the state's lawsuit over the district's refusal to bus some parochial and charter school students it deemed inconvenient to transport.

The filing came just as CCS needed to respond to the Ohio Attorney General's earlier emergency request that the court force the district to bus students seeking mediation.

“Columbus City Schools believes that the Attorney General’s claims were legally without merit and should be dismissed by the court,” the district said.

According to CCS, 9,441 students who are not enrolled in the district are currently receiving transportation. About 2,447 students were found to be untransportable.

Attorney General Dave Yost filed an emergency motion Sept. 25 asking the Ohio Supreme Court to require the district to bus students to charter and private schools while their families mediate the decision of the district requested that the transport not be banned.

In a statement the next day, CCS said it was already working on it. The district said only about 4% of students who chose not to ride the bus requested arbitration.

“The Ohio Attorney General has filed an emergency motion to compel us to transport the 120 students in mediation that we have already been working to transport,” CCS said in a statement.

The district cited updates to Section 3327.02 of the Ohio Revised Code as the reason for the changes. The law allows public schools like CCS to decide whether transporting students is impractical based on several factors:

• The number of students transported.
• The cost of providing transportation.
• Whether a similar or equivalent service is provided to other students who are eligible for transportation.
• Whether and to what extent the additional service will inevitably disrupt current transport plans.
• Whether other reimbursable transportation methods are available.

In addition to seeking dismissal of the state's lawsuit, CCS is asking the court to add the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce as a party to the case if the court does not order the lawsuit dismissed. If the motion is not denied, the district is asking the court to deny Yost's emergency motion.

“Transporting these students overwhelmed our staffing levels and prevented us from providing reliable and efficient route planning for all students,” CCS said Monday.

Since August, charter school leaders and families whose students were deemed “inconvenient” for transportation reached out to the ABC6 On Your Side team for help.

“It’s crazy, it’s been two months,” said Jarod Hawk, regional vice president of Accel Schools. “We had families who lost their jobs because they had to worry about transportation. That is the biggest impact. We continue to have families who have exhausted their resources.”

Sinas Draughn's granddaughter was deemed untransportable by CCS. At the start of the school year, she had to make a difficult decision: take a new job or stay home and drive her grandchildren to school every day.

“It keeps you on your toes,” Draughn said. “Why can’t it just be transparent? Why can't we just make a decision and move on? We want answers. Actually, we want solutions. We want solutions because this is long overdue.”

Draughn's granddaughter attends United Schools, which has hired a company to provide temporary private transportation to support families in need. This temporary solution allowed Draughn to apply for jobs.

“I’m so thankful and thankful,” Draughn said. “But I know it’s temporary and expensive.”

United Schools founder and CEO Andy Boy told ABC6 they pay $55 per day per student to maintain this private transportation.