For more than a year, Cleveland schools failed to correct a series of transportation safety issues identified by state officials. The problems include school bus drivers who failed to inspect their buses for mechanical issues, didn’t stop at railroad crossings, wore earbuds while driving and those who didn’t meet the age, training or criminal history qualifications. 

When a district is out of compliance with the law, the state demands it submits what’s called a “corrective action plan.” Since March 2025, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) has had to submit three separate plans for ongoing trouble following state school transportation laws. If issues aren’t fixed, the state can impose penalties such as pulling funding or issuing misdemeanor citations to the staff responsible for violating state law including drivers, supervisors or the superintendent. 

CMSD got nearly $17 million from the state last year to fund transportation for students. The district provides transportation to more than 15,000 students throughout Cleveland and surrounding areas. 

The state told Signal Cleveland that CMSD’s most recent corrective action plan is adequate – if it is implemented. CMSD is providing monthly updates to the state on its progress, the first of which it shared with Signal Cleveland. 

“We take the provision of safe and reliable transportation extremely seriously,” Jon Benedict, a spokesperson for CMSD, wrote in a statement. He said the district is addressing the issues the state raised.

It’s not uncommon for school districts to be placed on corrective action plans for transportation related issues, according to Doug Palmer, a senior transportation consultant for the Ohio School Boards Association. He estimates seven to eight big urban or suburban districts might face these kinds of actions from the state in a given year. For example, last year Cleveland as well as Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton all had their state transportation funding docked for failing to provide transportation to some private and charter school students. 

“Compliance also has to do with getting kids to a school late or not picking them up or not being there to pick them up in the afternoon. And that’s the majority of the complaints,” he said.

Palmer told Signal Cleveland a letter requesting a corrective action plan that centers on safety issues is quite rare. 

Transportation rule violations were ongoing for more than a year  

The most recent letter sent by the state to CMSD on Dec. 19 noted that the district has been non-compliant with Ohio’s student transportation laws for over a year despite four visits from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. 

CMSD submitted its first corrective action plan on March 24, 2025 after a meeting earlier that month where the district was told by Ohio State Highway Patrol and the state education and workforce department that it was breaching state law. The March document addressed issues with the district’s contracted drivers to ensure that all schools have someone to monitor students getting on and off the bus. 

On Sept. 24, 2025, the state followed up with a letter to Eric Taylor, the former head of transportation at CMSD, which outlined additional safety issues as well as the district’s failure to put in place the March plan.  

The additional issues fall broadly into two categories: unsafe driving and drivers who had criminal records that disqualified them from piloting a school bus. In one instance, described in the letter, a driver reached out to Taylor after a railroad gate didn’t lift for several minutes while there was no train in sight. Taylor told the driver to cross the railroad tracks, which the driver didn’t do. The letter states Taylor’s directive could have put the safety of the students on the bus at risk. The state also found that a driver, working for a company CMSD contracts with, had “disqualifying criminal offenses” on his record including kidnapping and burglary. 

Taylor followed up on this letter by sending a corrective action plan to the state on Oct. 2, 2025. That plan included weekly audits to ensure that contracted drivers met legal requirements and training for staff on traffic and other safety laws and methods. 

Two months later, the state followed up with the Dec. 19 letter which was addressed to CEO Warren Morgan. In that document, the state requested a third corrective action plan, citing “continued concerns that the District is not focused on safe student transportation.” 

Taylor, who retired in December, had failed to implement the October plan after the department’s compliance officer resigned. CMSD submitted its latest corrective action plan on Jan. 15. 

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) wrote in a statement that the most recent corrective action plan “would adequately address the safety concerns that have been identified to date.” 

The plan could take months to implement in full. But CMSD has already submitted a one month update to the state that includes progress on some of the main goals outlined in the plan, like hiring department staff and providing training to drivers. 

What are the main issues found by the state? 

The state found that CMSD has failed to follow laws covering everything from the training that drivers are supposed to have, to how frequently school buses should be inspected to the minimum qualifications drivers should have. 

The September letter cites the railroad crossing incident as well as the driver with “disqualifying criminal offenses” as key issues. The follow-up letter in December, which noted CMSD did not follow through on fixing issues from September, also found a number of additional violations. 

These included school bus drivers, who were, once again, found crossing railroad tracks, drivers who wore headphones on the job or didn’t wear seat belts and, in one case, a driver who let his “buddy” drive a van with students. An Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper also found buses that hadn’t been properly inspected for mechanical issues like flat tires, broken lights and mirrors and doors that were malfunctioning.  

The state also found that while drivers were given in-service training before this school year, the training primarily focused on payroll and worker’s compensation and didn’t cover transportation safety law. The education department also reviewed a small sampling of records from the companies CMSD contracts with and found drivers who weren’t qualified because they didn’t meet certain age and physical requirements. 

Finally, the letter expressed concerns about a lack of accountability and leadership at CMSD’s transportation department, following a number of staff departures including Taylor. 

What is CMSD doing to address the issues? 

The district submitted a new corrective action plan to the state in January. 

The five-page corrective action plan CMSD submitted to the state in January says the district will begin addressing the problems found by the state in the next few months. Solutions include filling vacancies in the transportation department, implementing a vehicle inspection protocol and calendar, adding training for drivers, and checking the qualifications of all contract drivers. The district has also hired a transportation consultant to help with implementation. 

In a statement to Signal Cleveland, the state said it is satisfied with the corrective action plan as written but will continue, “monitoring the situation closely to ensure the plan is fully implemented and to ensure CMSD’s full compliance with state law.”

CMSD sent Signal Cleveland a Feb. 13 update it sent to the state department of education with progress made on the plan so far. 

That update, written by the district’s recently hired transportation consultant, states CMSD “has implemented substantial structural and operational improvements.” Those improvements include progress on goals like hiring staff for the transportation department and adding training for drivers. 

CMSD also said it is making progress on more complex requirements like reviewing the driver and vehicle qualifications of the over 50 contracted bus, cab and van companies. Though, those requirements will likely still take a couple months to meet. 

Read CMSD’s full progress update below: