ABC 7: DC parents hope for action amid lawsuit over accessible buses for disabled students

Carl Willis of ABC 7 reports on a July 11th court hearing related to a lawsuit filed against DC’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education for failing to provide safe, reliable, and effective transportation to and from school for students with disabilities.

“Kids are missing school,” said Kathy Zeisel, the CLC’s Director of Special Legal Projects. “Kids are not getting the education which they so desperately need and are entitled to under the law.”

The CLC is pushing for the case to officially become a class action lawsuit that would represent 4,000 students with disabilities who are entitled to reliable transportation.

David Clark is one of the five plaintiffs named in the suit. His 8-year-old daughter, Beverly, has special needs and he said getting her to school on time has been a losing battle.

“No one wants to deal with this everyday anxiety,” Clark said.

According to Clark, school transportation is typically late three out of the five school days.

Zeisel said Thursday’s hearing addressed an emergency motion asking that the judge order the District to immediately take steps to provide better transportation to children with special needs.

The hearing was also to determine if the case could officially become a class action case.

“We asked the court to have the District hire transportation operations experts that can come in and look and help the District find out what they need to fix the problem,” said Zeisel. “It’s not clear to us that the District knows on its own how to fix this problem.”

Although no decision was made during the hearing, those behind the case said they were encouraged.

First, because they said just a day earlier the District filed that it found an additional $10.5 million to put toward transportation, and because of what the District has been asked to produce in two weeks.

“The District was asked to come up with a written plan to share with us about what they’re going to do to move forward with transportation,” said Zeisel. “So, we think today started us on a path that will be hopeful to find solutions.”