hovered around 33 percent or less since the 1980s, gave student transporters some relief when a new law raised the maximum reimbursements to 60 percent. However, school districts must demonstrate the need for the funding by submitting annual reports of their expenditures by April 1 of each year. The reports must have community input and be approved by the school board in a public meeting. Tim Purvis, principal consultant for Pupil Transpor-
tation Information (PTI), said California has been near the bottom in funding pupil transportation across the country since 1983. “There have been several attempts to increase funding,
but most of them failed,” Purvis said. “Last year, Assem- bly Bill 181 passed and brought in some of the heaviest funding for education in California that the state has ever seen. Buried within that was funding specifically tagged for pupil transportation in the state. It resulted in giving school districts the ability in this 2022-2023 fiscal cycle to get funded up to 60 percent of their operational expense. I’ve been involved with about 250 of the state’s 1,021 school districts and I’ve never seen a school district get more than 60 percent.” Purvis said school districts should make sure they in- clude all transportation-related expenses in their report,
including those that may be listed under special educa- tion or other areas to keep operation costs down. “The reason we have cautioned client school districts
is that when the auditors come out to validate your 60 percent reimbursement, they will only be looking at the 3600-function code because that’s where transporta- tion operation expenses should fall,” Purvis explained. “Maybe you have special ed students that need program access that fall outside regular district transportation. Maybe you’re hiring a school shuttle or van service to transport a child, or maybe you have a school bus aide, but you track their cost under special ed expenses and you do that to keep your transportation costs down. Now all of a sudden, we have this adrenalin shot in the arm of all this cash coming in, to the tune of 60 percent and you want to make sure you get your fair share.” Tim Ammon, vice president of the Center for Effective School Operations consulting and management firm, added that school districts nationwide must remember that funding is a value-driven process. “One of the things I think is lost is that people forget
that the funding process is inherently value-based and a value judgment,” Ammon said. “And one of the things transportation folks need to be able to do is to communi-
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