WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Lakota Local Schools has reinstated transportation for students attending four private schools after initially voting to end bus service to non-public schools for the 2026-27 school year.
WATCH: Lakota brings back private school bus service after parents push back
The district confirmed Wednesday that transportation has been reinstated for students attending:
- Cincinnati Christian Schools
- Sacred Heart
- Montessori Academy
- Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy
Lakota said the reason for the change is increased ridership.
“Transportation has been reinstated for Cincinnati Christian Schools, as well as Sacred Heart, Montessori Academy and CHCA for the 2026-2027 school year,” the district said in a statement to WCPO. “The reason for this change is that ridership has increased. However, as before, not all private schools are eligible for transportation.”
The decision comes after parents challenged Lakota's original plan and entered mediation with the district.
Parents questioned how they were notified
For years, Lakota provided bus transportation to students attending private and non-public schools.
But in July, the Lakota school board voted 4-1 to declare transportation to non-public schools impractical, setting up the end of service for the new school year.
Parents pushed back, arguing the decision would create significant problems for their families.
One issue they raised was a change in the transportation registration process. Parents said Lakota moved from paper registration to an online system, and some families did not know about the new process until after the registration deadline.
Ray Kochis, superintendent of Cincinnati Christian Schools, represented parents during mediation with Lakota.
Kochis said the district initially determined there were not enough students requesting transportation to make the routes financially and logistically practical.
But during mediation, he said more families began expressing interest in using the service.
“As more individuals expressed interest in bussing with Lakota, Lakota said that they're still getting more inquiries and if the numbers changed, then they would reconsider,” Kochis said.
Kochis said the additional interest ultimately led Lakota to reconsider.
“On a Friday was our last mediation and then on a Monday, I received notification that Lakota had agreed to transport our students this year,” Kochis said.
Board member opposed original decision
Lakota school board member Ben Nguyen was the lone dissenting vote when the board originally voted to declare the transportation impractical.
Nguyen also spoke during public comment, an unusual step for a board member.
“Families should never lose their rights because the district failed to provide a timely notice,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said he opposed the timing of the original decision because families were given only about two weeks before the start of the school year to figure out how they would get their children to and from school.
“You gave these parents two weeks before the start of the school year to upend their schedules, to figure out how they were going to get their kids to school,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said the decision could have been made earlier, giving families the summer to make arrangements.
“We could have had a decision done by early June, which would have given parents the entire summer to kind of plan ahead,” he said.
Parents say transportation was more than a convenience
Kochis said the loss of bus service created serious logistical problems for some families.
“A few of the parents were having to reconsider their jobs because their schedules were such that they were not able to pick their children up from school or get their children to school,” Kochis said.
Kochis said parents were ecstatic when they learned the service would return.
Why were initial ridership numbers low?
Kochis said he believes the initial number of transportation requests may have been affected by the switch from paper registration to an online application.
Historically, he said, students received paper forms through their school that could be completed and returned.
This year, the process moved online.
Kochis said some parents were unaware of the change and only learned about the online registration after reaching out to Lakota or communicating with other parents.
Lakota has said its transportation contractor notified private schools about the new online registration process.
Kochis said he was aware that an email was sent to Cincinnati Christian Schools, but it went to an elementary school principal who had not worked at the school for five years.
He said he does not know whether that contact information has since been updated.
Despite the dispute over the original decision, transportation is now back for Cincinnati Christian Schools and three other private schools for the 2026-27 school year.
Kochis said families should not assume the service will automatically continue in future years because Lakota evaluates transportation needs annually.
