NYC education panel to deny school bus contract extensions until they see fixes in service

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Oct 29, 2026

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NEW YORK — New York City’s education panel said in a resolution passed unanimously Wednesday night that it will not rubber-stamp any more extensions of “outdated” school bus contracts as they called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his schools chief to commit to a “full-scale overhaul” of the system.

Mamdani and Chancellor Kamar Samuels need the Panel for Educational Policy’s approval to renew the 1970s-era contracts, which have been blamed for increasingly poor transportation services, particularly for students with disabilities. The contracts are typically extended without a competitive rebidding process that could hold yellow bus vendors accountable for performance and other metrics.

“The Panel for Educational Policy urges Mayor Mamdani and Chancellor Samuels to take all necessary steps to improve school transportation now and to commit to a full-scale overhaul of the yellow school bus system by the time the current contract extensions expire,” read the resolution.

“The Panel opposes any further extensions of outdated school bus contracts that leave us without major service improvements for students.”

The most recent extensions are set to expire in mid-2028.

Before then, advocates are seeking reforms that would enable the city to rebid the contracts through the passage of a state bill, which would include provisions that protect employees in future agreements and prevent a school bus driver strike. The provisions ensure that if a bus driver or matron is laid off because their company loses a contract, that employee is prioritized during the hiring process for a new company with the same wage and benefits.

In the resolution, the panel urged Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature to enact that legislation, and Mamdani and City Council to prioritize the measure during talks in Albany.

“We have the technology in this country that we were able to successfully land a man on the moon and bring him back,” panel member Gregory Faulkner, who introduced the resolution, said during the meeting at Long Island City High School in Queens. “However, we can’t get buses to pick up our kids and deposit them to school on time.”

But Lupe Hernandez, a Manhattan school bus parent, said there is more the city can do now to improve student transportation without relying on state reforms, which she supports. Those include the school system having its own bus fleet and developing more efficient bus routes.

“You’re bringing another resolution that just really doesn’t solve the issues,” Hernandez said. “You can pass it, though.”

Kevin Moran, deputy chancellor of school operations, said the city is in the process of sunsetting old bus routing software and improving bus tracking services, but insisted the current technology is still working: “We watch it daily, and it is functioning.”

The city’s school transportation system relies on 48 independent vendors to shuttle 150,000 student bus riders — nearly half of whom have disabilities — across roughly 9,000 daily routes.

That complex network has been known to break down, with students and their families reporting long commutes, early and late pick-ups and drop-offs, no-shows, and inflexible hours that shut bus riders out of after-school and summer programs.

Earlier this month, a watchdog investigation found a Brooklyn school bus with six nonverbal children went missing for more than four hours last December, the Daily News was first to report. Faulkner cited the story in the press when introducing the resolution.

Before the start of this school year, The News also broke the story of thousands of students who remained unassigned to a bus route.

“As of today, nearly seven weeks into the school year, we are working with the families of multiple kindergarten students who have not yet attended school” because their legally mandated special education busing is not in place, said Erica Palmer, supervising attorney at the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York.

After years of yellow bus horror stories, while the system failed to take action, the Panel for Educational Policy last year refused to approve a five-year contract renewal, eventually authorizing a shorter, partially retroactive three-year extension last November.

“Of course, the first day of school, I always have to take two or three days off (work) because I know there’s going to be an issue with busing,” said Brenida Parsons, the Bronx borough president’s appointee to the panel, and a parent in School District 75 for children with significant disabilities.

Raysa Rodriguez, a Mamdani appointee to the panel, added: “There’s so much that’s complex in the work that we do, and for me, the basic responsibility of ensuring that students get to school should be something that we can easily figure out.”

Meanwhile, the City Council has scheduled an oversight hearing on school transportation for Nov. 18.