As school districts grapple with difficult decisions under the property tax and state aid cap, school transportation managers are taking steps to reduce costs.
These include rerouting buses, cutting special routes, increasing distances between stops, eliminating idling, modifying bus replacement policies, sharing management and maintenance programs, sharing special needs and other routes.
School transportation is demand driven. It responds to demands defined by the needs of students.
As a result, it is important to review mandates that drive transportation costs. The New York Association for Pupil Transportation has proposed reform of some 16 mandates, and we appreciate state action on several of these. More must be done on the more challenging of those ideas, including:
Coordinating district calendars and bell times to allow for more effective route sharing and management;
Requiring collaboration by Committees on Special Education so that transportation of students with disabilities is handled cost-effectively;
Reducing maximum distances for transporting students to non-public schools (15 miles) and special education programs (50 miles);
Eliminating equipment requirements that increase the cost of a school bus, including "lap-style seat belts" and back-lit "SCHOOL BUS" signs.
These are real ideas that could save school districts and the state as much as $200 million in expenditures.
We are pleased to offer these ideas while ensuring that our children are safe as they ride the yellow school bus.
Peter Mannella
Executive director
New York Association
for Pupil Transportation
Albany