School transportation options in New Jersey are limited compared to other states, but voters support changes that would bring the Garden State in line with best practices nationally, according to the result of a new poll released Tuesday.
Conducted in partnership with the New Jersey Friends of Affordable Safe Student Transportation (NJ FASST), of which NJBIA is a member, the poll shows that 63% of voters favor opening up the school transportation system to allow schools to contract more widely for transportation services for homeless or disabled children.
“There’s not really a great case to be made for limiting the options school districts have in transporting students,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the executive director of the FDU Poll. “Some kids have special needs, and voters are OK with giving schools flexibility to address their needs.”
Under current law in New Jersey, all school transportation must be carried out by school bus drivers employed by bus companies or districts, approved school personnel, or parents. This puts the state at odds with most others, where alternative transportation services are commonly used to transport children with disabilities that might make traditional yellow school buses difficult, and homeless children, who may need to be picked up from different addresses during a school year. Currently in New Jersey, bus and van drivers used for these purposes need to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and undergo background checks and monitoring.
Because alternative student transportation primarily serves students with individualized needs, rules in other states have provisions focusing on single-pupil transportation, rather than large groups of students: smaller personal vehicles designed including minivans, sedans, and SUVs that carry eight passengers or fewer.
In states that permit alternative student transportation, drivers still must undergo rigorous background checks, continuous vehicle monitoring, and comply with other safeguards. But, unlike New Jersey, drivers do not need to have CDL since they are not operating the larger vehicles (like buses and semi-trucks) for which such licenses were principally designed.
NJFASST hopes to bring alternative transportation options to New Jersey. The coalition includes parents, educators, nonprofits, small businesses, and taxpayers seeking a legislative fix to allow alternative student transportation. Members include the New Jersey Association of Special Education Partner Schools, Great Schools of New Jersey, NJBIA, and others.
“New Jersey’s students and families deserve transportation options that are safe, reliable, affordable, and adaptable to the realities of today’s school day and workforce schedules which is clearly supported by a majority of New Jersey residents as this poll proves,” said Ocean Township Mayor John P. Napolitani, Sr. “It is vital to advance innovative, practical solutions that improve student access to education while easing burdens on families, school districts, and taxpayers.”
Advocates say that the policy also helps to address the unsustainable costs of New Jersey’s current approach for school districts and taxpayers. At a time where school districts are cutting programs and laying off teachers and staff, student transportation is often one of the largest line items in a school district’s budget.
Deploying a full-size school bus with a CDL-holding driver for a single student on a specialized route costs significantly more than necessary. According to NJ FASST, 41 states have already passed laws that increase flexibility for school districts while at the same time provide for more affordable and safer transportation options.
Overall, 63% of voters in New Jersey support the proposal to allow private drivers to transport homeless and disabled students to school, with 33% opposed. Support is about equal among Republicans (61%) and Democrats (65%).
The biggest gap in attitudes on the proposal is based on the age of the respondent. Younger voters – age 30 and under – are the most supportive (77%), while the oldest cohort – age 65 and over) were less so (51%).
The survey of 805 registered voters was conducted March 20-28 and carried out by Braun Research of Princeton. The sampling error was +/- 3.4 percentage points.
