No show bus
What if the School Bus does not show up?
The business sector’s attacks on the wage structure of school bus workers, which the NY City administration enabled in 2012-13, caused a shortage of people to drive students to and from school.
Families who have gotten stuck transporting their own students when there is no bus have won some band-aid measures: Reimbursement and Rideshare.
We in PIST NYC prefer group transport with the same trained professionals daily – For students’ safety and neurological stability, to limit pollution, and to free families from having to provide unpaid service, for which we already paid taxes! – but here is the information:
1. Reimbursement
(a) in previous school years For District 75 when bus or bus para is not present, they had budget set aside for this. Check with them before you begin part (b)
Transportation Reimbursement & emergency rideshare voucher requests 212-802-1502 or proyall@schools.nyc.gov, singlis@schools.nyc.gov and as a backup, copy d75council@schools.nyc.gov
(b) For most special education routes, and for students in foster or transitional housing (or the year after moving into permanent housing) the application for reimbursement covers {Driving, Public Transportation, Taxi/rideshare} and you must upload proof of payment.
Go to https://supporthub.schools.nyc/family-topics/Transportation/facets (as of Sept 2024 this link is more direct than https://supporthub.schools.nyc/family-topics/ )
scroll to Frequently asked questions
Select I need to request transportation reimbursement
Read the information
Select Create Ticket,
If you have NYCSA, Sign in. If not, select Continue as Guest.
Fill out the online form
Upload receipts This only covers the 2 rides when the child is present.
If it was a long time ago, upload proof of attendance on the day in question.
Keep a copy or screenshot.
REPEAT for each day that you had to pay to transport your child due to a “route outage”.
These online steps for reimbursement are accurate as of November 2022, updated slightly in September 2024. Parents in citywide councils are fighting to have this expanded so that you can do 1 week at a time. It’s not a great system and it is NOT fast. See NYC - Families wait years for reimbursement for no show buses https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2024/08/09/nyc-school-bus-transit-reimbursement-delays-rideshare/
You also can get ahead of things by telling the school that you need written proof of the child's attendance on the date(s) in question.
There is an older Reimbursement form that used to go to transportationreimbursement@schools.nyc.gov. The NYCDOE Office of Pupil Transportation has given mixed messages about how well that email address is monitored. Please share what you learn with families and staff at your school and with pistnyc@gmail.com
2. Rideshare Alternative THIS HAS CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY in 2023 and 2024 so please focus on the newest updates in white boxes. Feel free to ask questions in real time at https://www.facebook.com/groups/pistnyc/ or search the conversations that are posted there. It is a public group, so we ask you not to share identifying information about your child.
September 2024 post from Citywide Council for District 75 explaining about Rideshare:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/PncQZxG4fWY2tea9/
If you can’t see that post, write ccd75@schools.nyc.gov for the slides.
Note: We need to hear from you about how this has functioned in real life.
PIST has observed the following:
Eligibility is written out sort of vaguely and many people have been denied
There are long waiting periods for the codes and the arrangements to be set up
they are not providing codes for a one-time crisis such as an assigned para who calls out sick
Riders cannot ride with their para or nurse so that service is lost and that person does not get paid
The family has to spend a lot of time in transit - this complicates their ability to work for income or to do other childcare
The cab drivers lack the level of training and regulation that school buses bring
Meanwhile there’s a 27 million dollar budget over 5 years for this program, including years when almost nobody knew it existed
Imagine the drivers that could have been hired with $27M!
From 2022: DOE set aside over $5 million for (a) corporate Uber and (b) The Drivers Cooperative. This can cover 4 rides by a caregiver. (prepaid to certain car services in multiples of $25). The DOE-OPT says to contact your school in advance to find out how & whether you qualify. The schools in your district share an OPT Transportation Liaison who should know more if the principal / Transportation Coordinator can’t find this easily.
You need to have a credit card and to get signed up for the service with an App on a smart device, and have enough data or internet to work with it when the bus doesn’t show up.
[The rest of this is still accurate from 2022 to now]
In case of Failures of Reimbursement or Rideshare Alternative.
Below are people who you should tell. The best way is to write an email, and they can forward it to the attention of OPT executives to hopefully bring about some action.
*Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST NYC)
631.743.6296
*If Student has an IEP:
Citywide Council for Special Education, made up of elected and appointed parents
Phone No. (718) 391-8354
ccse@schools.nyc.gov
*If in a District 75 program, also contact the Citywide Council at D75council@schools.nyc.gov and CCD75busingissues@gmail.com
*The school’s local Community Education Council from District 1 to District 32
For example District 12 CEC email is cec12@schools.nyc.gov
*The school Principal & Transportation Coordinator
*The office of the New York City Public Advocate
gethelp@advocate.nyc.gov Phone: (212) 669-7200 Text: (833)933-1692
City Council Education Committee (Current chair: rjoseph@council.nyc.gov)
+ your City Council Member
To change this situation of no-show buses,
we need for the city and state to make school bus driving a career again.
Please join PIST NYC in supporting:
*Good contracts for Amalgamated Transit Union local 1181-1061 and TWU Local 100.
*Recruitment for school bus internships and jobs at the high school and adult education levels
*Any NY State legislation that will restore the Employee Protection Provisions (EPP)
*Our petition campaign for a Community-Labor panel to tackle all the problems of school busing
- we call this the School Bus Bill of Rights referendum, see https://www.pistnyc.org/gallery/bill-of-rights