A Franklin County court has granted Dayton Public Schools (DPS) a temporary restraining order of the provision in the state budget that prohibits DPS from purchasing bus passes for their students.
Now DPS has already started purchasing and handing out bus passes to students.
The provision to prevent purchasing of bus passes for students came after complaints from the local community and representatives about unsafe conditions for teens at the RTA hub. The complaints followed the death of Alfred Hale III, a Dunbar High School senior who was killed in April near the downtown bus hub while on his way to school.
However, DPS has been left stranded and with no way of transporting their entire student population. After outrage arose from hundreds of parents, DPS sued the state in an effort to stop the enforcement of the law.
For now it appears that DPS now has some breathing room to figure out a long-term solution. DPS cannot afford to provide their own bussing to every student and the RTA is not the most effective way of getting students to school.
In a press release addressing the Franklin County court ruling, The RTA fully acknowledges that they do not have the necessary resources to fulfill the needs of DPS. RTA explains that their obligations are spread between servicing the rest of the Dayton community’s transportation needs and cannot dedicate routes specifically to bussing students to school.
“RTA maintains that public transit is not the most effective solution for meeting the daily transportation needs of these students. RTA routes run across the entire county and focus on getting riders to work, medical appointments and other essential trips. The routing, frequency, and timing of public bus routes are not conducive to meeting the unique needs of students and the numerous schools across our service area.
At any given time during the school day, RTA has just over 75 buses on the streets serving the entire county. That is the same number of buses DPS officials indicated they would need to fully serve the needs of Dayton high schools alone. Redeploying those to meet the needs of just one school district would mean we could not provide other services to the rest of Montgomery County.
RTA will continue to work with community leaders, state reps, and DPS to develop a more student focused long-term transportation solution for the 2026-27 school year,” Kristi Newton, RTA communications and community relations manager, said.
Noah Schlarman, executive editor
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