Clovis parents pledge to keep fighting for their students with severe medical needs
Parents say they won’t give up on the fight to get Clovis Unified to help transport their children to the only facility in the area that provides the particular medical services their students require.
In denying the request to transport fewer than 10 Clovis students to Loretta’s Little Miracles in Fresno, Clovis Unified officials have said providing the transportation would further strain an already-overburdened busing system and set an unsustainable precedent by opening the door to hundreds of special requests.
But parents argued that precedent has already been set because Clovis Unified has transported students to Loretta’s Little Miracles before.
The district transported at least three students to Loretta’s Little Miracles between 2010 and 2012.
In an interview with The Bee’s Education Lab, parent Geetika Bajpai expressed frustration with the district’s slow response and questioned how Clovis Unified could refuse a service it previously provided.
“I feel like if they (trustees and district administration) wanted to work with us for a solution to the problem, they would have reached out to us by now,” she said Thursday.
During the CUSD Feb. 15 school board meeting, trustees punted on making a decision and asked staff to continue looking for ways to help families.
Since that meeting, Bajpai said, not much has changed. So parents plan to attend future meetings.
“If they continue not reaching out to us, we have to come.”
Clovis Unified has made other exceptions before
Clovis Unified transports students in special education, including children with severe disabilities, to and from their home or to a childcare facility within the school district. Policy requires daycares be within the boundaries of the student’s home or school.
Gerilyn Stone, a former CUSD guardian, received the transportation exception for her nephew in 2010. Speaking at a school board meeting last month, Stone said the request was approved quickly, and the service was provided until her nephew graduated.
“I am here tonight to ask the board to hear the pleas of these parents. Mine were heard,” Stone said during the school board’s mid-February meeting, where the board discussed the matter. “Clovis provided the (transportation) services they are now seeking.”
Stone’s exemption hasn’t been the only exception to board policy over the years.
Two other Clovis Unified students were transported to Loretta’s Little Miracles between 2010 and 2012, said Doug Hicks, facility administrator for Little Miracles.
In 2012, Clovis Unified stopped contracting with outside entities and brought its transportation department in-house, according to Sue Rutledge, assistant superintendent of business services.
Clovis Unified transported another student in 2013 after legal action against the district, the Ed Lab confirmed.
CUSD doesn’t currently bus students to Little Miracles, CUSD spokesperson Kelly Avants said.
Besides creating individual exceptions in the past, the district often makes exceptions for other student programs, notably athletics, parents discussed.
Though not everyday occurrences, the district buses student athletes from different sports teams to competitions across the state.
“I just want to know is my disabled child any less worthy than a high school athlete that you bus all over the state and even provide daily bus rides to,” parent Rose Shafi-Pailing said.
Clovis Unified says they can’t open the door to special requests
During the February meeting, Board President David DeFrank and Superintendent Eimear O’Brien repeatedly pointed to about 800 severely disabled students in the district who are on Individualized Education Plans.
“All of those 800 students have very, very severe disabilities, so we don’t just have nine students who have this severity of disability,” O’Brien said. “All 800 sets of parents are experiencing very similar situations as our parents who are here.”
The board must consider policy that will impact all of those students, DeFrank said.
Though 800 students qualify for transportation under their IEPs, it doesn’t mean they’re all severely disabled — a distinction that neither DeFrank nor O’Brien elaborated on during the meeting where parents were present.
Avants told the Ed Lab that the 800 students meet one of four IEP requirements to qualify for transportation. Those qualifications, which prevent access to a general education bus, include:
Orthopedic and/or physical impairments
Severe emotional disturbances or serious medical needs
Severe cognitive limitations or developmental delays
No access to an appropriate program
The district would have to look at the 800 IEPs to know if students require licensed nursing services like the small number who attend Little Miracles, Avants said, and would have to view the IEPs to learn which of the four requirements students meet.
“Any of those 800 might come with a new request once we start making exceptions,” Avants said.
The request would extend ride times for all Clovis students
But precedent isn’t the only issue for Clovis Unified, and a lot has changed in the 12 or so years since Clovis provided the transportation in question.
The transportation department, as Avants described it, is a program that is “already under severe stress to meet the needs of the kids who already qualify for it.”
Despite having its own bus driver school, the district has struggled to find drivers amid a national shortage. The district had 13 bus driver vacancies as of Feb. 15 and often experiences double-digit driver absences, such as 18 drivers being out on Feb. 17.
“We can make it work for six students,” O’Brien said. “Our concern is how will we address the other 794 students.”
Accommodating transportation to a location outside of Clovis boundaries would affect bus drivers, campus employees and students, according to administrators who’ve completed a route analysis.
The route analysis determined that adding a stop at Loretta’s Little Miracles would extend the average ride time by 30 minutes for all students, CUSD Director of Transportation Sheryl Boe said. That would also extend the time special education staff spend waiting with the students when pickups are delayed.
“We want to have the shortest ride time for every student on the bus,” Boe said. “By taking a student out of our district, off of a route that is currently established, we’re going to be extending other students’ routes as well.”
Parents say they’re out of options
Turning to the district for an exception to its policy is what many parents view as their only option.
“Why are our only options to quit our job and get on state support, transfer districts or move?” Bajpai said. “We have tried all other options to find a solution for our kids, but no one wants to take the liability of caring or transporting them, not even non-emergency medical transportation services.”
Clovis Unified hasn’t found an appropriate outside vendor that will accept new clients and the students in question are too young to qualify for non-emergency medical transport through insurance providers.
Additionally, none of Clovis Unified’s after-school programs are staffed or equipped to serve the needs of these students and such investments are likely cost prohibitive.
During the Feb. 15 board meeting, DeFrank said the district has examined numerous possibilities without success and voted against the administration looking for other solutions.
“We have an impulse to do everything for everyone, every time,” DeFrank said as he asked his fellow trustees to look at the issue with open eyes.
Because of the board’s 6-1 vote, the administration continues to evaluate outside resources that don’t break board policy, Avants said Tuesday.
Parents say they don’t want the district to forget about their children — and they’re not going away.
“This is starting to feel like us versus you,” parent Katie Bewarder told the school board. “Partnership is what I sought. It’s not us versus you; it’s us all in support of our children.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
This story was originally published March 5, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
