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BELLVILLE — As a working single mom, Christie Hiltbrunner relies on the school bus to transport her second grader each day.
But earlier this year, the Washington Township resident received a letter from Clear Fork Valley Local Schools. The letter said the district would no longer be transporting her second grader to and from Mansfield Christian School.
Amid a nationwide bus driver shortage, Clear Fork and Shelby both announced they would stop transporting some non-public school students this school year.
Clear Fork has continued transporting students after parents appealed the decision with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW).
“Since we couldn’t get a solution with (ODEW), we’re filing a Chapter 119 hearing,” Hiltbrunner said. “The hearing officer will listen to both sides and make a final decision.”
Hiltbrunner said she can understand the struggle to find employees — it’s something she’s seen in her own industry as a nurse. But she also said she’s been frustrated by the lack of communication from the school district.
“They didn’t notify us until like right before school started, saying there weren’t going to offer bussing,” she recalled.
“We very much feel that our children are being discriminated against since they do go to a private school.”
Are public schools required to transport private and charter school students?
It depends.
Under Ohio law, a public school district is required to transport non-public school students who live within district boundaries if the school that student attends is no more than a 30 minute drive from the public school they would be assigned to.
So if a parent in Bellville enrolls their student, who would normally attend Bellville Elementary, at Mansfield Christian, Clear Fork would be required to transport that student to Mansfield Christian, since it takes less than 30 minutes to drive from Bellville Elementary to Mansfield Christian.
School administrators say districts don’t receive extra funds to cover the cost of bussing private school students. While their parents’ property taxes may go to the district, the share of state funding designated for that child “follows them” to the private school they attend.
While Ohio’s school bus rules have been in place for a while, public school administrators say the state’s last biennial budget created tougher enforcement — including fines — for non-complaint schools.
Supt. Michael Browning, of Shelby City Schools, said the district stopped transporting some non-public students this year who were outside the 30-minute range — including those who attend Mansfield Christian.
“We have to make sure that we’re watching our costs as well,” he said. “It’s very expensive, especially for the number of students being transported.”
“Using our taxpayer money to bus students where we don’t have to doesn’t make sense.”
School districts are allowed to decline transportation to eligible non-public school students if the school board deems it “impractical.”
Under Ohio law, schools can determine it would be impractical to provide transportation after considering:
- The time and distance required to provide the transportation
- The number of pupils to be transported
- The cost of providing transportation in terms of equipment, maintenance, personnel, and administration
- Whether similar or equivalent service is provided to other pupils eligible for transportation
- Whether and to what extent the additional service unavoidably disrupts current transportation schedules
- Whether other reimbursable types of transportation are available
Clear Fork determined more than 20 students ‘impractical’ to transport
If a school district determines it is impractical to transport a student, they are required to offer a student’s parent(s) or legal guardian(s) payment in lieu of transportation. The rate at which a family can be compensated is determined by the Ohio Department of Education and currently ranges between $583.86 and $1,167.72.
But parents also have the right to reject that payment. In that case, the parents and school district can begin a mediation process. During the mediation process, the public school is required to transport the students in question.
According to district treasurer Jon Mason, Clear Fork notified the parents of more than 20 non-public bus riders that the district would be unable to transport them prior to the start of the school year.
A few parents did not accept payment in lieu of transportation, which triggered a mediation process by the Ohio Department of Workforce.
Interim Supt. Jon Thomas said the district determined transporting these students would be impractical due to a bus driver shortage.
Thomas told Richland Source the district is short four bus drivers.
“It’s not about not wanting to do it,” he said. “We didn’t have the drivers.”
Clear Fork muddled through October with a rotation of three substitute drivers sharing a non-public bus route, as well as the district bus mechanic and transportation supervisor are also driving students every day.
“We don’t have anybody waiting in line to be trained. They’re getting hired by trucking companies and people that pay more than schools pay,” Mason said.
“It’s not hard for me to understand why there’s a shortage. COVID created a problem with the supply chain. It hasn’t been fixed.”
Mason agreed that the district is facing extreme driver shortages — and it isn’t alone.
“Last school year we had to make route changes to in-district routes and manage overcrowded buses in order to even get through the year,” Mason told Richland Source via email.
“We had (and still have) our bus mechanic driving routes routinely, which is not ideal in maintaining the bus fleet. So it was apparent that a decision had to be made to consider the non-public routes impractical.”
‘Every school district is trying to hang on to their drivers’
Small, rural districts aren’t the only ones facing transportation challenges.
“Every school district that I know of is trying to hang on to their drivers, but they need drivers so bad,” said Supt. Stan Jefferson of Mansfield City Schools. “I don’t care if it’s a rural school, a suburban school, an urban school. They need drivers.”
Mansfield City Schools transports approximately 1,800 of its own students, according to Jefferson.
The district also transports 858 non-public students to schools like Mansfield Christian, Foundation Academy, St. Peter’s School, St. Mary of the Snows, Legacy Academy and Richland School of Academic Arts.
Each of those schools has its own school calendar and daily start and release times, which may or may not line up with Mansfield City Schools’ schedule. The district is required to get all students to class on time and pick them up within a half hour of the school day’s end. If the school serves breakfast, students have to be there in time to eat.
Mansfield City uses 10 busses to transport non-public school students, according to transportation director Deborah Rickert. Meanwhile, the district has dropped from having 32 bus routes to 26 due to the driver shortage.
“It’s a little tough,” Rickert said. “(Assistant transportation director Joshua Cantu) is driving just about every day. We have a couple sub drivers that will drive in the morning right now.”
Mansfield City Schools has taken numerous steps to cope with the crunch. The district consolidated routes, putting more kids on busses. Rickert cut some stops, which speeds up routes but requires students to walk further.
“It’s been minimal complaints, but the weather’s been nice,” Rickert said.
The district even adjusted start and release times at Malabar Intermediate by five minutes to easier accommodate stops at non-public schools.
A few busses do quick routes from Malabar, dropping students off in a nearby neighborhood before going straight to Mansfield Senior High to begin a second route.
Senior High’s release time is a mere 10 minutes after Malabar’s.
“Some of our kids are waiting five or 10 minutes for the busses to get there at Senior High,” Rickert said. “We have never done that till this year.”
Jefferson said he’s grateful to district families for their flexibility.
“Our district has really been very cooperative and receptive to the fact that we have had to make bus adjustments that first month of school, as we were condensing routes to work with our condensed fleet,” he said.
Bussing in the big city: Columbus City Schools faces lawsuit over non-public student transportation
Columbus City Schools announced it wouldn’t transport approximately 1,380 charter and non-public students for the 2024-2025 school year.
According to the district, CCS was transporting these students “beyond the requirements of the law” and that doing so “was overcommitting our staffing levels and keeping us from providing reliable and efficient routing for all students.”
In September, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a petition with the Ohio Supreme Court against CCS.
“Columbus City Schools has not complied with the law since the start of this academic year for hundreds or thousands of students, calling bus transportation for these students ‘impractical’ and providing parents of those affected with just a few days’ notice, far short of the notice required by law,” stated a press release from Yost’s office.
“The district has also failed to provide transportation to students challenging the district’s ‘impracticality’ decision, which is also in violation of state law.”
A Sept. 26 statement on the district’s website said the change was necessary and based on Ohio law.
“We continue to transport more than 9,000 students to charter and nonpublic schools,” the statement read.
Columbus City Schools filed a countersuit, asking the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss the matter, per the Columbus Dispatch.
In early October, Columbus City Schools announced it will bus 102 students from families that rejected payment in lieu of transportation and requested mediation.
The district said it had to add five new routes and adjust 33 existing routes, impacting pickup or drop-off times for more than 1,100 students, CBS affiliate WBNS reported.