ensure safe transportation for all students. Transporta- tion safety and accountability are essential to remove obstacles for all students, so they can benefit from school reform options and school choice. The October 2018 Urban Institute research report, “It’s
Hard to Separate Choice from Transportation,” provides essential information from 26 district administrators about the “complexity associated with managing trans- portation for large numbers of students, high levels of student mobility, safety concerns, and inadequate public transit infrastructure.” The report concludes that “... better attention could be paid to student transportation to improve empirical and conceptual understandings of school choice and its outcomes.” The authors of the 2014 publication, “Beyond the
Yellow Bus, Promising Practices for Maximizing Ac- cess to Opportunity Through Innovations in Student Transportation” by the Center for Cities and Schools at the University of California, Berkeley write, “The con- tinued availability, affordability, and trustworthiness of yellow-bus service is threatened by a host of challenges. The rise of school consolidations and school choice programs makes routing increasingly complex and expensive or even infeasible within certain constraints and school district policies. State and federal mandates
that require service for particular groups of students and stricter motor vehicle safety standards for school bus designs and operators create additional challenges.” This report provides insight into the growth of alter-
native modes of transportation for a variety of reasons, including transportation funding shortfalls, driver shortages and private companies providing student transportation. The report states, “A patchwork of state and federal policies shape student transport.” In my opinion, this leaves the door wide open to questionable student transportation safety practices. In summary, it is essential that school transporta-
tion safety advocates and industry leaders embark in a conversation with education reform leaders, to better understand what is required for the “yellow bus” and other recognized safe transportation modes, and to become a standing part of the education reform move- ment. Transportation challenges must be eliminated as a barrier to student education opportunities. ●
Linda is a consultant to the Maryland State Department of Education Division of Early Intervention Services/ Special Education. She is a past-president of the National Association for Pupil Transportation and is a member of the organization’s Hall of Fame.
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