ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On Tuesday, the NSTA announced that it has accepted an offer to meet with officials from the Greater Dayton (Ohio) Regional Transit Authority (GDRTA) and Dayton Public Schools to discuss charges filed against the GDRTA.

The NSTA recently filed a complaint with the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Region 5 administrator alleging that the GDRTA has been providing the district with bus service that is in violation of FTA rules.

After filing the complaint, the association sent an investigator to observe the routes that the transit agency is operating for the school district. According to NSTA officials, the investigator discovered the following:

• The routes that serve the district's high schools operate only during school hours and during the school year.

• The routes are not part of the regular public transportation route system.

• The routes begin and end at schools.

• The routes take only students and school personnel to and from school. The NSTA said that these are characteristics that the FTA "holds to be indicative of illegal school bus service" and, further, that the routes "imitate and substitute for yellow school bus service that could be and should be provided by private school bus operators."

  The meeting with officials from GDRTA and Dayton Public Schools had not been scheduled, but the NSTA said it will likely be the next step in addressing this issue.