Pupil transportation in New York encompasses the services and infrastructure used to bus students to and from school, as well as the state and local funding formulas that reimburse districts for these expenses. This page covers CBC’s work on transportation aid formulas, competitive contract procurement, school bus service efficiency, state reimbursement rates, and the fiscal impact of transportation spending on city and state budgets.
This page was created with AICBC Insights uses AI to group, analyze and present data and recommendations from CBC's publications. Always reference the cited sources to verify important details..
The State should explore school districts' building and transportation costs to identify reforms that would incentivize efficiency of spending on student transportation and building projects.
The State should explore school districts' building and transportation costs to identify reforms that would improve the funding distribution to better reflect local needs and resources.
The State should conduct further study on Building Aid and Transportation Aid to ensure allocation is appropriately targeted based on need and local capacity.
School districts’ building and transportation costs should be explored further to identify reforms that would incentivize efficiency of spending and to improve the funding distribution to better reflect local needs and resources.
The City should increase the budget for student transportation to the actual levels it has historically reached.
If the City cannot increase the budget for student transportation, it must develop a plan to drastically reduce spending to the level currently budgeted.
Key Data
As of August 2024, New York schools' cost of providing transportation service is $1,805 per student, which is the highest of any state and nearly triple the U.S. average.
In the 2024-25 school year, Building and Transportation Aid categories total nearly $6 billion, with almost half of all school districts set to receive the maximum reimbursement rate of 90 percent.
Data from 2010 showed that New York school districts spent $1,100 per pupil on average for transportation, which was 140 percent above the U.S. average of $459.
As of December 2012, nearly one-third of school districts (188 of 676) received transportation aid at the maximum 90 percent reimbursement rate, while 60 districts received the minimum 6.5 percent rate.
New York State's student transportation expenditures are the highest in the nation, reaching $1,805 per student in 2022, which is nearly triple the national average. Reforms are needed to incentivize spending efficiency and improve the distribution of funding to better align with local needs and resources.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The State should explore school districts' building and transportation costs to identify reforms that would incentivize efficiency of spending on student transportation and building projects.
The State should explore school districts' building and transportation costs to identify reforms that would improve the funding distribution to better reflect local needs and resources.
The State should conduct further study on Building Aid and Transportation Aid to ensure allocation is appropriately targeted based on need and local capacity.
Key Data
$1,805
— Statewide student transportation expenditures per student in 2022, which is the highest of any state.
40 percent
— Amount by which New York's student transportation cost exceeds the second-highest cost state, Connecticut.
61 percent
— Percentage of total eligible student transportation costs the State will reimburse school districts for in the 2024-25 school year.
90 percent
— Maximum reimbursement rate for student transportation costs that almost half of all school districts are set to receive.
15 percent
— Percentage of total State education aid that is disbursed through Building Aid and Transportation Aid.
New York State's largest expense-based aid categories, which include building and transportation funding, total nearly $6 billion and require further exploration to incentivize spending efficiency. Reforming these formulas is necessary to ensure funding distribution better reflects actual local needs and resources.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
School districts’ building and transportation costs should be explored further to identify reforms that would incentivize efficiency of spending and to improve the funding distribution to better reflect local needs and resources.
Key Data
$6 billion
— The combined total of Building and Transportation Aid, which are the two largest expense-based aid categories.
New York State's school aid system, totaling $38.6 billion, requires comprehensive reform to better align funding with student needs and local fiscal capacity, as current formulas often rely on outdated metrics and arbitrary provisions. The state should eliminate the hold harmless provision, revise local contribution calculations, and update poverty and regional cost measures to ensure resources are effectively targeted.
New York City consistently underbudgets for essential services like student transportation, uniformed overtime, and private school tuition reimbursements, creating a recurring fiscal gap of at least $1 billion annually. The city must decide whether to increase budget allocations to match historical spending levels or implement plans to significantly reduce these costs.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The City should increase the budget for student transportation to the actual levels it has historically reached.
If the City cannot increase the budget for student transportation, it must develop a plan to drastically reduce spending to the level currently budgeted.
Key Data
$78 million
— The amount of chronic underbudgeting for <b>pupil transportation</b> in the fiscal year 2024 budget.
The state should prioritize controlling costs for building and transportation aid, which currently total over $5.1 billion annually, while ensuring schools maintain the resources necessary for a sound basic education. Limiting growth in per-district transportation operating expense aid to inflation or pupil-adjusted inflation represents a necessary step toward reining in these expenditures.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The State should move forward with controlling building and transportation aid costs while ensuring that schools have what they need to provide a sound basic education.
The State should limit growth in per-district transportation operating expense aid to inflation or pupil-adjusted inflation, whichever is greater, beginning in school year 2022.
Key Data
$5.1 Billion
— Annual cost of building and transportation aid combined.
New York City's annual pupil transportation costs total $1.4 billion, and proposed legislation would codify contract restrictions that courts have previously struck down as anticompetitive. Maintaining flexibility in procuring and negotiating these contracts is essential to securing savings for taxpayers and avoiding the high expenses associated with mandatory employee protection provisions.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
Governor Cuomo should veto A7749/S6208, which would impose costly restrictions on school bus contracts in New York City by codifying contract components that the courts struck down.
The City must maintain flexibility to procure and negotiate pupil transportation contracts and secure savings for future taxpayers.
The proposed legislation, which is costly and ill-advised, should be rejected.
Key Data
$1.4 billion
— Annual cost of New York City pupil transportation.
The cost of educating an average New York City public elementary school class is approximately $560,000, with ancillary services—including food, transportation, and school safety—accounting for 8 percent of that total. Within these ancillary services, transportation represents 35 percent of the allocated funding.
Key Data
$42,000
— Cost per class for ancillary services, which includes food services, transportation, and school safety.
35%
— Portion of ancillary services spending allocated to transportation.
8%
— Percentage of total class costs allocated to ancillary services, which includes transportation.
The School Bus Grant Program, which provides salary and benefit support to firms without employee protections, should be rejected because it circumvents the competitive bidding process and increases taxpayer costs. New York City should instead rebid all pupil transportation contracts to foster competition and generate savings to offset the costs of reinstating employee protections.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The City Council should reject the School Bus Grant Program, which circumvents the public procurement process and increases costs to taxpayers without enhancing services.
The City Council should call for the de Blasio Administration to find savings in pupil transportation.
All new school bus contracts should be awarded with an eye toward realizing savings in the costs of pupil transportation.
The City should rebid all transportation bus contracts to provide the opportunity to foster competition and increase the use of technology.
The City should eliminate certain subsidies and costs, install GPS, and extend daily service periods without a fixed start time.
Key Data
$42 million
— The proposed spending in fiscal year 2018 to extend the School Bus Grant Program for a fourth year.
$136 million
— The total four-year cost of the School Bus Grant Program through fiscal year 2018.
$1.1 billion
— The cost of pupil transportation in fiscal year 2018.
$1.2 billion
— The annual cost of pupil transportation as of 2018.
$400 million
— The savings generated by rebidding school bus contracts in 2012.
1,600
— The number of bus routes out of 8,200 covered by one set of contracts without EPPs that were due to expire in June 2018.
The Governor's proposed budget increases school aid by $769 million, but the state should reform the Foundation Aid formula to better target high-need districts rather than capping expense-based aids like transportation. By reallocating funds from these capped categories into a revised Foundation Aid formula, the state could better ensure resources are directed toward the highest priority needs.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
Instead of limiting growth in the largest components of expense-based aids, the State should distribute those funds through a revised Foundation Aid formula to encourage districts to allocate funds to the highest priority needs, including transportation aid.
The State should reform the Foundation Aid formula to ensure the highest needs districts are properly funded without unnecessarily sending aid to the wealthiest districts, which would allow education aid to abide by the growth cap while ensuring adequate transportation resources.
The State should reform the formula to address the flaws that distort the total distribution of $17.5 billion in Foundation Aid, which impacts the distribution of expense-based aids like transportation.
Key Data
$132 million
— Potential savings in school year 2018-2019 if the 2 percent growth limit on BOCES and <b>transportation aids</b> were imposed.
2 percent
— The growth limit imposed on BOCES and <b>transportation aids</b> beginning in school year 2019-2020.
The School Bus Grant Program, which provides supplemental funding to bus companies beyond their competitively bid contracts, undermines the city's contracting integrity and increases costs for taxpayers. The City Council should terminate this program and adhere to the terms of contracts that were fairly and competitively awarded.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The City Council should defund the School Bus Grant Program in the upcoming budget negotiations.
The city should abide by contracts that it has fairly and competitively awarded.
The City Council should now step in, on behalf of taxpayers, and step on the brakes to bring the School Bus Grant Program to a stop.
If one administration does not like the contracts awarded by another, it should seek to renegotiate them at the appropriate time.
Key Data
$1 Billion
— Annual cost of school-bus transportation contracts prior to the 2012 re-bidding process.
$400 Million
— Savings achieved by the city through the 2012 re-bidding of school-bus transportation contracts.
$30 Million
— Projected cost of the School Bus Grant Program for its third year of operation.
New York City's $1.4 billion pupil transportation system faces increased costs due to proposed legislation that would mandate expensive contract requirements and limit competitive bidding. This bill would replace the Consumer Price Index with the faster-growing Employment Cost Index for contract adjustments and restore costly employee retention preferences, threatening savings that previously reached $400 million over five years.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
Governor Cuomo should veto A8019C/S5984-C, a bill that imposes costly restrictions on the procurement of school bus contracts in New York City.
The flexibility to negotiate contracts and to provide savings for future taxpayers must be preserved.
This costly and ill-advised bill regarding school bus procurement should be rejected.
Key Data
$1.4 billion
— Annual expense of pupil transportation in New York City.
$400 million
— Savings achieved over five years by opening school bus contracts to competition.
8.1 percent
— Growth in the Employment Cost Index (ECI) between the end of 2011 and 2015.
4.7 percent
— Growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) between the end of 2011 and 2015.
This school year New York State will spend $23.5 billion on aid to school districts, accounting for 25 percent of the state-funded operating budget. The State’s role in K-12 public education is critical to offsetting disparities in local wealth and student need, yet numerous problems remain in the state school…
The fiscal year 2016 state budget increased annual formula-based school aid by $1.3 billion to $23.1 billion, despite exceeding the statutory growth cap for the third consecutive year. This funding increase disproportionately benefits wealthier districts through Gap Elimination Adjustment restorations and expense-based reimbursement formulas, while failing to address systemic issues like hold harmless provisions and inefficient transportation and construction aid.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The Legislature should address fundamental issues with the aid formulas, such as generous reimbursements for school transportation and construction expenses that misdirect aid.
Proposed legislation to provide grants for higher wages and benefits to school transportation employees would undermine the integrity of the city's competitive bidding process. These payments would require reducing funding for other municipal services, as the savings from current bus contracts have already been allocated elsewhere.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The City Council should reject proposed legislation that would provide grants to pay higher wages and benefits to certain school transportation service employees than those required by the City's contracts with the private bus companies that employ them.
The 2014-15 Executive Budget proposes increasing total education aid to $21.9 billion, with a significant portion of the growth allocated to expense-based formulas including pupil transportation and capital construction. Transportation and building aid represent the most substantial categories of this expense-based funding, accounting for $4.6 billion or 21 percent of the total proposed aid.
Key Data
$4.6 billion
— The amount of total proposed aid in school year 2014-15 comprised by transportation and building aid.
21 percent
— The share of total proposed aid in school year 2014-15 comprised by transportation and building aid.
$206 million
— The amount of the $280 million increase in expense-based and categorical aid accounted for by transportation and building aid.
New York State should reform expense-based aid formulas that reimburse school districts for expenditures like pupil transportation to eliminate inequitable and inefficient outcomes. These reforms are necessary to ensure that state funding is distributed more effectively rather than perpetuating existing disparities.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
The State should implement reforms to expense-based aids that reimburse districts for expenditures such as pupil transportation to address inequitable and inefficient outcomes.
New York's pupil transportation costs are significantly higher than the national average, driven by flawed state aid formulas that lack incentives for cost containment and disproportionately benefit wealthy districts. Reforming these formulas to simplify aid distribution and lower overall reimbursement rates could improve efficiency and allow funds to be redirected toward other educational needs.
Recommendations related to Pupil Transportation
New York should simplify its current formulas to improve targeting.
One formula should be applied to all districts, based upon or equal to the foundation aid ratio.
The state should lower the overall reimbursement rate and eliminate the minimum reimbursement for the wealthiest districts.
The state should bring down reimbursement rates by a targeted number of percentage points to create a greater incentive to reduce costs.
Transportation aid for the wealthiest districts, which averages about $200 per pupil, could be entirely eliminated.
Key Data
$2.97 billion
— Annual cost of pupil transportation in New York State.
$1,100
— Average amount spent per pupil on transportation in New York in 2010.
140%
— Amount by which New York's per pupil transportation spending exceeds the U.S. average of $459.
5.7%
— Portion of total school spending consumed by pupil transportation in 2010.
$1.62 billion
— Amount of state aid provided for pupil transportation.
54%
— Percentage of pupil transportation costs funded by state aid.
New York school districts spend an average of $1,100 per pupil on transportation, which is 140% higher than the national average of $459. This high spending is driven by poorly designed state aid formulas that allow districts to choose the most favorable funding option and provide excessive 90% reimbursement rates that discourage cost containment.
Key Data
$1,100
— Average per pupil transportation spending in New York school districts in 2010.
140%
— Amount by which New York's per pupil transportation spending exceeds the U.S. average of $459.
90%
— Cost-based reimbursement rate for many school districts in New York.
188
— Number of school districts out of 676 receiving transportation aid at the maximum 90% reimbursement rate.
6.5%
— Minimum aid ratio for the wealthiest school districts in New York.
495
— Number of school districts receiving more than half of their transportation costs reimbursed.
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