Transportation - Is First Student Really the Only Answer?

Seattle Public Schools contracts with a company named First Student to provide most of the transportation for SPS students. (There is some private contracting done for certain Special Education students as well as some homeless students.)

However, First Student has a fairly poor track record with SPS as well as with other districts. Recent events makes this even a more serious issue. 

From The Seattle Times:(bold mine)

The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission announced a $198,000 settlement Tuesday with First Student, the school-bus contracting giant that has racked up hundreds of safety and procedural violations in the past two years, according to state regulators.

The company admits to 396 safety violations, which include repeated failures to screen drivers for drugs and alcohol, clearing employees to drive before they’d even completed an application for employment or had their driving records reviewed, and providing false information on driver records.

The company, which transports kids in Seattle, Tacoma and other school districts, could end up paying just a fraction of the $396,000 in penalty fines— the maximum penalty — that the commission’s staff had originally sought from the firm in February.

To note:

The commission only regulates the company’s charter school-bus services, including transportation to games, field trips and extracurricular activities — not daily transportation to and from school. However, in some places such as Seattle, First Student uses the same drivers for charters and daily bus service.

Just after the violations were announced in February, Seattle Public Schools abruptly ended negotiations with First Student for a new school-bus contract. The district has since restarted the bidding process, and the company is still vying for a new contract.

It is now getting fairly late in the school year to still be deciding on a vendor. The choice appears to be between First Student and Zum, the only two vendors who applied via the RFP. The district may make its decision as soon as the end of this week or early next week. (Looking at Zum's website, they say SPS is a customer. Hmm.)

What is even more troubling about First Student is that it isn't just Washington State where violations have been found.  There have been issues in San Francisco - fewer violations but a $11.2M settlement. 

I know you might be asking - why can't SPS just have their own fleet and their own drivers? In short, it's a headache and cost they don't want to deal with even as they clearly have a vendor who appears to be willing to make shortcuts on student safety. 

Stay tuned.