The state Senate on Thursday passed a bill to modernize K-12 student transportation and give educational providers greater flexibility in the vehicles in their fleets.

Currently, certain classes of vehicles owned by public schools are unable to be used for regularly scheduled transportation. SB 1630, sponsored by Sen. Sine Kerr, R-Buckeye, authorizes school districts, charter schools, and contracted private entities to use motor vehicles designed to carry fewer than 16 passengers to transport students to or from school on a regularly scheduled basis. 

“As Arizona continues to strive to be a leader in modernizing K-12 transportation, this bill allows another opportunity to expand on the modernization and flexibility that our districts need,” Kerr said last month.

Under the legislation, the Department of Public Safety would be authorized to prescribe safety standards for vehicles designed to carry 11-15 passengers. Schools would be permitted to use these vehicles, currently only used for limited school-related activities, for regularly scheduled pick-up and drop-off to and from school. 

Also, the Transportation Advisory Council would be renamed the Student Transportation Advisory Council, and the council’s size would be increased from 9 to 13 members. The bill was amended to ensure one of the advisory board members would be chosen based upon their expertise in electric vehicle transportation

In an attempt to address the of school bus drivers, the bill changes the law to no longer require commercial driver licenses for those who would operate the school-owned vehicles designed to carry fewer than 16 people. 

“Right now, we have a school bus driver shortage, as people train and get the certifications necessary to drive a school bus, they are often hired off to the mines or large companies like FedEx and Amazon who pay them more,” said Mathew Simon, vice president of government affairs and advocacy for , during a committee hearing on the bill. “Not requiring a CDL for 11-15 person buses will allow more flexibility and use of vehicles.”

Dianna Diaz Harrison the director of Arizona Autism Charter schools, a charter focused on education for students with autism, testified in committee that “Our student’s zip codes span all over the county and it makes it hard to launch a transportation program that can help them. We need a micro-transit system that can shuttle students to our central Phoenix and West Valley locations.”

Simon says his organization is focused on creating transportation options to help students and families reach the education providers that best fits their needs.

“The challenge we see is the lack of flexibility in our transportation rules,” he said. “As new vehicles and safety features come online, this will allow them to have the regulatory flexibility to amend rules rather than to have to come back to the Legislature.”

The bill, which passed 17-10, now heads to the House of Representatives.

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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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