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Now What Do We Do?


Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, fiscal or otherwise,


to redesign entire school bus routes around a single child Written By Amanda Pampuro


scenario, with a multitude of possible solutions. School districts that are looking to outsource long-distance routes, transportation for transient students, or move- ment for medically fragile students, must weigh many factors. The students may simply be too medically fragile and difficult—not to mention too expensive—to transport via the yellow bus. Or the students may have behavioral issues that prevent them from being included on long rides with other students. Or those students may be homeless or placed in foster care. Whatever the case may be, these students are protect- ed under federal law, which means the school district must find an appropriate way to transport them to and from school or therapy. That said, transporting a single student on an oth-


W


erwise empty bus may be more expensive than hiring a contractor, said Tim Shannon, the transportation director of Twin Rivers Unified School District on the outskirts of Sacramento, California. “I think the biggest misunderstanding that people have is when they get wind of what it costs,” he noted.


46 School Transportation News • MARCH 2020


hen it comes to transporting students, one size does not fit all. As districts continue to customize options for students with special needs, many are turning to outside help that doesn’t entail using the yellow school bus. Every student presents a unique


Being so close to Silicon Valley, Shannon is enthusiastic


about incorporating technological solutions, from ID cards to transit apps. One of the first things he did when he be- came the transportation director five years ago was to use new software to analyze his routes for inefficiencies. “We used to try to keep every single thing in-house,” Shannon recalled. “We never even considered outsourc- ing. But when you start looking at school buses that are 20, 30, 40 minutes late because there are so many kids on a route, you have to do something different.” Shannon transports 5,000 of the district’s 28,000 stu-


dents across 127 square miles every day, including 900 students with special needs. While Twin Rivers assigns a majority of these students to yellow buses, Shannon said it has outsourced transportation for 50 to 90 students because of their individual needs and locations. “If the student is not thriving, or is having issues on the bus, they need to come up with a plan to ensure the well-being of that child and make sure that they are all getting to school properly,” commented Amen Pawar-LaRosa, vice president of marketing and opera- tions at Spectra Drive. The company provides Twin Rivers Unified and other


California districts with specialized vehicle service for students who have disabilities or who are homeless. “Or it could be some districts that have one stu-


dent and they live out in the middle of nowhere,” Pawar-LaRosa continued. “It’s not cost effective for them


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