Indiana Supreme Court to hear case on school bus fees

The Indiana Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case over whether it's unconstitutional to make parents pay for their children to ride the bus to public schools.

The high court could reconsider the state Court of Appeals ruling in June that deemed school bus fees violated the state constitution and cited the state requirement for school corporations to provide transportation as part of a free public education.

After it failed to pass a tax-increase referendum, Franklin Township Schools stopped running its buses for free in 2011-12. To bridge budget problems, it instead contracted with an outside transportation company, which charged fees for students to ride the bus.

It cost nearly $500 to transport one student for the school year.

The Southeastside school corporation ended the pay-to-ride arrangement within a year. The state legislature also later banned school corporations from charging transportation fees.

But families already had filed a class-action lawsuit against the bus fees, which Attorney General Greg Zoeller had called unconstitutional.

A Marion Superior Court judge decided the fees were OK but families who sued would not receive monetary damages. That was reversed in part by the Court of Appeals, which maintained the decision on monetary damages but declared the bus fees unconstitutional.

The Court of Appeals pointed to a state mandate for schools to bus homeless, foster-care, special-needs and even some private-school students.

"It is hard to image that the legislature meant to require our school corporations to transport these students but exclude all others," the Court of Appeals opinion said.

The state Supreme Court has not yet set a date to hear the case. After the hearing, it could choose to not take up the case, or it could issue a decision either upholding or overturning the lower court's ruling.

Several school corporations have recently passed referendums to fund buses in the face of budget shortages, which some attribute to property tax caps.

Call Star reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.