A U.S. District Court has dismissed a 17-year-old case against the District of Columbia Public Schools stemming from a class-action suit tied to unreliable school bus service.
In dismissing Petties v. DC on Dec. 19 during a public hearing, Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia officially ended federal court supervision of the special-education transportation program, though actual court oversight was terminated in November, when the court also ended the requirements in the case governing payments to non-public special education schools and related service providers. The transportation program is administered by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Mayor Vincent C. Gray called the dismissal “a major accomplishment.”
“These students deserve every opportunity we can provide in education, and I’m proud to say that they are getting the kind of service they deserve,” Gray added.
The district buses 3,200 special-education students each day, said Ryan Solchenberger, director of student transportation for OSSE.
Superintendent Mahaley Jones added: “Looking back, we understood that we were facing an enormously difficult task when we took over student transportation services two years ago, but we knew that we had the full support of this administration. Because of this extraordinary team effort and the commitment to excellent service provided by everyone at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s Division of Specialized Education and Department of Transportation, we have strong systems in place to maintain our commitment to special education students and their families.”
Solchenberger told School Transportation News that in August of 2011 GPS was installed in all 800 of the district’s Type A small buses to improve routing and on-time, door-to-door service. The district also implemented an overhaul to a parent-call center and entered into a new collective bargaining agreement with the union, which he added will be signed within the next couple of months. The district employs more than 1,500 school bus drivers and monitors.
He also said 150 new flex-fuel school buses are also being purchased to improve vehicle reliability.
