Can district transportation fleets accomplish a later school start?
Many school districts are struggling to accommodate the logistical needs of later school starts without impacting their budget. A main problem facing community and students is the difficulty in managing district bus transportation. From a scientific point of view, starting school later is a no-brainer. But from a fiscal perspective, it could be a headache.
At the beginning of the 2017 – 2018 school year, our school district committed to study and formulate a recommendation to successfully develop a plan to accomplish a later school start for our high school students.
A shift would mean the school day would end later, and push extracurriculars, after-school jobs, and homework later into the evening. There were many issues to consider and most solutions involved a fleet size increase at a substantial cost.
Early conversations among school district transportation leaders across the state offered a common theme.
“Kids need to shut down their phones and go to bed earlier.”
Our quest was to do better and after 18 months and a vast number of different scenarios, our dedicated committee proudly announced the recommended 55 minute late start for our high school students.
2019 – 2020 School Start Times
Middle School: 7:50 – 2:40
High School: 8:30 – 3:10
Elementary School: 9:07 – 3:40
For our district a “modified flip” was a good solution that balanced being fiscally responsible with addressing the health, safety and learning potential of our students.
Encountered along the way…
Challenges
From a transportation point of view our team needed specific information to formulate a realistic plan of action. We also came to understand that there is no one fit solution to issues that other districts may be facing. Each unique situation will need to evaluate their circumstances and decide their priorities. The duration of each type of school, the distance between them, the size of the service area, trip lengths and other factors will be the determining factor for the number of available buses.
We realized there were (3) obstacles to overcome.
“Identical Service”
School districts must provide the same level of service for nonpublic school students that they do for public school students. In our situation we were responsible for transportation to over 85 additional educational schools and programs.
Section 1361: if a school district provides transportation for its public school students, it must also make provisions for “identical” transportation of resident nonpublic school students on the days their non-public school is in regular session according to the non-public school’s adopted school calendar, subject to a distance limit of ten miles outside district boundaries.
Traffic
Early during our research we recognized changes in school start and dismissal times would bring challenges. A high school start time of 8:30 AM would concentrate more school buses and parent cars on the roads when most folks are headed to or from work. Traffic around schools at the opening bell and dismissal times would create an issue and noticeably increase congestion around town and nearby roads.
When schools push start times later, parents and guardians who previously transported their children to school may no longer be available. Now they must rely on an already overwhelmed school bus system to get their kids to and from school.
Community
Changing high school start time could have a domino effect and pose a logistical nightmare. Depending on community needs, a delay to high school start times could present transportation issues in several areas. Change will bring resistance from a select number of folks in the community. Starting school later leads to ending school later and that can cut into precious after-school sports time. Changes can upset family schedules and create resistance from parents.
A later dismissal time for teens would pose problems for those who must provide childcare to younger siblings. Students who participate in sports and extra-curricular activities would get home later in the evenings. Teens might stay up even later if they don’t have to wake for school at an earlier time.
Encountered along the way…
Tools for success
“You cannot make progress without making decisions”
-Jim Rohn
Bell times
A key area of transportation services is on-time arrivals at schools and bus stops. Balancing schools on each “tier” would allow routing and resources to be assigned and allow adequate time to arrive at schools. A first priority was to conduct a comprehensive traffic and school bell time study. We needed to gain clear. understanding of how current bell times impact transportation experience to make informed decisions on how to adjust and improve outcomes.
GPS:
GPS (global positioning system), can solve a host of different problems, increase safety and make the bus operation more efficient. With GPS we could track our school buses and see the exact routes the buses follow to determine if the buses are on time and traversing only on their assigned routes
Information about a bus’s current location can be sent from the server through SMS and email notifications. This has many advantages, such as: shorter commute time. more effective routes, and accurate arrival times to schools.
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Transfer Points
While many bus routes are direct, some schools will require the use transfer locations. Students who attend private schools will board assigned public school bus making pickups within district. Depending on best geography transfer locations, several routes meet at assigned time to transfer students.
Providing transfer buses for private school students, is an important service that helps to ensure students can get to their school safely and on time. This type of transportation is necessary to reduce the amount of traffic congestion and help improve the overall safety of the local community. Several transfer points from a geographic area will be used for transportation to multiple schools.
Tier transportation service
Tier transportation can be a great help to provide an option to districts who are looking for a late start. A tier system can help to provide a reliable and consistent schedule. A majority of school district transportation departments in the state of Pa. are already involved with a multiple tier of transportation service. This system of routes might offer a solution to mitigate district transportation costs. Times may need to be adjusted, but a basic system may already be in place.
A multi-tier schedule (MTS) assigns one bus to three or more schools to transport students to and from school. All students from one tier must be transported before those in the next tier are moved. Often called an ABC route, a bus will drop-off and pick up different grade students from a high school, middle and elementary school.
This “tiered transportation service”, becomes possible with the understanding that the length of the school day for each type of school is different. Most elementary schools days are shorter than middle school, which in turn are shorter than high school. The results of staggered start and end times allow each bus to transport students from each tier.
A working example of a three-tier school bus schedule.
First tier: Several early routes can start as early as 5:45AM for upper class students attending vocational and medical programs. Most routes will start 6:15 – 6:45 time frame to get in position to begin middle school, transfers, and private school students. Middle school bus drop off times for this tier average between 7:25 – 7:40.
Second tier: Immediately after dropping middle school students, high school begins pickups. Included are private school, special education students. High school bus drop off times 8:05 – 8:25
Third tier: Elementary pickups begin, special education programs, private and special-needs tier, and those who require additional assistance tailored to their needs. Bus drop off times – 8:50 – 9:03
Transportation expectations:
Drivers / Monitors available 6:15AM – 9:15 AM
Drivers / Monitors available 2:00PM – 4:30 PM
Note – With a full fleet of personnel available at these times, the 6AM or earlier, and 5PM or later routes, will be covered by accommodating folks in the transportation department with an earlier start or end time.
Encountered along the way…
Questions / Thoughts
Communication:
A critical step is to collect data from students, teachers, and parents about their experiences. Include surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gain an understanding of how bell times impact the transportation experience. A final step is to analyze the data collected and adjust routes to accommodate.
Is public transportation an option?
Public transit systems may be available for middle and high school students. Often they are located in business and commercial areas. They could be a wonderful resource for secondary students. Public bus or train systems are similar to yellow bus routes, and can be used by students. Many districts have found they can actually save money by buying students bus passes.
Extend walk zones
Kindergarten through grade eight students are eligible for transportation if they live more than 1.5 miles from school. Grades nine through 12 students are eligible for transportation if they live more than 2 miles from school.
Avoid apartment and cul-de-sac pickups
Can we eliminate stops where a bus may need to detour off main roads to go into a small neighborhood, apartment building or cul-de-sac. Depending on traffic and direction of travel this procedure could add quite a bit of time to a route.
Closing thoughts
The National Sleep Foundation found that almost 90% of high school students in the United States are getting less than the recommended hours of sleep. Later school start times can help adolescents get the sleep they need. When schools investigate time change, there are concerns from parents about sports, bussing, logistics and traffic. The typical result has been that it all works out after a short time. Switching to a later start time can help students, especially teenagers, feel more rested, emotionally stable, and less sleep-deprived so that they maximize their chances of making intelligent decisions.
