Answer: “I look at this in 2 steps. First, what does MV say about paying for school of origin transportation when the student moves out of district: the local educational agency of origin and the local educational agency in which the child or youth is living shall agree upon a method to apportion the responsibility and costs for providing the child or youth with transportation to and from the school of origin. If the local educational agencies are unable to agree upon such method, the responsibility and costs for transportation shall be shared equally.” (42 USC 11432(g)(1)(J)(iii)(II))
So the LEA where living is easy— that’s now District B.
Second, what is the LEA of origin? The LEA of origin in this situation is District A since that is the school of origin the students are attending. It is correct that the definition of the school of origin includes the school that a child or youth attended when permanently housed or the school in which the child or youth was last enrolled, including a preschool. So technically, one student can have two “schools of origin”. But when it comes to transportation, the real question is which school of origin is the child attending— i.e. which school are they seeking transportation to/from. In this case, that’s District A. So District A is the only school of origin that matters. So in this situation, District A and District B “shall agree upon a method to apportion the responsibility and costs” of transportation to the District A school. Or the state could establish a policy that one or the other district pays. Or, if there is no state policy and they can’t agree, they can split it 50/50.”