A school district wants to require a charter school to provide bus service to students who live more than two miles away.
The school contends the requirement is illegal, buses would put a strain on its budget, and it's already over-subscribed without busing its students.
That's the essence of a legal dispute in St. Lucie County, which has gone on for months and is now poised for a decision by an administrative law judge.
This week, lawyers for the school district and the Renaissance Charter School at Tradition filed proposed rulings that shed new light on the case.
The school is operated by Charter Schools USA, which operates nearly 50 schools in Florida and has opened nearly a dozen schools since Tradition submitted its application to the St. Lucie school board in 2012.
"No other school board in the State of Florida requires charier schools to bus all students who live more than two miles from the school," the school's lawyers write in their proposed order. The district's requirement, they contend, "is an illegal, unadopted rule."
State law says transportation should not be a barrier for parents who want to attend charter schools.
The lawyers for the school, however, write that charters have flexibility to work out how that barrier should be overcome. They note the state's new standard charter school contract allows districts and charters to negotiate their transportation plans, but does not dictate what those plans must be.
Renaissance provides bus service at some of its schools around the state, but others meet the transportation requirement through other means. Schools like Tradition help parents arrange carpools.
Lawyers for the school district cite testimony from parents who withdrew their children from the school or decided not to attend after learning that bus service would not be available. That testimony, they argue, shows the lack of bus service presents a "barrier to equal access to all students who wish to attend Renaissance at Tradition but whose parents cannot provide their own transportation."
The charter school's lawyers, however, write that charters get about two-thirds as much funding as district schools receive. State transportation funding would not cover the full cost of bus service, which means mandatory busing could force the school to make cuts in other areas, like classroom technology.
The district, they write, does not provide transportation to some students who attend its magnet schools, though the district's lawyers note its "no transportation zones" and "limited transportation zones" cover remote parts of the county where hardly any students live.
Charter schools are required to provide transportation to their students, the district argues, and "relying on parents for required student transportation is only allowed in limited circumstances (where the student is disabled or geographically isolated)."
The case is awaiting a ruling by an administrative law judge, which could come at any time.
