As the new school year approaches on Aug. 25, Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 faces a quiet but severe student safety and civil rights crisis.
My 20-year-old son, Horace, attends the OPRF CITE program in Forest Park. He has multiple disabilities, including autism and a seizure disorder. His legally binding Individualized Education Program (IEP) mandates that a bus aide be on his vehicle at all times for physical safety. Yet on three separate occasions this past May, District 200’s third-party bus contractor (Grand Prairie Transit/The First Student Bus Company) failed to provide this mandated aide. High-needs students were left entirely unmonitored during transport through busy municipal corridors, creating an immediate risk to the students and the public.
This is not an isolated oversight. Five years ago, the exact same violation by this contractor occurred for two weeks straight. I filed a complaint, and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) officially found both the school district and the bus company at fault. The fact that these dangerous violations are happening again demonstrates a chronic, systemic refusal to comply with state and federal law.
I have escalated this issue by filing new complaints with ISBE, the Cook County Commission on Human Rights, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. However, legal battles take time, and school starts in days.
We cannot allow a private contractor’s repeated negligence to compromise the safety of our town’s most vulnerable children. Our local leaders — including Senate President Don Harmon, state Representative Camille Lilly, Cook County Board Commissioner Tara Stamps, Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman, Forest Park Mayor Hoskins, and OPRF D200 leadership — must intervene immediately. They must hold this contractor accountable and ensure special education transit safety mandates are strictly enforced before Aug. 25.
D200 prides itself on equity and inclusion. It is time to meaningfully extend that commitment to special education students and their school buses.
Adebajo Amusa
Oak Park