The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has made a new transportation compliance monitoring system available on its website. The system was created in connection with newly enacted provisions of law contained in House Bill 101, the biennial budget bill. Ohio Revised Code (RC) 3327.021 provides: “The department of education shall monitor each city, local, or exempted village school district's compliance with sections 3327.01 and 3327.016 and division (B) of section 3327.017 of the Revised Code. If the department determines a consistent or prolonged period of noncompliance on the part of the school district to provide transportation as required under those sections, the department deducts from the district's payment for student transportation under Chapter 3317. of the Revised Code the total daily amount of that payment, as computed by the department, for each day the district is not in compliance."
RC 3327.01 is the main school district pupil transportation provision. RC 3327.016 and 3327.017 govern transportation of students at community and nonpublic schools.
The transportation compliance monitoring system has an explanatory memorandum. The memo provides that “prolonged” non-compliance is defined as 10 consecutive days of non-compliance. "Consistent" noncompliance is defined as 10 total school days of non-compliance in any given semester.
ODE has provided a complaint form for parents, or community or non-public schools, to report complaints of noncompliance. The website for the compliance monitoring system also includes a list of assurances regarding their transportation plans that each district annually must complete and file between Apr. 1 and Aug. 1.
OSBA will continue to monitor this system and other developments and provide information as it becomes available.