South Dakota Reverses Policy, Now Allows Busing for Students Attending Religious SchoolsFor more than a decade, Hot Springs (SD) School District policy was to provide public busing services to all primary and secondary students in the district, whether they attended public schools or private schools. The main beneficiaries of the policy were students attending Bethesda Lutheran School, located on Baltimore Avenue in Hot Springs. No new routes were added; Bethesda school students were picked up along existing routes. However, the school district banned the busing of so-called "sectarian" school students at the start of the 2002-03 school year and pointed to South Dakota's discriminatory "Blaine Amendments" and an attorney general opinion on the matter (Op. 92-04) as reasons. (more on the Blaine Amendments at www.blaineamendments.org). The Becket Fund sued to restore non-discriminatory busing on April 23, 2003. On January 17, 2006, the Becket Fund defeated a motion for summary judgment filed by the Hot Springs School District. The School District argued that Plaintiffs' declaratory, compensatory, and injunctive claims were moot because all the Plaintiffs' children that were originally denied busing had graduated from Bethesda Lutheran. However, in its opinion (PDF 93kb), the court found that the "District's policy of denying busing to Bethesda students increased the costs of exercising that right. This is sufficient injury-in-fact . . . to assert a claim" and that "the Pucket parents' claims are not moot because they have a younger child S.P. who currently attends Bethesda and is subject to School District's busing policy." Even though S. Pucket was not denied busing like the other Pucket children because she was not attending Bethesda Lutheran at the time, the court reasoned that the District's refusal to reinstate busing when given explicit permission by the State legislature casts doubt on its assurances that it would not deny busing to the last Pucket child attending Bethesda Lutheran once the lawsuit ended.
Of greater significance, the court granted the Becket Fund's motion for voluntary dismissal of the State Defendants noting that the "State has changed its position" regarding state busing policy towards so-called sectarian school students, and "has stated under oath that it cannot and will not prohibit the busing of Bethesda students." The State of South Dakota has completely rejected Attorney General Opinion 92-04 which striclty interpreted the state Blaine Amendments to justify the District's discriminatory busing ban. Due to vigorous Becket Fund litigation, AG Opinion 92-04 is now a dead letter. The State's dramatic policy reversal constitutes a significant victory for all citizens of South Dakota, especially those that attend or have children attending religous schools seeking equal access to public benefits. The opinion's Westlaw ciation is Pucket v. Rounds, 2006 WL 120233 (D.S.D. January 17, 2006). Relevant Cases
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