District not required to transport nonpublic school students

By John Tully
Assistant Counsel

In general, the Education Law requires that school districts transport nonpublic school students to and from the school they legally attend, as long as they meet the same distance criteria as public school students in the district. But private or parochial school students who do not live within the district’s transportation distance limitations may still be entitled to transportation services under certain circumstances.

For instance, transportation may be required if there are other nonpublic school students attending the same school who live within the specified distances. In such an instance, the otherwise non-qualifying students are transported to the nonpublic school from designated centralized pickup points.

Another exception applies when the district has provided transportation to the nonpublic school in at least one of the three preceding school years. In such an instance, the nonpublic school must be located within 15 miles of the centralized pickup point.

Neither of these exceptions applied to the student in Appeal of Keller. Her father unsuccessfully tried to get the school to transport her on the same bus as students attending another nearby nonpublic school. But the commissioner of education explained that the fact that the district was transporting students to a school in close proximity to hers did not entitle her to transportation for which she was otherwise ineligible. In so ruling, the commissioner further restated that the proper route for purposes of measuring transportation eligibility is the nearest available publicly maintained route.

Also at issue in Appeal of Keller was the appropriateness of the district’s use of a location other than a public school as a centralized pickup point. The commissioner noted that as a result of the appeal the district was already proceeding with its efforts to relocate the pickup point to a public school.

In closing, the commissioner once again explained that when a district “is providing transportation for a pupil who is not legally entitled to it, the solution is to discontinue such transportation.” A district’s mistake is not a basis for continuing to provide inappropriate transportation.