The ODEW has changed the way it is administering transportation complaints to require districts to respond through an electronic system called TEM (transportation enforcement management).
According to the ODEW, when a person submits a complaint about a school district transportation issue to the Department, the District will be notified by email that a complaint has been filed and that the District needs to log in to the electronic TEM system to review the complaint. The District will select if it disagrees with the complaint, and all responses must also be entered into the TEM system.
Once a complaint is received, a district should promptly log in to the system to review the complaint as the District only has five calendar days to respond. The District may include any supporting documentation with its response by uploading those items into the system.
It is important for the District’s response to cover all the issues raised in the complaint, as there are no other opportunities to respond or appeal, unless additional documentation is requested by the investigator.
Once the response is submitted through TEM, an investigator will review and if necessary, seek additional documentation, also through the TEM system. The District will receive an email if additional information is being requested, and must log in to the system to review the request and submit its supplemental response.
The investigator has forty-five calendar days to issue a determination on the complaint. Districts will be notified of the results through email. If a funding deduction is part of the determination, the result will also be sent to the Office of Budget and School Funding for further action.
As a refresher, districts could be found noncompliant based on a complaint if the complaint alleges that for five consecutive days or ten days throughout the year, district transportation arrived more than 30 minutes late to school or are picked up the student more than 30 minutes after school has ended, if no transportation arrives at all, or if the district is noncompliant with “any other transportation requirements in 3327 of the Revised Code.” (R.C. 3327.021)
The enforcement process currently provides that a complaint that is found valid will require the District to develop a corrective action plan for the first occasion of noncompliance within a week. The second, third and fourth instances of noncompliance allows ODEW to withhold 25% of the District’s daily payment for student transportation funding for each day of determined noncompliance. The fifth instance of noncompliance allows the ODEW to withhold 100% of daily student transportation funding “until the department determines that the district is no longer out of compliance.”
ODEW has published a PowerPoint formatted guide to using the TEM system for complaint responses.
What this Means for Schools:
After conversion to the DRIVE system, schools should ensure that transportation staff and administration understand the process for response to TEM complaints, including strict compliance with any response deadlines. Since schools may have only one opportunity to explain their actions and positions, responses must be thorough, and decisions must be well documented.