Maintaining a fleet of buses to transport students to school is a major expense for school districts. An efficient bus routing system can greatly reduce the time and cost associated with transportation, while also ensuring the safety and comfort of students. Optimizing large-scale school bus routing problems (SBRP) is challenging due to the huge…

School transportation may increase student outcomes by providing a reliable and safe means of getting to and from school. Little evidence of the effects of such policies exists. In this paper, I provide some of the first causal evidence of transportation impacts on student attendance and achievement using a rich panel of student-level enrollment…

This study examines the impact of a bus driver attendance incentive program implemented in a rural Mississippi school district with the aim of improving bus driver attendance rates. There is a shortage of bus drivers across Mississippi which has made bus driver attendance paramount. Bus driver absenteeism causes disruptions in student…

Costs for transporting public school students have risen 33% from 2008 to 2018, reaching, on average, $1,152 per student transported. The reasons behind this shift include higher labor costs, various forms of school choice requiring longer commutes from students' neighborhoods, and environmentally friendly upgrades to bus fleets. As a result, some…

This Quick Facts document provides a snapshot of facts about Alabama school systems and public schools; Alabama students; Alabama educators; National School Lunch Program lunches served; Alabama school buses; Alabama gifted students; total personnel; average daily attendance; graduation rate; average ACT score; AMSTI schools; ACCESS virtual…

Transportation, or the lack thereof, can be a huge barrier to families exercising choice. Simply because a state authorizes the creation of charter schools or grants vouchers to families looking to send their children to private schools doesn't mean that those children will actually be able to attend those schools. They have to be able to get…

Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about the effects of the four-day school week on high school students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research design to…

Stephen Nielsen, Deputy Superintendent of the Seattle Public Schools, requested that the Council of the Great City Schools provide a high-level management review of the school district's student transportation program. Specifically, he requested that the Council: (1) Review and comment on the existing organizational structure, business processes,…

Under the current Denver Public Schools (DPS) transportation policy, students are eligible for transportation if they attend their designated neighborhood school and live a specified distance from that school -- more than 1 mile away for elementary school, 2.5 miles for middle schools, and 3.5 miles for high school. A multitude of exceptions exist…

Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is a means to proactively address student behavior in all school settings. Misbehavior on the school bus can lead to issues with safety, carry over to school and home, and hinder at-risk students' academic success. Students' behavior can be supported on the bus through the implementation of a…

In Michigan's lower-income urban communities, where educational options are most heavily in demand, accessing the most suitable and desired schools is often limited by the availability and affordability of convenient transportation. Michigan could support low-income families' efforts to transport their children to better schools and boost these…

In 2018 the Rhode Island (RI) Regulations Governing the Education of Children with Disabilities were revised to comply with the 2016 amendments to the RI Administrative Procedures Act. In this process members of the community requested that the RI Department of Education develop a companion document that maintained the relevant sections of the…

Numerous studies have shown that later school start times (SST) are associated with positive student outcomes, including improvements in academic performance, mental and physical health, and public safety. While the benefits of later SST are very well documented in the literature, in practice there is opposition against delaying SST. A major…

Whenever a school district considers changing bus stops, bus routes, or bell times, the public reaction is often decidedly unequal to the magnitude of the changes proposed. Unfortunately, the severity of continued budget crises has compelled many school districts to make major changes to their transportation systems. While additional cuts in…

In an environment of tight resources, tough academic challenges, and increasingly stiff competition from new education providers, smart leadership may matter more than ever for the success of America's school districts. Against this backdrop, "Education Week" introduces the first of what will be an annual "Leaders To Learn…