Edison Kindergartner Gets Bus Ride After Judge Steps In

EDISON, NJ — An administrative law judge ordered the Edison Board of Education to provide school busing for a kindergarten student after finding the district gave no timely answer to the family's transportation request and then offered contradictory explanations in court, according to a decision from the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law.

Judge Sarah Crowley wrote that the district took "three different positions in this matter in a short period of time" without providing "rationale for any determinations," calling the district's conduct "clearly arbitrary and capricious."

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The child's mother, who does not own a car, applied June 22 for paid busing to Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, about 1.5 miles from her home.

The district had just eliminated free "courtesy" busing for the 2026-27 school year — busing her child had received in past years because the route to school was considered dangerous. Paid busing costs $920 a year and is offered to elementary and middle school students who live less than 2 miles from their school.

Weeks went by with no answer from the district. On Aug. 12, with school about to start, the mother asked the court to step in and force a decision. The district's own business administrator confirmed in court filings that her application was on file — but as of Aug. 21, one week before the first day of school, no decision had been made.

The judge heard both sides Aug. 26 and ruled the very next day, just one day before kindergarten began.

The district's attorney, Patrick Carrigg, told the court the matter was already settled and that the family qualified for free busing because of financial need. He argued the mother shouldn't have gone to court while her application was still pending, warning it could open the door to "hundreds of emergent applications from parents." The judge wasn't convinced — she said it made no sense to fault the mother when her application had been filed on time and school was just days away.

Things got messier from there. Four minutes before the hearing started, the district tried to submit new paperwork that contradicted what it had said earlier about whether the child even qualified for busing — and that paperwork didn't match an email the district's own attorney had sent about an hour before. The judge called the timing "unacceptable," writing that the harm to the family two days before school started couldn't be undone.

In her ruling, Crowley said the mother had every right to get a timely answer — and an explanation if the answer was no. She noted the district never pointed to any rule or policy that justified how it had handled the request.

She ordered the district to keep busing the kindergartner to school until it can show, in writing, a real basis for its decision. The state's education commissioner, Lily Laux, later backed up the ruling.

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