Toledo mother says her children have been home from school for more than a month due to TPS bus issue

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Beyond frustrated, Madison Heier says it has been more than a month of no school for her two girls. According to Heier, that is because Toledo Public Schools will not provide them with a bus, and they currently have no other way of getting there.

“I had the school calling me, asking me why my kids aren’t in school,” said Heier. “Every single time that I called, I was hung up on, transferred to a dead line every time, or was cussed out, and they kept telling me they were going to send emails to the director, many people, people on the board.”

With one daughter who has special needs and uses a wheelchair, Heier says she understands her situation may be tricky.

“I did an inter-district transfer for my other daughter so they could both catch the same bus, go to the same school, and everything like that. We filled out the correct forms. They were approved on the 11th of last month,” Heier said.

She believes she has done everything she is supposed to on her end. “I should not have to fight this hard,” said Heier. “Two and a half months I have not received one call from anyone. The only reason we had gotten a call was because after we had emailed you about what was going on, I had said that to them on the phone, and then it was, let’s try to figure something out.”

A spokesperson with TPS tells 13 Action News over the phone that there was a busing issue, but they figured something out. Heier’s daughters will have a bus to and from school starting Monday.

When we asked why it took us getting involved to get an answer, we were told we would receive a call back. We are still waiting for that phone call.

Heier says there may be other families dealing with similar issues.

Her daughter’s nurse, Tamara Smith, who also has a son with special needs at TPS, says she went through almost exactly the same thing.

“Last year, he didn’t even go to school. This year he is in school, but the same thing the beginning of the school year, had to keep calling, had to threaten to call the news for them to do anything,” said Smith.

Both women say they’re looking to hold the district accountable and hope changes can be made to TPS transportation soon.

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