That’s how much a New Jersey school district was paying to bus one student (non-autistic) to a vocational-technical school in another county about miles away. Today’s Star-Ledger reports that the student’s parents are now driving him, but this is considered a “stop-gap measure” and that a cheaper mode of transportation is being sought.
$49,500 is a lot to spend to bus one student, but it’s not entirely unheard of. One of my son Charlie’s former case managers noted to us that it’s often the transportation costs that drive up the cost of a private school placement: School districts are obligated by law to provide transportation.
When my son Charlie attended a private school a few towns over for a few months, he rode in a “bus”—a minivan—with a driver and an aide. So that was two adults, plus the “bus,” plus gas, etc., that had to be paid for. This is yet another reason why I am now relieved that our school district has its own autism program. The bus drivers are not from whatever random company won the school district’s bid; there are bus matrons on all the buses, and the drivers that Charlie has had seem to have a basic sense of how to address special ed kids. Charlie’s bus fills up, as each bus has a full load of children, rather than a ratio of one bus to one child. Such arrangements are sometimes necessary; I’d rather see the $$$ go to teachers and, most of all, to students.
Julie, Hi if your school distric has board of ed meetings witch I am sure they do try getting to one .and call your local paper to attend. call ahead of time to see what you need to do to get it on the agenda. talk to the board and they will most likely tell you that at the end of buisness the floor is open to questions try to research how much it will cost to get what you want . and if you are having trouble finding the answers ask the local press and tell them whats going on. The press can be a grate ally. Hope this is helpful I am pulling for you Eileen P.S. try getting your daughters iep to include that she needs an aid on the bus if its in an iep its a legal document and it has to be followed
[...] There are 80 publicly funded separate schools for the disabled in New Jersey and about 175 private ones; in 2004, New Jersey instituted a one-year moratorium on new private special education schools being created. The state spends about $16,100 a year on each special student; average at for special ed public schools is $28,500 to $42,000, while the average tuition for a private school is $44,000. (And that does not include transportation costs.) [...]
My son rode on a bus with over a dozen autistic kids and no aide. Looking back, I can’t believe that that was allowed—Charlie did fine but then started to take off his seatbelt and stand up. I can’t speak for the student in the $49,500 bus (as far any diagnoses or other concerns); I spotlighted this issue as it reaffirms for me why kids need to be taught in their home school districts, if possible.
Actually Jonathan, most of the out of county students at my son’s school have chauffeured Chevys or Fords. One county temporarily used a cab service with a dedicated driver every day.
instead of school bus transportation why don’t they just have chauffered rolls royce transportation
Right now we are having transportation issues in our district. They have about 11 students on the bus all of which are in special ed programs and one bus driver no aid. We have been told that putting an aide on the bus is not an option because of the laws in NY. They actually have already taken some of the kids off of the bus and drive them individually on a bus. We are driving our daughter ourselves until they can figure out how to get an aide on the bus. I was wondering if anyone else is having this same problem in NY. We live in webster which is a suburb of Rochester. I find it hard to believe that it is better to have more buses than needed and that no buses are able to aides because it is too costly.