State education officials have found Wake County Schools in violation of federal and state law for not providing reliable transportation to two students with disabilities.
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released its final report last week in a formal state complaint filed by the nonprofit legal firm Disability Rights NC on behalf of two families.
"Disability Rights NC was glad that the special transportation violations were recognized and identified by the state. At the same time…the corrective action that was ordered was very limited," said attorney Cari Carson.
In the complaint, two families claimed their children missed partial or full school days over the course of many weeks due to unreliable service from transportation vendors that the district hired on contract.
In response to the complaint, the state is requiring Wake County Schools to provide tutoring as compensation for those two students and mileage reimbursement for the times parents transported their child to school.
"I am not accepting the offer, because really, we need systemic change for our students that have different abilities," Cosette Harol, one of the parents who filed the complaint, told WUNC on Monday.
DPI also directed Wake County Schools to provide a technical assistance call between a special education administrator and Disability Rights NC regarding special transportation services.
Background of complaint
The two students are required to receive special transportation to school as part of their individual education plans (IEP), a legal document outlining the services their schools must provide to meet their needs.
Rather than riding a typical school bus, the students are assigned to be picked up by a van driven by a contractor. Parents who filed the complaint said those vans often arrived hours after school began, or not at all.
"They have a right to be able to get to school and to be offered transportation - like they're promised in their IEPs - that is equal to the transportation of the students on the yellow bus," Harol said.
A district spokesperson said in a statement last week that it's aware that this transportation issue is affecting some families and the district is actively trying to hire more vendors.
A public records request from WUNC – after the complaint was initially filed – found that Wake County Schools has received more than 16,000 informal complaints from parents about this transportation service in the last six years.
Disability Rights NC had originally sought a systemic investigation from the state, and a systemic remedy to the problem for families across the district. DPI denied the request for a systemic investigation, focusing instead on these two families.
Parent, attorney say final report underestimates extent of the problem
Harol said she believes the documentation Wake County Schools provided the state as part of the investigation underestimates how often her child's van failed to pick him up. The final report only verified two days that a vendor did not show.
"When in reality, we were driving him at least a couple times a week," Harol said.
Carson said the discrepancy could be due to poor record keeping by the district and its vendors.
Carson said parents who have experienced difficulty with Wake County Schools' special transportation can reach out to Disability Rights NC. She said she's still hopeful that school district officials will meet with affected families to problem-solve a larger solution for all students.
"There are a lot of things vying for the district's attention right now, and I think one of the most basic functions of a school district is getting students to school," Carson said. "My hope would be that this rises to the level of an issue that the district wants to and feels that they need to address."
