School board signs off on transportation safety net for APS students most in need

One of the greatest barriers facing students in New Mexico — especially the homeless or those in foster care — is transportation.

But when all else fails, Albuquerque Public Schools now has a safety net.

On Wednesday, the APS school board unanimously signed off on a four-year, $1.2 million contract with Cincinnati-based transportation company First Student to provide alternative transportation to those groups of students when they have no other recourse.

“A foster family — they may have more than one foster child, even. And they have to get them to school on time, … to get all of their kids out the door. They work, and so it is a barrier,” Student, Family and Community Supports Executive Director Kristine Meurer said. “For kids that are experiencing homelessness, it’s the same thing. The parents may not even have transportation.”

“So how do we transport that child?” she added. “This is the first time we’ve been able to do that.”

The transportation services, which district officials said are new to APS, will help an estimated 30 or more students get to school who don’t have other ways to get there.

To be clear, the contract with First Student is meant as a last resort to make sure students get to school, and the 30-plus estimate of students includes those APS believes have no other alternative. Before it resorts to the cars, minivans and other vehicles used by the company’s drivers, APS will first try to arrange transportation with its own bus system or by working with families to get students to a bus stop closer to them.

Nevertheless, Meurer said the contract will provide an important service the district didn’t have before, and may ultimately help keep students in the district.

“When kids bounce from school to school — by the third time they bounce, we’ve lost them. And we don’t want to lose children, and so we want to keep them in their school of origin,” she said. “That’s where their friends are, that’s where their teachers are, that’s where they know people. And so that’s the one thing that we want to keep stable.”

The contract will cost APS $300,000 per year, for a total of $1.2 million. Each trip carries a $65 minimum fee, and drivers accrue $2.50 per mile after the first seven. The district is using assorted federal funding sources to pay for the contract.

First Student was not available for comment in time for publication.