Boston City Councilors Call on State to Investigate Late School Buses

Local news

While on-time delivery rates have improved, key metrics are still not being met and officials want answers.

On the morning of the first day of school in Boston, about two-thirds of buses failed to arrive on time. A week later, Boston City Council members are calling on state education officials to address transportation issues.

In a letter that councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy sent to Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Chairwoman Katherine Craven on Thursday, the councilors said they had “deep concerns” about the transportation issues and urged Craven to launch an investigation and develop a plan of action.

“BPS families want accountability and results. Failure on transportation is unacceptable. We have asked state education officials to study BPS’s transportation plan and provide recommendations to address this growing problem. The status quo is not an option,” Flynn wrote in a post on X Friday.

The punctuality rate is typically poor on the first day of the school year in Boston, but it improves as drivers learn their routes and families learn their schedules. But the number of late buses this year was particularly striking. According to data provided by Boston Public Schools, only 34% of buses arrived on time on the morning of Sept. 5. The punctuality rate rose to 61% the next day and remained at that level through the early part of this week. The number of buses that arrived within 15 minutes of their destination was 62% on the first day of school and 84% on Tuesday of this week.

Students and their families felt the effects. Some parents waited with their children for as long as 45 minutes the first morning, sometimes choosing other transportation options when buses didn’t arrive. On the return trip, the child was on the bus for more than two hours, traveling from Dorchester to South Boston. The child eventually had to give the driver directions home, according to a hearing order Flynn filed at this week’s City Council meeting.

One mother told local media that her son, a first-grader, was supposed to be home at 3:30 p.m. but didn’t show up until 7 p.m. She now says her son is too restless to take the bus.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Supervisor Mary Skipper blamed the situation primarily on two factors: the implementation of a new real-time app to track buses and an unusually high number of families waiting until the last weeks of summer to register their children for bus rides.

The Zum app was introduced this year as a way to reduce student commute times, improve visibility and collect better data. Bus drivers now work with a tablet attached to the dashboard, which allows for better GPS tracking and gives them the ability to log every student who boards the bus. Some drivers have had issues with the technology during the first week of school, and families have also reported issues with the app not allowing them to track their children as promised.

Route changes have played a major role in delaying buses, Wu said. Drivers receive their initial route assignments in early August and can practice “drilling” on routes. Last year, about a third of BPD drivers had route changes added between then and the start of the school year. But this year, that number has doubled.

While transportation issues are nothing new for BPS students and their families, elected officials appear to be refocusing on fixing the problems. At the center of their concerns is the fact that the district doesn’t seem to be close to meeting key benchmarks. In 2022, BPS and DESE agreed on an improvement plan that requires BPS buses to achieve a monthly on-time rate of 95%. It sets a goal for 99% of buses to arrive within 15 minutes of the start of the school day.

“(This year’s) stunning delays have impacted more than 14,500 students, leaving their families facing the stress and inconvenience of finding alternative transportation solutions. Delays like these are unacceptable and seriously undermine the educational progress and stability of our students,” Flynn and Murphy wrote in their letter.

They say the delays not only hinder the district’s transportation goals, but also have far-reaching consequences for students.

“Delayed buses contribute to increased absenteeism, disrupt student learning, and hinder the progress BPS aims to make,” they wrote.

Flynn and Murphy have urged DESE to conduct a thorough investigation into the planning, routing and operational practices of the BPS transit system. They want to see a new plan of action, improved communication and a new system for monitoring transit performance.

During Wednesday’s City Council meeting, many councilors expressed their concerns and signed on to an ordinance for a hearing. It has been referred to the Education Committee, and a hearing will be scheduled so councilors can hear directly from education officials.

“When 66% of all buses arrive late to school, that means 14,500 children in our Boston Public Schools did not arrive at school on time last week,” Murphy said during the meeting. “As a former teacher for decades, I know that those first days of school are stressful for many of our students and families. And to know that they are missing out on those first moments of getting to know your new classmates or learning about your schedule … is unacceptable.”