Routing a Re-Open: School Opening Scenarios and their Impact on Student Transportation

After speaking with over 70 School Bus Drivers, Transportation Directors, and k-12 School Administrators across the country over the past 3 months, I compiled an outline of the top 7 school re-open scenarios and their respective impact on student transportation.

1) eLearning: learning 100% online

• Deliver instructional material (homework/books, devices, and internet hotspots).
• Meal delivery by either 1) transporting meals to delivery sites or 2) deliver food directly to students.
• Support ad hoc routing with technology (routing & parent communication app), as explained by Don, Transportation Supervisor at Washington Township Schools:

“Since these routes needed to be set up quickly, the staff uploaded my spreadsheet of stops and had the routes built in a very short period. The program is very easy to use, and the live GPS location of the vehicle is an added benefit. I would highly recommend using routing technology to anyone who needs a quick and easy solution to put together routes for lunch delivery, or any other student transportation delivery purpose.”

Stop ETAs, live speed, and real-time bus location at your fingertips

2) Hybrid (Double Sessions): school in the morning for X students and afternoon for Y students

• Double the number of bus routes to transport students in the AM & PM.
• Ensure there is no overlap between both groups of students and sanitize buses before and after each run.
• Check bus capacity against individual classroom capacity throughout the entire routing process to ensure social distancing measures are achieved for both sessions.

3) Hybrid (Staggered Days): students attend school on alternate days

• Buses will need to be sanitized before and after each day.
• Parent bus tracking apps can provide peace of mind with non-routine bus schedules:

Track the live location of your bus with BusRight 🚌

4) Physical & Online education dictated by grade level: eLearning for High School students, in-school for others.

• The high school classrooms/buildings would be available to decrease classroom density to facilitate social distancing. For example, transporting middle school students to the high school and splitting the elementary students between the elementary and middle schools.
• Buses need to be properly sanitized before and after each run.
• Transportation would be necessary to deliver instructional material, hotspots, and meals to high school students.

5) Physical & Online education dictated by specific needs of students: in school learning for special needs students

• School buses can be used to transport students who are e-learning to libraries and other community centers.
• Special needs students will need to be transported between the school and neighborhood education sites.
• The same buses would need to be used for the same group of students each day, should they be transported to different educational sites.

6) Hybrid (eLearning & in person at neighborhood schools): sites re-purposed as neighborhood schools configured for social distancing

• Increase in the number of start and end locations factored into routing as more school sites open.
• Students who meet the set criteria will need to be moved to the neighborhood education sites.
• School start times would need to reflect the many tiers of busing caused by increasing education sites as some students would arrive earlier to their site than others.

7) Phased re-opening: begin with eLearning → return to “normal”

• Have student transportation options readily available to customize routing tables based on fluctuations in social distancing measures.
• Transportation budgets would need to be flexible in order to support on-demand fleet decision making.
• Vehicle assets and facilities need to be properly sanitized.
• Increase driver confidence by communicating route changes through live navigation:

Turn by turn navigation, customized for school buses

Takeaways from conversations with student transportation leaders:

• Demand for bus ridership may drastically change. In order to route a successful reopen, it’s important to know who’ll be riding the bus. If it’s helpful, check out this Ridership Form you can send to your community.
• General education buses will be impacted by cost issues based on capacity limits.
• On average, a general education school bus can hold a nationwide average of 72 passengers, (as low as 54 passengers in NJ and up to 90 passengers on the west coast), however, when implementing distancing measures only 9–13 students can ride the bus at one time causing buses to operate at a 15% capacity. However, this number can increase if siblings ride the same bus.
• On average a special needs school bus can hold up to 30 passengers, depending on their special needs, however, when implementing distancing measures, only 5–7 students can ride the bus at one time.
• COVID’s impact on the economy will likely increase the number of McKinney-Vento students eligible for transportation. Some schools are compensating parents for driving their students if they fit this criteria.
• Create a plan to support immunocompromised children who may need a transportation solution where they’re not exposed to other children.

Since the onset of the pandemic, student transportation professionals across the country have come together to route a re-open. Join our community of school bus thought leaders here, or reach out to me at (keith@busright.com) if you’re interested in talking about all things student transportation.