Palm Beach County School District transportation department asks for $5 million more
The increase in Private Transportation costs is due to extraordinary circumstances resulting from a shortage of bus drivers within Transportation services. Currently, there are 123 driver vacancies. Although some non-regular drivers are picking up many routes, there are still routes lacking appropriate coverage. (WPEC){p}{/p}
Wednesday, the Palm Beach County School District will discuss the need for a $5 million dollar increase in transportation funding.
According to the agenda, the Transportation Services Department is requesting additional funds for a current transportation bid for Special Needs/Disabled Students from EverDriven Technologies, LLC and Med Aide Services, Inc.
The current bid is used primarily for the district’s medically fragile student population and includes the cost of nurses that travel with these students. Services include the transport of McKinney-Vento, Foster Care and ESE students when a school bus route is unavailable.
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According to the request, private transportation is only used when the Transportation Department cannot meet the student’s needs through the yellow school bus or Palm Tran/Tri-Rail transportation services.
The additional funds requested are due to the total FY23 Private Transportation costs increasing and trending significantly higher than last year. As a result, the Transportation Department has requested and received an increase to the Contracted Transportation budget for FY23 in the amount of $8 million.
The increase in Private Transportation costs is due to extraordinary circumstances resulting from a shortage of bus drivers within Transportation services. Currently, there are 123 driver vacancies. Although some non-regular drivers pick up many routes, some routes still lack appropriate coverage.
The additional $5 million requested funds will be used to cover the private transportation needs starting July 1, 2023, through the end of this contract term October 21, 2023.
