through vendors will be very important and a skill many might need to develop,” he continued. “We will need to evaluate our own biases and expectations and those of the departments we work with about how services are provided, especially when there are not enough assets or people in the traditional system to support all the demands.” The ability to assess and balance real and perceived
safety concerns against offering access to school will become a more important element in a transportation director’s job, Ammon noted.
Finding Alternatives Orange County Public Schools in Central Florida has
increasingly turned to third-party alternative transporta- tion vendors to keep students moving amid a persistent school bus driver shortage while maintaining tight con- trol over safety and operational standards. The district transports about 52,000 students per day
on yellow buses and another 1,700 students through third-party vendors, explained Bill Wen, the school dis- trict’s senior director of transportation. Orange County uses EverDriven and Collaborative Student Transporta- tion (CST) that operate smaller vehicles like seven- and eight-passenger vans. The primary focus is on students
with disabilities, McKinney-Vento students experienc- ing homelessness, and other small-route populations where a full-size school bus is inefficient or would create unreasonably long ride times. Rather than treating third-party transportation as a
looser, separate system, Orange County has deliberately chosen to hold vendors to the same standards as dis- trict-employed bus drivers. “We’ve taken the approach that they need to meet the same standards as we do when we transport them on a bus,” Wen shared. Vendors are selected through a formal RFP process
that spells out requirements for driver qualifications, training and vehicle inspections. The district reviews motor vehicle records and moving violations for vendor drivers before they are allowed to transport students. All vendor personnel must also pass the same enhanced background screening as district staff under Florida’s Jessica Lunsford Act, which imposes stricter checks fol- lowing the high-profile murder of a child in the state. “We also have bi-weekly calls with the team so if there
are any concerns or any challenges we’ve encountered, we can address them more quickly. And also have a local team that’s there to help us when we need to,” Wen add- ed. “But the most important part is to have the mindset
36 School Transportation News • APRIL 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
