Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools. When a yellow school bus doesn’t arrive, families can be eligible to get reimbursed for taxis or other transportation costs. But caregivers face yearslong payment delays for these out-of-pocket expenses, education officials acknowledged this week.
“We have been working through a reimbursement backlog that was from the beginning of the pandemic,” Deputy Chancellor Emma Vadehra, the Education Department’s chief operating officer, told parent leaders during a Thursday meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. “We have now cleared two years in the past six months. That’s not okay, because we shouldn’t have been that far behind.”
The Education Department has leaned on alternative transportation options to plug gaps in the city’s complex and notoriously unreliable yellow bus operation, which is known for problems assigning children to routes, delays, and no-show buses.
But figuring out which families are eligible or how to seek reimbursement is a confusing process with unclear messages from the Education Department, families and advocates say. Officials told Chalkbeat they’re planning to release new guidance including which families are eligible and how the reimbursement process works, by the start of the coming school year.
Even for eligible families, delayed payments can create difficult tradeoffs between shouldering the costs themselves or keeping their children home, which can disrupt learning and even bring scrutiny from the city’s child welfare agency.
“I’m stunned to hear it’s a few years’ backup” for reimbursements, said Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at Advocates for Children, which works with low-income families, including on transportation issues. “It can really add up.”
About 150,000 children are eligible to ride the bus to school each day — roughly 43% of whom have disabilities. The city’s yellow bus system often experiences thousands of delays and breakdowns each month, city data show.
In some cases, city officials offer families prepaid rideshare vouchers, including when specialized staff aren’t available to accompany a student with a disability who requires them, or for some elementary school children who attend extended summer school programming after school buses stop running.
But parents can also pay up front and file reimbursement claims for taxis, rideshare services, public transit, or even driving costs. Students who receive door-to-door bus service — such as children living in temporary housing, foster care, or those with disabilities — can seek repayment for alternative transportation if a bus wasn’t provided, was substantially delayed, never showed up, or if a bus company refuses to transport a child, according to the Education Department’s website.
Families owed hundreds of dollars
Gisselle Ramirez, a Bronx mom, said she began paying out of pocket for rideshares beginning in 2021 when her son was in kindergarten, racking up over $1,000 in costs over two years. But it wasn’t until she got connected to a network of school transportation advocates that she learned she could begin submitting those costs for reimbursement, which she attempted in 2022, she said.
Ramirez initially submitted the receipts to the Education Department but gave up because it felt like “wasting my time” when reimbursement checks didn’t seem to be coming. The transportation logistics took a toll: Ferrying both of her children, who each have autism, to school often made the kindergartner late to class.
Ramirez said she was often late to work, too, and was ultimately fired.
“I felt really defeated. I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to get a stable job,’” she said. “I support my children by myself.”
About a month after losing her job in sales, she was able to land a new one and eventually bought a car to help with the commute.
Though she assumed her reimbursement claims would never be resolved, she received a check for $92 about two months ago, she said, just one of a handful of claims she made during the 2022-23 school year. Ramirez is still owed hundreds of dollars. But she’s hopeful she won’t have to go through the process again, as her son’s bus began consistently showing up last school year.
Erika Newsome-Rodriguez, who lives in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, also estimates that her family is owed hundreds of dollars over roughly a dozen reimbursement claims stretching back more than a year.
Her 8-year-old stepdaughter, Vivian, has autism and is entitled to transportation. But the family has repeatedly dealt with no-show buses, including during the 2023 summer school program and the 2023-24 school year. The family relied on a patchwork of fixes, including rideshare services and using their car to ferry her to school.
Making matters more complex, Vivian splits her time with her mother who lives across the borough, and the child is supposed to receive yellow bus service in both locations, Newsome-Rodriguez said. When the bus doesn’t show, Newsome-Rodriguez’s husband sometimes drives several miles across the borough to her mother’s house to pick Vivian up, doubling back to drop her off at school.
“If we were getting reimbursed for the mileage, it would be a little easier,” Newsome-Rodriguez said. “It’s definitely a huge financial hardship.”
Newsome-Rodriguez raised questions about delayed reimbursements at Thursday’s advisory council meeting, drawing acknowledgement from city officials who said they’re trying to resolve lengthy delays.
Vedehra, the department’s chief operating officer, said they started addressing the backlog after hearing concerns from parents last summer. “We’re taking it really seriously and are working through the multiyear backlog now,” she said.
Confusion over how reimbursement system works
Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle declined to say how many outstanding reimbursement claims there are or the total cost. She wrote in an email that delayed payments from earlier in the pandemic had been resolved last spring and officials “continue to complete incoming reimbursement requests on an ongoing basis.”
She also noted the city has “worked hard to improve the process to create a quicker turnaround, including moving the system online” and families could contact transportationreimbursement@schools.nyc.gov by email for a status update or help with the process.
But advocates and families say the system remains complex and families often don’t know how to access prepaid rideshare services, or even if they’re eligible for reimbursements.
“There’s a lot of confusion about how it works,” said Moroff. “Schools will tell families they’re not entitled even when they are, or families will call [the Office of Pupil Transportation] but the customer service line will only be pseudo-helpful.”
But even if the prepaid vouchers or transit reimbursement system worked flawlessly, Moroff stressed that it is not a substitute for yellow bus service. Families may not be able to take time from work to ferry their children to and from school in a taxi and those with multiple children may not be able to realistically accompany them to each of their campuses.
“When they’re forced to make a choice between supporting their children at home in other ways or getting their child to school, that’s pretty traumatic,” Moroff said.
In conclusion, the challenges faced by families seeking reimbursement for out-of-pocket transportation costs in NYC highlight the need for a more streamlined and transparent process. As the Education Department works to address the backlog and provide clearer guidance to families, it is crucial that caregivers are supported in accessing the resources they need to ensure their children can get to school safely and on time. Stay informed about developments in NYC public schools by signing up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter.