A Connecticut-based school bus company awarded an expanded contract to provide transportation for Rhode Island students is apologizing for service disruptions that left families scrambling to get their children to and from school in the first couple weeks of school.

Service disruptions attributed to a shortage of drivers led the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) to issue a corrective action plan last Friday to DATTCO Motorcoach, the company awarded a three-year, $20 million statewide bus contract in May. The contract expanded DATTCO’s existing service area to span most of the state, from Westerly to Woonsocket, and the majority of the state’s urban core.

It was unclear how many children were stranded without bus service, but they included children with disabilities who were not picked up for school or whose families were called to come get them in the afternoon because bus service became unavailable. The problems drew fierce condemnation on Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Rhode Island and Rhode Island Center for Justice. The advocacy organizations demanded in a that RIDE correct the issues by Tuesday, sooner than the deadline of 10 days RIDE set in its to DATTCO on Sept. 6.

“DATTCO has left multiple students in wheelchairs for hours at their schools,” Lisa Odom-Villella, deputy commissioner for instructional programs at RIDE, wrote in the Sept. 6 letter outlining a corrective action plan.

Families of kids who were left without school bus transportation may seek compensation for any resulting travel costs, according to state education officials. Parents of affected children have been contacted about the reimbursement process.

“We are deeply sorry to any students or families who were or continue to be affected by the challenges that we faced last week as the school year began,” Paul Mayer, a spokesperson for DATTCO, wrote in an email Wednesday to Rhode Island Current.

Mayer said the vast majority of routes DATTCO services in Rhode Island are running as scheduled, and noted the company’s otherwise successful track record in recent years. 

“We know that it is not acceptable and that our apology must be followed up by action, and to that end we have already made significant progress with each passing day as routes become staffed with permanent drivers and aides.

“Though many of the immediate concerns raised have already been rectified or are in the process of being corrected, we know that our work is not done.”

Morente said two routes would be affected on Thursday afternoon and that parents had already been contacted.

“DATTCO has reported that all morning routes now have drivers, but one route did not run because a driver was out sick,” Morente wrote in an email Monday. “The vast majority of students have not been impacted and DATTCO has sought ways to increase coverage.”

After state officials first became aware of service problems on Aug. 29, they reassigned 26 of approximately 300 bus routes to First Student, which already services parts of Providence and Bristol counties for RIDE’s statewide bussing system. DATTCO admitted they had no way of fully staffing the routes.

“RIDE was under the impression that all the remaining Dattco routes would be covered the week of September 3,” Morente said. But it was clear that was untrue on the first day of school in Providence (school districts start at different times). RIDE became aware DATTCO was having individual drivers do multiple runs, which can slow and complicate service. RIDE took five more routes and awarded them to First Student, who had enough properly licensed drivers.

First Student, a national bussing company based in Cincinnati, will keep the 31 routes for the remainder of the three-year contract, Morente said. The routes run from the East Bay up to Woonsocket.

First Student did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

In May, state officials awarded most of their rezoned transportation districts to DATTCO after a competitive bid process — a move which drew union anger, , as Dattco is mostly non-union compared to First Student.

The ACLU and Rhode Island Center for Justice called on RIDE to immediately fix the problem and develop an alternative plan as a backup should DATTCO fail to provide necessary services again.

“RIDE maintains responsibility for ensuring that students get the transportation required by their IEPs [individualized education programs, which are for students who receive special education] as of Sept. 3, 2024,” the letter stated.

Looking for drivers

Anthony F. Cottone, RIDE’s chief legal counsel, responded to the ACLU letter Tuesday, saying there was “no reason to believe that DATTCO was not capable of performing its contract … at the outset of the 2024-2025 school year,” given that the company had already been providing bus services in parts of Rhode Island since 2020.

DATTCO that there was a licensing issue with its drivers, many of whom are based in Connecticut and lack the proper credentials to drive a school bus in Rhode Island. After news of the bus route issues broke, DATTCO posted to its Facebook page on that it was looking for Rhode Island drivers. A similar notice has been posted on its webpage since at least late August.

“RIDE reached out to other vendors to cover additional routes but there were no more available CDL drivers,” Morente said Tuesday.

Cottone’s letter pointed out that DATTCO’s logistical errors were due in part to sloppy planning: On Sept. 3, the agency received a “transportation plan” from DATTCO which showed over 30 routes would have “double runs,” or one driver serving two routes.

“That would result in children on such routes getting to school an average of 1 hour and 41 minutes late,” Cottone wrote. “It was evident that DATTCO both was short bus drivers and was suffering an internal communications breakdown.”

“RIDE immediately informed DATTCO that it was in breach of its contract…and began brainstorming with the Governor’s Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles about ways to enable licensed Connecticut drivers to operate in Rhode Island,” Cottone’s letter continues. “In fact, DATTCO has since admitted, in writing, that this plan using ‘double runs’ ‘was not suitable.’”

Demands outlined

The ACLU and Rhode Island Center for Justice letter made six demands of RIDE: that the governor issue an emergency executive order, that RIDE’s website post information about affected bus routes the night prior, as well as create an alternate route for each affected route and a dedicated hotline for parents’ phone calls.

The letter urged RIDE to offer compensatory education for any school time missed, as well as travel costs for parents whose kids weren’t able to take the bus. The ACLU specified mileage at the federal rebate rate of 67 cents a mile plus $20 a day for parents who drive, or the cost of any car service used by parents who don’t drive.

Ellen Saideman, cooperating counsel for the ACLU, responded to the RIDE response in an interview Tuesday.

“Basically they said that they’re doing everything that we wanted them to do,” Saideman said. “It does seem like they’ve made some progress. They hired more bus drivers, more routes are covered…I think the point is that there was clearly a problem in this catastrophic start last week.”

Cottone wrote in RIDE’s response Tuesday that eligible parents were notified they could request reimbursements through their resident school district, with the districts later reimbursed by RIDE, although it is unclear if the reimbursements will follow the model the ACLU wanted.

Morente said on Wednesday that all families of affected students had been informed by phone call and email about service delays, as well as information on how to seek reimbursements. Morente also forwarded parents can fill out for reimbursement, and explained the process.

“Districts reimburse parents, Statewide [the RIDE transportation system] credits districts on invoices after collecting the forms, and then payment to the vendor responsible for the interruption for the total month is reduced by the total parent costs,” Morente wrote.

Saideman was still curious why the education department wasn’t more immediately up front about the steps it was taking to correct the problem.

“Why isn’t it posted on their website?” Saideman said about the reimbursements. “I think the point about transparency is… it isn’t that hard to update your website and post information.”

McKee’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on and .

When Mountain View Elementary on Hawaii Island began classes Monday, Aug. 5, Sherrie Galdeira was on the road with her son by 6:15 a.m. The Hawaii Department of Education had canceled school bus services for thousands of students just days before, and Galdeira was worried about fighting traffic with other parents who needed to drop off their children before the workday began. 

By that Friday, Galdeira was exhausted and frustrated with the time and costs of taking her son to school. DOE offers mileage reimbursement for families driving to campus, but completing the paperwork wasn’t worth the small amount of money she’d receive in exchange, Galdeira said. 

To save on gas money, Galdeira kept her son home from school that day.

“My whole concern is, number one, effective communication from the DOE and the government,” Galdeira said. “They have to have known that this was coming.” 

DOE restored bus routes for 23 schools, including Mountain View, on Monday, but 113 routes remain canceled for students on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui. This marks the  that DOE has made last-minute cancellations to its bus services for nearly 30,000 students. 

Frustrated families and lawmakers are now demanding accountability from DOE and its contractor, Ground Transport Inc., which started the year unable to fill 147 of its routes. Ground Transport received the bulk of DOE’s bus contracts earlier this year and serves 10 of the 16 school complexes.

So far, the company has been able to restore five of its routes since the start of the school year. Ground Transport did not respond to requests for comment. 

DOE has consolidated and canceled routes dating , and driver shortages have only worsened since the pandemic. Some lawmakers and others say Hawaii should reconsider the way it contracts out to bus companies – or if schools should be relying on private vendors at all. 

“That’s the first hurdle in learning,” Rep. Amy Perruso said about the canceled routes. Perruso has previously  that would allow DOE to own its own buses and provide transportation services to students.   

DOE doesn’t have a timeline for restoring all of its routes, although Deputy Superintendent Randy Moore hopes all students will have access to bus transportation by the time the first quarter ends in early October. 

Fewer Companies, Fewer Drivers 

When DOE began a new round of bus contracts in July, the  went to two companies – Roberts Hawaii and Ground Transport. A third company received routes for a single complex on Kauai. 

Now, families and community members are questioning DOE’s decision to give Ground Transport so much responsibility for serving Hawaii schools. According to , Ground Transport took on 91 new schools and expanded its services to the Big Island for the first time this year. 

Changes to the state’s contracting process, along with a steady decline in bus drivers, may explain DOE’s difficulties. 

Around 2014, DOE revised its contracting process to drive down  and make bus routes more efficient, said Ray L’Heureux, who served as an assistant superintendent from 2012 to 2015. Instead of allowing bus companies to serve individual campuses, DOE asked vendors to bid on packages that grouped together multiple routes and schools. 

The change required owners to serve more students and neighborhoods for several years at a time and made it harder for smaller companies to compete with statewide providers, who had huge fleets and hundreds of employees, said Cassie Akina-Ancog, general manager of Akina Tours & Transportation on Maui. Akina lost its bid to serve Maui schools in 2017 and hasn’t contracted with DOE since. 

As smaller bus companies are pushed out of business, states may see a decline in their driver workforce, said Curt Macysyn, executive director of the National School Transportation Association. Long-time drivers may be unwilling to stay in the school bus business after their local company closes, he added. 

It’s also difficult for small providers to survive when there’s so few drivers available in the state, said John Scovel, who formerly served as the general manager of Iosepa Transportation. A wave of workers retired during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s difficult for new employees to earn their specialized bus driver licenses and survive on jobs that only offer them a few hours of pay in the early mornings and afternoons, Scovel said. 

“It’s a struggle because the cost versus the profit margin isn’t there,” Scovel said. Iosepa Transportation served Big Island schools until DOE chose not to extend its contract earlier this year. 

What Happened? 

DOE knew well before the start of school that Ground Transport was coming up short on employees. Companies need to submit a roster of their drivers 45 days before the new school year begins and complete a dry run of their routes over a week before classes start. 

Moore said the department followed these procedures but believed Ground Transport would be able to hire more employees by the end of summer vacation. He said he wasn’t notified until late July that Ground Transport would be unable to fulfill more than 100 of its routes beginning Aug. 5. 

To fill the gaps, Roberts Hawaii has entered into weekly contracts with DOE to restore nearly 30 routes that were originally assigned to Ground Transport. Moore said he’s unsure how much the department is paying Roberts for these services, but emphasized that Ground Transport is not receiving payment for the routes it isn’t covering.

Instead, he said, the unused money is going toward other transportation initiatives, like reimbursing parents for mileage or covering the cost of county bus passes for high school students. 

Lawmakers have questioned why Ground Transport should keep its seven-year contract moving forward. The state will spend $85 million on school bus contracts for the 2024-25 academic year.  

Up until this year, Roberts Hawaii covered some of the routes on Big Island, Oahu and Maui that Ground Transport is currently unable to serve, said JoAnn Erban, Roberts’ vice president of sales and marketing. The company has sufficient bus drivers and would be willing to take on more routes for the rest of the school year, Erban said.

When lawmakers pressed school leaders at a hearing Thursday on why they awarded so many contracts to Ground Transport earlier this year, Moore said DOE doesn’t necessarily award routes to the contractor with the lowest prices. Instead, the department places a heavy emphasis on other factors like a company’s safety procedures, its future plans to use zero-emission buses and its efforts to recruit and retain drivers.

But Erban said she believes DOE needs to place a greater consideration on a company’s track record of serving students. Roberts consistently covered 94% of its routes last year, she said, and has school buses and base yards throughout the state.  

“At the end of the day, it’s up to them to make the changes,” Erban said about DOE’s approach to contracts. 

Solutions On The Horizon 

Moore told legislators the department’s focus is on restoring routes as quickly as possible. From there, he said, school leaders will start looking at future improvements.

For example, Moore said, DOE is considering staggering school start times so fewer drivers can cover more routes before classes start. Additionally, the department could potentially hire drivers as part-time cafeteria workers or custodians during the school day to provide them more steady employment, he said. 

Perruso said the state could also look beyond private services for possible long-term answers. 

On the mainland, some school districts have their own fleet of vehicles and run their own bus services. If Hawaii took a similar approach, Perruso said, DOE wouldn’t face the uncertainty of relying on outside contractors. It would also be easier for the department to hire employees who could split their time driving buses and working on campus, although the state could face a large upfront cost in purchasing its own school buses.  

“We definitely need to be thinking about transition, because the status quo isn’t working,” Perruso said.

This was originally published on .

In December, a mom on Long Island, New York, watched her young daughter get onto a school bus, then had to when a car came speeding past on the shoulder. That same month in Minnesota, a child leaving his school bus had to by a pickup truck.

Drivers nationwide continue to barrel illegally past stopped school buses, endangering children and caregivers — and sometimes worse. But some states have found it hard to enforce relatively new laws allowing on-board bus camera systems that record the violations.

Recent deaths during school bus stops include those of a and in separate Texas crashes last year and of a high school student in in 2022. They highlight continued careless driving around school buses despite flashing stop signs and obvious camera lenses. The recklessness may be part of of more aggressive driving noted by authorities that has caused more traffic deaths despite fewer miles driven overall since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A of school bus drivers last year, conducted by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, 242,000 vehicles illegally passed school buses in a single day. That was up from the 232,000 for 2019. That year, passed laws to allow automatic camera surveillance to catch suspected violators.

Almost half of states have such laws now. and considered, but didn’t pass, similar legislation last year. A school bus camera program in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was  last year amid debates in the state legislature over the size of fines and their impact on low-income communities.

But there are several reasons why enforcement might not have been as effective as intended.

Some safety authorities object to new camera laws that reduced fines and excluded license points and other more punitive actions allowed when the same violations are caught in person by law enforcement. Legislatures may have softened school bus penalties to gain consensus among skeptical lawmakers, authorities say.

Some states also are struggling with the limitations of cameras when it comes to enforcing laws requiring evidence police officers can see in person but cameras might not catch. The cameras might not show school bus markings mentioned in the law or whether students are actively getting on or off buses. Another technical issue: School bus cameras have flagged cars on different streets or in lanes separated by medians, where they’re not legally required to stop.

How it works

Typically, the automatic cameras are engaged when a bus driver turns on a flashing stop sign, triggering a computer program that detects violations and sends them to reviewers to check before mailing a violation notice. But the cameras can’t capture everything.

On New York’s Long Island, a state appeals court a $250 ticket in November, saying evidence from bus cameras isn’t enough to prove a violation. Judges on the court said the camera did not establish that the school bus had correct markings or that it was actively picking up or dropping off passengers at the time of the ticket. That decision could endanger $25 million in annual fines from one county alone if other tickets are struck down.

In Pittsburgh, a district court judge told Stateline he dismisses most cases based on school bus cameras for insufficient evidence from the cameras.

Judge James Motznik said he also objects to the way Pennsylvania’s law, like most state laws allowing automatic camera evidence to identify bus-passing violations, undermines a traffic law that’s more punitive. The camera violations are issued as “civil complaints” with a lower fine and no loss of license points as required by the original traffic law against passing a stopped school bus.

“It was sold as a deterrent to enhance public safety,” Motznik said. “But it’s actually less of a deterrent. If a police officer witnessed this, there’d be a $500 fine, a license suspension, points toward losing your license. A camera sees the same thing, it’s $300 and goodbye.”

State legislatures sometimes have used less-punitive fines, without license points or suspensions, as a bargaining chip to reach agreement on camera enforcement such as school bus cameras, said Russ Martin, senior director of policy and government relations for the Governors Highway Safety Association.

“The thought was like, ‘We can make this more accepted by the public.’” Martin said. “But there’s another side to it. In some ways the points are more important than the fines for the worst violators — it means you can’t just pay your way out.”

Pennsylvania’s law on school bus cameras was updated last year partly to allow a lower-cost way for motorists to contest tickets, using a state hearing officer in a free process instead of a court that requires filing fees, said Jennifer Kuntch, a spokesperson for the state transportation department. Pittsburgh schools recorded more than 9,000 violations since the bus camera program began in July, the district  last month.

The appeals court ruling was vexing for local governments, said Paul Sabatino, an attorney and former Suffolk County legislative counsel. Cameras are a necessary part of enforcing the law against passing stopped school buses, he said.

“You can’t allow people to endanger children like that, and you can’t call out the National Guard to watch every school bus at every stop,” Sabatino said.

Many school districts use contractors such as Virginia-based BusPatrol, which claims 90% of the market for school bus cameras, with some competition from others such as RedSpeed USA and American Bus Video. The companies may include school bus stop-arm cameras within a package of other automated traffic enforcement.

Justin Meyers, president of BusPatrol, said the company already has addressed evidence questions in New York state by adding to its “evidence packets” the school bus markings and maps showing the bus is on an established route. Suffolk County is the company’s biggest customer, and BusPatrol has made a $40 million investment in equipping school buses there, Meyers said in an interview. It also operates in Pittsburgh.

The company uses computer algorithms and artificial intelligence to detect violations, which are then screened for accuracy by a BusPatrol employee before going to local law enforcement for a final decision on whether to issue a violation notice, Meyers said.

Few statistics available

There are few statistics on the extent of deaths and injuries from passing stopped school buses. Pennsylvania reviewed crash records at Stateline’s request and said 12 such crashes occurred in 2022 and 13 in 2021, with one death in each year — one a student, one a parent — and 23 injuries across both years. Those figures include a that killed a 16-year-old high school student in November 2022 as she was trying to board a school bus in York County.

Across the country, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found 53 fatalities, half of them school-age children, between 2000 and 2021 in accidents involving illegal passing of a school bus, according to an analysis requested by Stateline.

In Minnesota, school districts can apply for state funds to install school bus cameras. The Edina school district sought money last year after an “alarming” increase in bus-passing violations reported by bus drivers, along with two injuries to students, according to a The district won $105,000 for cameras, a cost of about $4,000 per bus, and in January reported drivers had been ticketed for 70% of passing violations noticed by bus drivers, up from 5% without cameras.

In one of the Texas fatalities last year, a woman helping her child onto a bus in Upshur County was killed by a vehicle passing the bus, Sgt. Adam Albritton, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety, told Stateline. The crash was reported, a driver was charged with manslaughter, and police are reviewing footage from a video camera on the bus for evidence, Albritton said.

Texas was an early adopter of video cameras to catch school bus passing violations, commissioning a on such cameras. The state did not include school bus cameras in its in 2019. Not all school districts participate, but Austin, Dallas and San Antonio are among those that do.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on and .

A bill that resulted from a student coming within seconds of being struck by an aggressive driver is one step closer to becoming law in Oregon.

A high school student, Sean Sype, saw and reported the incident, prompting Rep. Courtney Neron, D-Wilsonville, to introduce , which would allow school districts to add cameras to school buses to catch and ticket drivers who break state law by blowing past the stop signs and flashing red lights on buses, endangering students’ lives. The measure passed the House on a bipartisan 49-5 vote on Monday and is headed to the Senate.

Sype, a junior at Wilsonville High School, described his experience in submitted to the House Education Committee.

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“I am passionate about this bill passing because on October 15, 2021, I witnessed an aggressive driver speed past the bus stop-arm while one of my peers was exiting the bus,” he said. “If that student had been crossing the road, he would have possibly been killed. It is important that drivers who ignore the law are held accountable.”

At least 24 states, including Idaho and Washington, have laws allowing such cameras, according to the . The National Transportation Safety Board every state allow the cameras after a pickup truck driver struck four children, killing three of them, in Indiana in 2018.

Neron cited a from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, a school bus driver organization, that surveys drivers throughout the country each year. Oregon bus drivers documented 1,427 incidents of drivers illegally passing them on just one day, and throughout the country bus drivers reported more than 62,000 violations in a single day.

Failing to stop for a stopped bus with flashing red lights is already the highest level of traffic violation, punishable by a fine up to $2,000. The bill would allow districts to partner with local law enforcement to send tickets to drivers caught on camera breaking the law.

The bill doesn’t include funding for school districts to add cameras or for local police to review footage and send tickets. Rep. Boomer Wright, R-Coos Bay, supported the measure but said the lack of funding bothered him.

“When we propose a bill that costs school districts and police departments money, maybe we ought to fund it,” Wright said.

Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, was one of only five lawmakers to vote against the measure, and he said he voted “no” for consistency. He has long opposed photo radar programs because he doesn’t trust that data gathered by the cameras when they’re not actively taking pictures of lawbreakers will remain secure.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on and .