Too many New York City families spend their mornings face-to-face with problems with their school bus service. Buses show up late and provide inconsistent service, routes are excessively long, and students are sometimes left without transportation home from after-school programs. For working families, that kind of instability around getting children to school can throw an entire day into crisis. These problems hit some students hardest, especially students with disabilities, students in temporary housing, and many Black, brown, and lower-income families who rely on school bus service every day.
Part of the problem is that many of the city’s bus contracts are more than 40 years old. You may not live in New York City, but decisions being made in Albany are shaping whether children there can get to school safely and have the stability they need to learn. New contracts could improve service, but current state law prevents the city from including important protections for bus drivers and attendants in those contracts. The last time the city tried to move forward without those protections, a strike disrupted service for thousands of students.
A bill in the State Legislature, S.1018/A.8440, would allow NYC to update bus contracts while maintaining existing worker protections, helping create a more reliable transportation system that students and families can count on to get to school safely and on time.