A new ruling from the Indiana Supreme Court could have severe impacts on students, especially those from low-income families. On Tuesday the court ruled school districts within the state are not constitutionally required to provide transportation to students, following years of tense debate.
The issue has been a source of contention within the state since 2010, when budget shortfalls led Franklin Township Community School Corp. to outsource transportation for the district to a not-for-profit agency. The plan included charging annual bus fees of $475 per student.
When the district unveiled their plan, the Indiana attorney general responded by issuing an opinion that school bus fees would be unconstitutional, which caused the Franklin Township school board to withdraw their outsourcing plan.
This wasn’t the end of the issue however. In the 2011-12 school year, Franklin Township voted to manage a budget deficit by discontinuing all transportation service. Debt restructuring then allowed the district to bring back busing the next school year.
The changes to transportation policies caused parents in the district to file a class-action lawsuit against the school in 2011. Not long after, legislation banning fees for school transportation from home-to-school was signed into law in Indiana.
After a long process of decisions and appeals, the case ultimately wound up in the Indiana Supreme Court, bringing us to the ruling this week that the state constitution does not require school district to provide student transportation.
In a letter to the Franklin Township community, school district Superintendent Flora Reichanadter said that the ruling “means that although it was a challenging time for our community” — referring to the district’s elimination of bus service in the 2011-12 school year — “it was not unconstitutional.”
Reichanadter also said property caps were causing the district to lose more than $18 million in funding per year, but claims the district “has no plans in the immediate future to eliminate transportation.”
According to the ruling, Indiana school districts are able to discontinue transportation service so long as they provide three years’ notice to the public.
A spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Education told School Bus Fleet that at least three districts have already taken that route. (School districts can also petition the Department of Education for a waiver to allow them to end transportation service in the next school year. One district attempted that method but was denied.)
Regarding the option to give three years’ notice to end bus service, the Franklin Township district “has not given that notice, and there is no discussion at this time of such notice,” Reichanadter said.
