A New York City education panel late Wednesday night approved a polarizing three-year yellow bus contract extension, ensuring stability for 150,000 local students to get to and from school.
Last month, a coalition of bus companies threatened to yank drivers off their routes unless the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP — which had concerns about the quality of school bus service that students receive — approved a long-term renewal. Families braced for disruption, but were spared at the 11th hour when the vendors agreed to emergency extensions.
Wednesday’s deal appeared to be a compromise.
“We know that this shortened contract term still does not address many abiding concerns that must be tackled to ensure bus service is everything it should be for all our students who rely on it, especially those with disabilities,” Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said at the Prospect Heights Campus in Brooklyn.
“The work of improving bus service must be ongoing.”
The city’s $1.9 billion school transportation system depends on an intricate network of contracted bus operators to shuttle students who disproportionately have disabilities or are homeless.
For years, the PEP has fielded complaints from families about bus delays and bus no-shows with serious consequences: lost instructional time, motion and heat sickness, or even parents scrambling to keep their jobs because of inconsistent service. Advocates have railed against a long-standing practice of extending decades-old contracts, rather than updating them for current needs, such as late-day bus service for new after-school and summer programs.
“My son has fought and struggled because he consistently missed his first and occasionally second period class due to these busing issues,” said Allicia Gittens, a Brooklyn mom of three students.
Wednesday’s extension is shorter than the five-year renewal that the companies originally agreed to with the Adams administration over the summer, but which did not earn the votes to get the PEP’s approval. Instead, the buses were operating on emergency extensions their vendors have said were unsustainable.
The revised deal includes new provisions, such as a requirement that each company send a representative to town halls for families with concerns. It also involves more training days and $75 damages per run if the operators do not use a GPS system that allows parents to track their children.
Throughout the meeting, dozens of parents and school bus drivers who spoke on both sides of the issue expressed frustrations with the deal on the table. Some continued to push for a shorter-term contract of one to two years, while others accepted the agreement as it came for a vote.
“We need five years, but we will settle for the three,” said Marcia Tucker, a driver at Logan Bus Company. “I don’t want to be six months down the [road], I’m wondering if I’m going to have a job.”
More than four hours into the meeting, the contract extension was ultimately approved, with a handful of members voting no or abstaining.
The three-year renewal is retroactive to last summer, so school bus contracts will come before the PEP again by summer 2028. Proponents of the extension are optimistic that will give the public schools enough time to more comprehensively overhaul the student transportation system, which requires legislative action from Albany.
“This is just the beginning,” said Gregory Faulkner, the PEP’s chairperson. “There’s more work ahead, and we’re committed to making that happen.”
