The City Council’s Education Committee, chaired by Council Member Robert Jackson, will hold an oversight hearing on “School bus service in New York City, is DOE meeting the need?”
The Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) is charged with transporting hundreds of thousands of pre-school and school-age children to school and back home again safely and in a timely manner. However, many serious busing problems were reported in the first weeks of this school year, including cases of students missing school due to lack of transportation; special needs children riding the bus for hours in violation of time limits specified in their IEP; students arriving late to school, and so on. Such problems have continued to occur at the start of each school year, and other ongoing issues persist throughout the year. School bus problems are often dangerous for students as well as frustrating for parents, school staff, bus drivers and escorts.
This hearing will focus on issues and concerns regarding DOE’s efforts to address school bus problems encountered at the start of this school year, as well as other ongoing busing issues.