Imagine you’ve just moved into the Arizona State Capitol – great bones, but it’s a bit of a fixer-upper.

You need to find a school for your 7^th grader. Within a mile-and-a-half, there are 5 middle schools. But inside 3 miles, your options expand to 19 public schools – many with high ratings and strong reviews.

Just one problem: like thousands of Phoenix families, you don’t have a car – meaning your child is effectively limited to the single middle school served by the school bus route. So much for school choice.

Gov. Ducey and legislators began that process this year with approval of a $20 million competitive grant program. The pilot will enable district and charter schools, local governments and non-profit groups to submit innovative proposals for student transport.

The fact is, more than half of K-8 students in metro Phoenix attend a school other than the one assigned to them according to their address. A growing number of families are taking advantage of a broad menu of school options, including district, charter, online, micro-schools and more. Yet, until now, Arizona’s K-12 transport system – and the funding that supports it – has remained yoked to the increasingly outdated model of diesel-belching yellow school buses we all remember from our childhood.

Today, nearly 2 out of 3 students nationally travel to school each day in a household vehicle, walk or ride a bike;. The trend long preceded the pandemic, but has accelerated in the past two years amid a widespread bus driver shortage that has sent schools scrambling and led to canceled routes and frustrated families.

Just like there is no single style of school that meets the needs of all students, Arizona requires a multifaceted approach to student transport. The first round of, with awardees proposing everything from on-demand micro-transit solutions like vans, to app-based carpooling, rideshare and more. Midtown Primary School in central Phoenix will even use grant funds to create what it calls a “walking school bus,” which will involve use of staff members, adults and walking ropes to help young students safely walk to and from school and navigate busy intersections.

Another common sense solution involves realigning municipal bus routes and bus stops so that they can be more useful to students. A Minneapolis program to give monthly bus passes to high-school students resulted in reduced truancy and improved GPAs. Surveyed students said the added flexibility of the municipal system helped them both get to school and participate in afterschool activities. Arizona schools have the opportunity to partner with local governments and non-profits to create similar cooperative efforts.

During the past legislative session, South Phoenix parent Alysia Garcia told lawmakers that – as an open enrollment transfer family for the last decade – her family has solely borne the expense of taking her kids to and from school every day. That’s 5,600 trips totaling over 62,000 miles.

“What is the point of having a great open enrollment policy if families aren’t able to utilize it?” Garcia asked. “I’m fortunate to have a vehicle to transport my kids. What about the kids who don’t have vehicles?”

She’s right. Arizona families already pay taxes to support a wide array of public school options. They deserve a modern student transport system designed with this flexibility in mind to help their kids get to and from these schools safely.

Matthew Ladner is the Director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity

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The Arizona Board of Regents made history last week when it released the and, for the first time, included disaggregated data for students with  disabilities. 

The invaluable report informs the state about the postsecondary enrollment and completion of  Arizona’s high school graduates. Previous versions of the annual report have disaggregated data  by gender, race and ethnicity. Now students with disabilities will also benefit from the report.  

A Disheartening First Look  

The numbers from the report, detailed below, are initially stunning and disheartening: students  with disabilities are far behind their peers. This is especially troubling considering that most  students receiving special education services should be achieving on par with their peers if they  receive the services and support to which they are entitled. In Arizona, nearly 65% of students with disabilities come from three categories of disabilities  that are considered to be mild in nature such as dyslexia, speech impairment or attention  deficit disorder. Indeed only 5% of Arizona students with disabilities have an intellectual  disability as their primary diagnosis. Nationwide, it has been estimated that 80-85% of students  with disabilities could achieve at similar levels as their peers if given the necessary services,  supports and accommodations. 

Key Findings

Achieve60AZ 

In 2016, Arizona adopted the goal that 60% of adults ages 25-64 would hold a professional  certificate or college degree by 2030. Achieve60AZ has sparked numerous conversations and 

initiatives to increase postsecondary attainment, but—until now—there has never been a focus  on our students with disabilities even though they comprise approximately 13% of the state’s K 12 population. 

The 2021 Postsecondary Attainment Report dataset allows Arizona to add students with  disabilities to the state’s strategic plans. While the initial data may be discouraging, it gives us  an important baseline to begin developing solutions, setting goals and measuring progress so  we can include students with disabilities in Achieve60AZ efforts. 

Recommendations  

Now that we are armed with this new data, there are some ways the state can act to improve  postsecondary attainment of our students with disabilities: 

1. Include this new data into the Arizona Progress Meter. Currently the Post-High School  Enrollment and Attainment metrics do not have disaggregated data for students with  disabilities. Further, let’s ensure that goals and metrics for students with disabilities are  included in the Board of Regents’ Strategic Plan. 

2. Create a statewide college access program for students with disabilities. College access  programs are traditionally non-profit organizations that work to expand college access  and success for students from low-income and minority communities. They provide  services such as application completion, financial counseling, career guidance and  tutoring. The same concept is needed to improve postschool outcomes for students  with disabilities, and the state could use federal funds to seed a program formation. 

3. Launch a dedicated scholarship fund for students with disabilities. These scholarship can be used at Arizona public or private universities, community colleges or technical  schools to help students with disabilities cover the costs of the additional, yet essential,  services and support they need. 

4. Appropriate line-item support for universities and community colleges to improve and  augment support for students with disabilities. The state already provides additional  support for students with disabilities at the K-12 level. Yet, basic services are typically  provided by a Disability Resource Center on campus and costs are assumed by the  college. Additional services provided are typically fee-based (e.g. the SALT Center at the  University of Arizona). 

5. Become the first state to pass the RISE Act. Federal legislation has been introduced to  address some of the obstacles K-12 students with disabilities face matriculating to  college. In particular, the proposed legislation states that the same documentation required to demonstrate a student had a disability in K-12 will suffice in higher  education. But Arizona doesn’t have to wait for the federal government; we can be the  first state to break down these barriers. 

I am extremely grateful to the Arizona Board of Regents for their commitment to  equity. Together we can improve outcomes for our students with disabilities and  simultaneously help Arizona to Achieve60!

Karla Phillips-Krivickas is the Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy for KnowledgeWorks. She has over 20 years of national and state education policy experience in legislative, executive and non-profit leadership roles. As a mother of a child with a disability, Karla is channeling her experience and opportunities to passionately advocate for students with disabilities. She’s on Twitter at @azkarla. 

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