COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Schools will bus more than 100 private and charter school students starting next week after not providing transportation since the beginning of the school year.
The district wrote in a letter to charter/nonpublic partners that beginning on Monday, 102 school students attending private and charter schools will now be transported.
The changes come after a legal back and forth between the district and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Ohio law requires public districts to provide transportation to students of non-public and charter schools unless the student has to be driven more than 30 minutes from their assigned public school or if the district can prove it is impractical.
Yost filed a lawsuit and called on the Ohio Supreme Court to force CCS to transport the charter/private students.
In August, CCS deemed that some of the routes they used to transport those students were "impractical" and a letter was sent to families informing them of the district's decision to cut those routes.
The families of those students rejected the district's offer of payment instead of transporting the students and requested mediation from the Ohio Department of Education and Work Force.
Yost’s office previously said that once a student challenges the school’s decision, CCS must immediately resume transportation to that student while their challenge is ongoing.
"Under Ohio law, if we fail to transport these students during the mediation process, the Ohio Department of Education may order us to pay compensation to these families," the district wrote in the letter.
In order to bus the students, the district said there will be five new routes added and adjustments to 33 current routes. Those adjustments could change pickup or drop-off times to more than 1,100 students, according to the district.
The district has not released details on the route adjustments.