FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
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JOHN L. WINN
Commissioner of Education
F. PHILIP HANDY,
Chairman
T. WILLARD FAIR,
Vice Chairman
Members
LINDA J. EADS, ED.D.
CHARLES PATRICK GARCÍA
JULIA L. JOHNSON
WILLIAM L. PROCTOR, PH.D.
LINDA K. TAYLOR
CONTACT PERSON:
NAME:
Charlie Hood
PHONE:
(850) 245-0405
SUNCOM:
205-0405
M E M O R A N D U M
COEFO: 05-03
DATE:
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September 20, 2004
TO:
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District School Superintendents
CC:
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Finance Officers
Transportation Directors
Charter Schools
Daniel Woodring, General Counsel
Jim Warford, K-12 Public Schools Chancellor
FROM:
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Raymond Monteleone
SUBJECT:
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Legal Opinion on Transportation Ridership Funding
The Department’s Office of the General Counsel has recently provided the attached opinion on
specific statutes and legislative intent relating to school transportation funding for eligible students.
The opinion specifically discusses whether it is legal and appropriate to encourage students who do not
ride the bus throughout the school year to ride during survey periods for the purpose of increasing a
school district’s transportation funding.
Please convey this information to other persons in your district as you deem appropriate.
RM/cfh/rhm
Attachment
RAYMOND MONTELEONE
Deputy Commissioner/Chief Operating and Education Financial Officer
325 WEST GAINES STREET • SUITE 1214 • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0456 • www.fldoe.org
______________________________________________________________________________
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
JIM HORNE
Commissioner of Education
F. PHILIP HANDY,
Chairman
T. WILLARD FAIR,
Vice Chairman
Members
LINDA J. EADS, ED.D.
CHARLES PATRICK GARCÍA
JULIA L. JOHNSON
WILLIAM L. PROCTOR, PH.D.
LINDA K. TAYLOR
M E M O R A N D U M
TO: CHARLIE HOOD, DIRECTOR SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION
FROM:
SCOTT ODENBACH, ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL
DATE: JUNE 21, 2004
RE:
SCHOOL BUS FUNDING RIDER SURVEYS
QUESTION PRESENTED
During required bus ridership surveys, may school districts purposely encourage students who
otherwise do not utilize bus service, to ride the bus for the sole purpose of increasing their
funding?
SHORT ANSWER
No.
ANALYSIS
Recent reports to the Department of Education indicate that in some school districts,
administrators may be engaging in activities designed solely to encourage extra bus ridership
during survey periods in order to gain additional state funding.
The statute that sets forth the manner of providing funding is found at Section 1011.68, Florida
Statutes. It states that, subject to rules of the State Board of Education, each district is to
determine the number of students transported based upon student membership in six different
categories:
(a)
students who live two or more miles from school;
DANIEL J. WOODRING
General Counsel
325 W. GAINES STREET • SUITE 1244 • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0442• www.fldoe.org
MEMORANDUM – Charlie Hood, Director, School Transportation
June 21, 2004
Page 2
(b)
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students with disabilities or enrolled in a teenage parent program, regardless of the
distance from school;
(c)
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students in a pre-kindergarten program, regardless of distance to school;
(d)
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vocational, “dual enrollment” or students with disabilities transported from one school
center to another;
(e)
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elementary school students who are subject to hazardous walking conditions as provided
in s. 106.23
(f)
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a pregnant student or student parent, or the child of a student parent, regardless of
distance from school.
The statute describes specifically those students to be counted in order to accurately determine
the funding. When a law expressly describes a particular situation in which something should
apply, an inference must be drawn that what is not included by specific reference was intended to
be omitted or excluded.
See, Gay v. Singletary
, 700 So. 2d 1220 (Fla. 1997). The language of
the statute is clear and unambiguous as to which students shall be counted for purposes of
funding and should therefore be given its plain and obvious meaning and a construction that
would lead to an absurd result should be avoided.
See, Winter v. Playa Del Sol, Inc
., 353 So. 2d
598 (Fla. 4
th
DCA 1977).
Designed to calculate the number of students who fall into category (a)-(f) above, Rule 6A-
1.0451, Florida Administrative Code, sets forth the manner in which districts shall carry out
these bus ridership surveys. At part (4), it states: “During the year, at least four (4) full-time
equivalent student membership surveys shall be conducted under the administrative direction of
and on a schedule provided by the Commissioner.” The surveys are conducted four times per
year (for one week each) in order to get an
accurate
count of those students who legitimately
utilize district-provided bus service on a day-to-day basis.
In addition, Florida law states that school boards are to provide transportation “when, and only
when, transportation is necessary to provide adequate educational facilities and opportunities
which otherwise would not be available.”
See
, Sections 1006.21(3)(a) & 1006.21(3)(c), Florida
Statutes. This does not include transportation provided to students, who otherwise do not ride
the bus, for the sole purpose of increasing the district’s allocation of bus funding.
See, Mackey v.
Household Bank, F.S.B
., 677 So. 2d 1295 (Fla. 4
th
DCA 1966) (Laws should be enforced with
common sense and applied without losing sight of legislative purpose behind their enactment).
To construe the statute to allow districts to purposely distort the surveys to gain funding by
methods not prescribed in the law would defeat the legislative purpose behind the enactment of
the statute. Instead, a statutory construction that will give effect to the statute is preferred over
another that will defeat it.
See, Department of Legal Affairs v. Rogers
, 329 So. 2d 257 (Fla.
1976).
CONCLUSION
Bus rides are to be provided only for that transportation necessary for education. The bus
ridership survey statute is written specifically to provide an accurate count of those students
actually utilizing school bus services and contains no language leaving open the possibility of
MEMORANDUM – Charlie Hood, Director, School Transportation
June 21, 2004
Page 3
other methods to determine funding eligibility. To use other non-prescribed methods that would
clearly lead to an inaccurate survey would defeat the purpose of the statute.
See, State ex. rel.
Davis v. Rose
, 122 So. 225 (Fla. 1929) (Statute should be construed to make it effective to
advance and not defeat object, if language permits).
In addition, if the intent is to circumvent the
statute in order to reap payments they are not entitled to, offending district personnel may be
engaging in fraud and may be subject to investigation by the Inspector General. See
Section
1001.20(4)(e), Florida Statutes.
Therefore, methods that provide incentives to students who only ride buses during survey week
or that threaten students with loss of privileges if they do not ride buses during survey week
would be outside the plain meaning and intent of the controlling statutes and rules. Thus, in
order to reach a genuine, accurate – and honest – count of students riding district buses, districts
should be notified that they should not in any way change their policies relative to student bus
ridership during funding survey periods for purposes of affecting the student bus ridership count.
