One-and-a-half million students reportedly experienced homelessness during the 2017-18 school year. This tragic situation impacts many pupil transporters.
ALC Schools completed more than 1.75 million student passenger trips in 2019 and is marking the one-year anniversary of its dispatch and operations center in Raleigh, N.C.
Some pupil transporters increasingly look beyond the big yellow bus to transport students with special needs and those who are homeless or in foster care, choosing minivans, taxicabs, and other smaller-capacity vehicles.
Children’s rideshare services can offer scheduling flexibility, quick response time, and more efficient use of resources when serving homeless, foster care, and special-needs students. Factors to consider are budget and coordination between multiple parties.
The event will offer workshops on such topics as McKinney-Vento homeless transportation, safety and security, and recruitment and retention.
The educator and author says that pupil transportation professionals are in a good position to have a positive impact on homeless students who ride their buses.
New legislation designed to support a growing number of homeless students leaves some transportation providers grappling with logistics and costs. More training and inter-staff communication are recommended.
Jones, who began his pupil transportation career as a school bus driver nearly 40 years ago, will step down as state director at the end of September.
The costs stem from the state's participation in the federal McKinney-Vento program. State Auditor Suzanne Bump calls on lawmakers to allot funding for what she found to be "an unfunded state mandate."
The staff at Educational Service District 112’s Specialized Transportation Cooperative in Vancouver, Wash., monitors its growth to cost-effectively meet the needs of its member schools and school districts. Students are provided with customized transportation to maximize their safety.