DPS says school busing got better, will keep high school students on RTA buses

Lawrence said the district almost over-recruited drivers to make sure there were enough.

“I feel like we’ve stabilized transportation, and any moves to do something else might destabilize the work we’ve already put in,” Lawrence said.

There was discussion around changing the plan, Lawrence said, but ultimately the district decided that it was not a good idea to change the busing system as it stands.

Lawrence said chronically late students have been a problem for the district. At any of the DPS high schools, there will be late students trickling into school as much as two hours after school has begun.

Lawrence said he plans to talk to local students about the importance of being on time during his “tour” this fall. He also plans to work with local churches to see if they could potentially help pick students up, and he encouraged local families to carpool if possible.

The district also plans to work with the Montgomery County Educational Service Center so students can take driver’s education and get driver’s licenses.

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

DPS is required by state law to make sure all of their own students, plus students who live in the DPS geography but go to another school, get to school on-time and are picked up after school.

Before Lawrence became DPS’ business manager in September 2022, busing had been mostly a mess for years. During that meeting when Lawrence was confirmed as business manager, multiple local charter and private school parents and principals came to the meeting to complain about DPS buses coming to school hours late or not at all.

“I am not sure they know what a transportation plan is,” Ascension Catholic School wrote on their formal complaint to the state about DPS busing on Nov. 15, 2022. “The Catholic schools in the area are having a lot of problems.”

Then in February 2023, the CEO of the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority said Dayton Public Schools should take over the responsibility of busing its high school students because they were causing problems near and sometimes on RTA property and buses. Dayton Public Schools denied that the kids causing problems were DPS students and said it was a matter of equity that the RTA bus everyone.

Late busing to charter and private schools for younger students got so bad that the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Field Services and Pupil Transportation investigated the complaints around late busing and interviewed the schools and DPS, along with reviewing documents.

Ultimately, ODE fined Dayton Public Schools for late busing, and DPS sued ODE for removing transportation funding the state provides local schools.

In February, DPS settled and did not receive a fine. The department, which changed its name to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce last year, returned the transportation funding.