Meet Looming Deadlines
The annual busing deadlines for private schools outlined in state law are fast approaching.
While state law has NOT changed in regards to busing services for private school children, WCRIS schools across the state are seeing attempts to change their students’ busing privileges because public school districts are under tremendous financial pressure to control costs. Busing services for private school students have become a favorite place to cut costs.
Your private school will be well-served come Fall, if you have all of your paperwork in order, and have met the following deadlines:
By April 1 of each year — Submit a map of your private school’s proposed attendance area for the ensuing school year to the school board of each school district having territory within the proposed attendance area. If the proposed attendance area is not submitted, the existing attendance area will remain in effect for the ensuing school year. NOTE: April 1 is a Saturday this year, so be sure and submit your documents before Friday, March 31, 2017.
The private school attendance area is defined as “the geographic area that is designated by the governing body of the private school as the area from which its pupils attend and that is approved by the school board of the district in which the private school is located.” (2016-17 WCRIS Legal Handbook, page 40)
A problem arises for private schools when the school district has been transporting children without reference to a map. When budgets are tightened, the school district pulls out the map on file, which may be so old that it does not actually cover what the school district has been doing in the recent past. The school district then uses the map to define busing services, which may leave out children who it has recently been busing. The private school then has to wait until the following school year to submit a new attendance area map to have these children covered again.
By May 15 of each year — The private school must notify each public school board of the names, grade levels and locations of all pupils eligible to receive the transportation provided by that public school district, and who are planning to attend private school during the upcoming school term.
A problem arises for private schools when families appear for enrollment after the deadline and seek busing. This often happens with children in a parental choice program, and those just starting kindergarten. Obviously, a private school can not report the names of students it does not know will be showing up at the last minute to enroll. School districts that are very legalistic have tried to refuse transporting these children. To prevent this, private schools should add the names of any students who have expressed interest in attending your school. Err on the side of giving names by the deadline, rather than holding them back. It’s much easier to have a child removed from the list, than to have one added. Some schools have even added the following entry to their student list: “Any child who appears after the May 15 transportation deadline, seeking enrollment in our private school for the 2017-18 school year.”
Overall, the message for today is this: Don’t let a lack of proper documentation be the leverage the public school district can use to change your students busing services. Meet these important deadlines.
For additional information about state law and private school students busing services, see pages 36-43 in the 2016-2017 WCRIS Legal Handbook. Every WCRIS school received one copy as a benefit of membership. If you need additional copies for vice principals, pastors, school finance or education committee members, deans of students, etc., you can order them with this form: 2016-17 Legal Handbook Additional Copies Order Form
And, as always, if you have a specific problem or question that needs additional help, contact the WCRIS office at wcrisstaff@wcris.org or (608) 287-1224. We are here to serve!
Principal Q&A with WCRIS
Q. If I’ve reviewed the current attendance area map on file at the local school district that provides busing for our private school students, or there is no map, how do I go about making changes to the current map, or creating a new one?
A. You may need to make changes to your attendance area because there are new subdivisions or another private school in your area has closed and you will now serve their students.
You should use the official public school district map(s) outlining boundaries to define your attendance area. When drawing your map make sure your attendance area does not overlap with other private schools of the same religious denomination. For example, if you are a Catholic school you can not overlap attendance areas with another Catholic school in your district. You could however, overlap with Lutheran, Christian or Independent private schools. Another example, if you are a Lutheran school in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, you can overlap with a Lutheran school from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
