Soon, I will be introducing legislation that will require school districts to provide resident students attending non-traditional schools with transportation under the same terms and conditions — including the identical mode of transportation — as provided to students attending the district’s own brick-and-mortar schools. The bill would prohibit the use of common carriers (public transit) for kindergarten through eighth-grade students whenever free transportation is furnished to any students in those grades while maintaining existing distance and safety exceptions certified by the Department of Transportation.

Current law requires school districts to provide free transportation to non-traditional school students but contains a loophole that permits districts to meet this obligation differently than for students attending the district’s own schools. As a result, some districts are providing children as young as five years old with public transit passes as their only means to get to school.  These students are left with no choice but to ride public buses with strangers, including potential sex offenders, creating serious safety risks that would never be tolerated for traditional public school students.

This legislation protects child safety, ensures equity between all publicly funded students, and gives parents peace of mind without creating new unfunded mandates. I urge you to cosponsor this important measure to ensure that every Pennsylvania child has safe transportation to the school in which they are lawfully enrolled.