Dear Dayton Public Schools Families:

Transportation caused many families great concern during the first week of school. Please be advised that the district returned to transportation procedures that were in place before the pandemic, but that information was not sufficiently communicated.

Last year, the district transported any student who requested it. With 20% of students being remote, the district had the ability to transport any student. However, now that the district is back to in-person instruction for all, pre-COVID-19 practices that were in place for more than five years are now back in place.

The district only provides transportation to and from the home address of students who live more than 1.5 miles from a school in their quadrant.

The district is divided into four quadrants. Students who live within one quadrant but attend school in another are not eligible for transportation. The only exception is for special needs students with an IEP requiring transportation, or students attending one of the district’s specialty schools. These schools include Stivers School for the Arts, Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy, River’s Edge Montessori, Meadowdale Career Technology Center and David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center. Certain elementary students were also previously grandfathered in and still receive transportation from a decision made in 2016.

Find your quadrant here: https://www.dps.k12.oh.us/schools/

Please also understand that the district will not transport students to and from daycares that are not within their neighborhood school area and on an established stop on the identified bus route.

If your student attends an out-of-quadrant school and you cannot provide transportation, you can request to transfer the student to your neighborhood school. If you live more than 1.5 miles away from that school, transportation can be provided. If you would like to transfer your student, please call 937-542-4069 on Monday, Wednesday or Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

If you did not receive a letter from transportation prior to the start of school indicating your stop location and pick-up/drop-off times, it is likely that your student is not eligible for transportation.

Many families changed schools over the past several months but did not officially request to remain in the same school. Transportation continued to transport to that same school although technically, parents needed to transport in order to remain in the school. This has also caused confusion with families. Transportation should not have continued to transport out of the quadrant. This is now corrected, so many students need to either enroll in the school closest to their homes or the parent needs to transport to the previous school.

We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve these issues and transport students safely and on time, while following the district’s correct protocols and procedures implemented over 5 years ago.

Please contact Transportation at 937-542-4010 if you have specific questions or concerns. The call center now has more staff available to take these calls.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth J. Lolli, Ph.D.
Superintendent