The District Fails to Provide Transportation for Students with Disabilities
DC School Transportation Issues in the News
For years, DC organizations, parents, caregivers and community leaders have called for improvements to DC’s bus transportation issues – without success. Read past media coverage below:
- The Washington Post: For disabled D.C. students, an uncertain wait on school buses remains (August 31, 2023)
- The Washington Informer: Special-Needs Families Tackle School Placement, Out-of-School Time Quandaries (March 22, 2023)
- ABC7: ‘Waiting on buses that are still late’: DC parents say school bus disruptions persist (March 21, 2023)
- The Washington Informer: D.C. Parents Demand Clarity from OSSE on Continuing Bus Delays (March 14, 2023)
- DC News Now: ANC asks Mayor, Council to investigate school bus service issues (March 13, 2023)
- DC News Now: OSSE leadership addresses ongoing delays to bus service (March 4, 2023)
- WUSA9: ‘We deserve better’ DC parents say unreliable bus service harms students with special needs (March 1, 2023)
- The Washington Post: D.C. is failing disabled students who rely on buses to get to school (Feb. 8, 2023)
- WUSA9: Weeks later, DC’s school bus delays persist (January 30, 2023)
- ABC7: DC school bus driver hiring and retaining challenges, call-outs blamed for disruptions (January 26, 2023)
- The Washington Informer: Bus Service Changes Highlight Woes of Special-Needs Students (January 25, 2023)
- DC News Now: Bus delays, cancellations impacting DC’s most vulnerable students (January 24, 2023)
- DCist: Students With Disabilities Face Barrage of School Bus Delays in D.C. (January 20, 2023)
- DC News Now: DC parents say school bus delays, cancelations persist weeks into new year (February 15, 2023)
- Fox 5: Investigation after DC mom unable to locate son with autism after school amid bus driver shortages (January 10, 2023)
- ABC7: Bus assigned to take special needs DC student to school regularly late; mother fed up (September 30, 2022)
- ABC7: DC mom spends $80/day to take son from Southeast to special ed classes in Georgetown (September 2, 2022)
- WUSA9: ‘Pissed is an understatement’ | 8-year-old with autism stuck on DC school bus for hours (November 12, 2018)
- WUSA9: Investigation launched after child with autism was stuck on school bus for hours (November 12, 2018)
- WUSA9: Special needs school bus runs late for weeks, says DC mom (December 22, 2016)
- Fox 5: DC student left alone on school bus for over an hour before being discovered (June 20, 2016)
The District is Failing to Provide Transportation for Students with Disabilities
Parents and guardians of children with disabilities living in the District of Columbia, along with The Arc of the United States, filed a class action lawsuit on March 7, 2024 against DC’s Office of the State Superintendent for Education for failing to provide safe, reliable and effective transportation to and from schools for children with disabilities, thereby denying students equal access to their education and unnecessarily segregating them from their peers.