selves who regularly attended school during a period of housing instability noted consistent transportation as the most important factor. She added that among those who did not regularly attend school during a period of housing instability, 67 percent of caregivers of high school students reported a lack of consistent transpor- tation as the most influential barrier. Students ranked transportation as the most helpful support, tied with access to basic needs like food, clothing and shoes. Kinzley said the survey results prompted the district
to invest 55 percent of its $660,000 in ARP funding to allocate toward transporting students experiencing homelessness. “For example, when a student moves to a new ad-
dress there is generally a three- to five-day delay in getting them set up with a regular route,” she explained. “The ARP funds pay for a short-term Type III provider to transport the student until a regular route is ready. These short-term vehicles have also been used to provide transportation when a route does not have a driver or when a caregiver or student needs to get to a school-sponsored event.
Minneapolis Public Schools also used the funds to hire a part-time scheduler to join a full-time scheduler on routing students experiencing homelessness. Kinzley said the impact of COVID-19 was hard on all
students. Those struggling with housing instability feel the impact more dramatically. “Students are dealing with increased mental health concerns, have fallen further behind academically and are faced with increasing vio- lence in their neighborhoods,” Kinzley said. “They bring all of this to school. They also bring incredible resilience, and many are rising above the odds every day. As a com- munity, it is critical that we recognize this resilience and the need for additional support.” Kinzley said the district optimally has 116 school bus
drivers but was short 37 as of December. “The driver shortage reduces the overall number of
drivers to getting [all students] to school,” Kinzley said. “If we do not have a driver, the route is canceled or runs very late. The shortage also necessitated moving spe- cial ed students to vans and cars for transport and that created more demand for the drivers of those service companies.”
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