Muddled legislative language, or creative reading? Either way, the dispute keeps some students off the bus
View full sizeStaten Island politicians say the state law governing school bus transportation is clearly on their side in the dispute over which students should get yellow bus service. But the New York City Department of Education reads the law differently. (Staten Island Advance)STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- With the state Education Department on their side, two Staten Island lawmakers are again urging the city Department of Education to reverse its decision not to bus students to two Island middle schools.
The state is agreeing with state Sen. Andrew Lanza and Assemblyman Michael Cusick in the squabble over how to read legislation the two wrote and passed in the spring to restore yellow bus service to seventh- and eighth-graders on the Island.
However, the city wasn't budging Tuesday.
"What we're asking them for is very clear -- that they uphold the law and put these children back on the bus," said Lanza (R-Staten Island). "Every moment that they delay is a denial of these children's legal rights."
In a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's director of state legislative affairs, the state Education Department's Chief Operating Officer Valerie Grey wrote, "It is clear that the intent of the Legislature was to restore service to 7th and 8th Grade students in those areas of New York City where variances would have been granted in the 2009-2010 school year."
The legislation and the memo in support of it "clearly identifies the Staten Island area as one of the areas in which such variances were in effect at that time," she averred.
"Sen. Lanza and I, we didn't retreat on this. We moved forward. We went to the state Education Department to ask them to take a look and they reviewed it," Cusick (D-Mid-Island) said. "If the state agrees with us, I think it's imperative the city complies."
Lanza called the state's determination "welcome news."
The city has argued that the law returns service only to those schools that had it in 2009, excluding the Staten Island School for Civic Leadership and the Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School, as well as any schools that may be built in the future.
The debate over the law hinges on the "like circumstances" clause in state education law, which requires cities like New York to provide students in like circumstances with the same transportation services. The city had argued in the past that it couldn't bus Island middle-schoolers to class because "like circumstances" could force them to provide the service citywide.
But Cusick and Lanza's legislation amended the state law so that "like circumstances" doesn't apply to the use of "existing contract bus service" for seventh- and eighth-graders, "but only where such use is a reinstatement of a service provided in the school year beginning in September 2009 and ending in June 2010." That's what restored the yellow bus service here -- to almost everyone.
The lawmakers say the "where" refers to geographic areas like Staten Island and Breezy Point in Queens, long served with yellow buses due to lack of public transit. The city has argued it refers only to those specific schools that had the service in those years, and providing service to the two excluded schools, or new schools in the future, would leave the city open to "like circumstances" claims from parents elsewhere.
But the state disagrees -- and says giving service to schools that didn't have it in the past wouldn't trigger an expansion of bus service citywide.
Despite those words from the state, the city didn't budge in a statement to the Advance Tuesday.
"We are committed to providing yellow bus transportation to eligible students. We have taken advantage of the legislation and restored bus service to eligible schools in Staten Island and in Queens that received bus transportation for their seventh- and eighth-graders in the 2009-10 school year," DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said. "Unfortunately, the legislation does not cover service to Marsh School or Civic Leadership School because these schools did not have yellow bus transportation for their seventh- and eighth-graders in the 2009-10 school year. Providing yellow bus transportation schools to seventh- and eighth-graders at schools that did not receive service in the 2009-10 school year, could trigger like circumstance claim by parents of seventh- and eighth-graders throughout the city."
But Lanza called the state Education Department a "higher authority."
"Here we have the state Education Department, who is clearly a higher authority on education matters than the City of New York, and they have weighed in on the matter and they have said what we've always said -- the law is clear and the city is wrong."
But judging by the city's statement Tuesday, it seems the state's determination has not swayed their position. Asked what the next step may be if the city doesn't uphold the law the way the state reads it, Lanza said he hoped it didn't come to a next step.
"A lawsuit is always possible, but hopefully that can be avoided," he said.