New York City failed to collect $42.6 million in penalties from school bus companies due to drivers’ failure to log into GPS systems as required, a new audit by City Comptroller Brad Lander found.
The GPS systems are supposed to allow parents to track when buses are about to arrive, as well as their kids’ whereabouts once they’re aboard. But parents have complained for years that the GPS often doesn’t work. Lander said a lack of accountability is one of the problems driving the dysfunction of the notorious school bus system.
“For decades, our city’s school bus system has failed our students and families,” he said.
Lander’s audit comes after a Gothamist investigation found the city’s official data on delays and other school bus problems do not capture the full scope of the problem. The city relies on school bus companies to self-report incidents, like when they are stuck in traffic, get in a crash or don’t show up at all.
The city last month renewed an agreement with bus companies for the next three years despite the persistent problems, but pushed back against an even-longer contract supported by the bus companies. Lander said officials must use that window to finally reform the system.
“With the shortened three-year contract extensions, City Hall has a unique opportunity to fix our schools’ dysfunctional bus system,” the comptroller said.
Some 145,000 children take yellow school buses, which cost nearly $2 billion per year. Many of the children who ride the buses have disabilities or are homeless. Advocates said the bus problems disproportionately affect the city’s most vulnerable kids.
“Inconsistent, unreliable transportation not only disrupts children’s education, it also takes a financial and emotional toll on families, making it even more challenging to raise children in this city,” Maria Odom, executive director of the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York, said. “We urge the new administration to take immediate action to address long-standing issues.”
Separate improvements to school bus GPS systems through a $51.7 million contract with the company Via Transportation haven’t materialized, according to Lander’s audit. Via did not respond to an inquiry.
Bus companies also often don’t do practice runs of routes before the start of the school year, the audit found.
Parents have long pleaded with officials to overhaul the dysfunctional system, and have recently focused on decades-old bus contracts as a way to force reforms.
Some of the largest school bus companies earlier this fall threatened to halt service if the city did not agree to a five-year-extension on those contracts. An education oversight panel ultimately agreed to a shorter, three-year extension, with promises to start negotiating tougher terms.
Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos recently told Gothamist she supported the shorter contract, and more accountability was needed for both the education department and school bus companies.
Lander suggested the city pursue one of three “potential solutions” to the school bus problem: rebidding bus contracts with much stronger requirements for improved service, bringing the school bus system in house as a municipally run agency or expanding the city’s nonprofit school bus service, NYCSBUS.
