COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost warned Columbus City Schools on Tuesday that he would pursue legal action without an immediate change to its bus plan.
Yost is taking issue with CCS' decision to mark certain private and charter school students as "transportation impractical," meaning the district's buses won't transport them. A resolution rolled out on Aug. 27 by the CCS Board of Education included six factors to determine if a student gets the marking, such as how far a student lives from their school and how many other students need a ride.
Parents and staff at the private education facilities only received a warning about the change at the beginning of August. For charter school manager United Schools Network, it's quickly created a problem. CEO Andy Boy told NBC4 that more than 60 of his students don't have a reliable way to get to school after being marked "impractical."
Yost stepped in with a cease-and-desist letter to CCS, saying his office would "seek relief in court" if the district did not amend its current plan.
"Ohio law requires notice 30 days before the start of the school year for most students," Yost wrote. "It appears that the district has chosen to ignore its legal obligations to transport thousands of students, perhaps calculating that the district is better off paying future non-compliance fines than meeting its current legal obligations."
Families are allowed to request mediation from CCS, and at that point, the district said it will either have to transport the student if it has the means or it’ll pay families since it did not provide bussing. Parents can also challenge the "impractical" marking, making the district prove whether the student meets five of its six conditions.
Read the cease-and-desist letter from Yost below:
