We are currently living in the era of speed and mobility. While this can have numerous economical advantages, things are not always positive when it comes to children’s education. For the little ones, stability is very important and the lack of it can seriously impact their psychological and intellectual development. This is why, when the shift in your family’s residence allows it, parents should do their best to let kids attend the same school, even if it requires the use of public or private transportation. However, the choice of the preferred means of transport is not so easy. Here are some aspects to consider:

School transportation costs eat a huge chunk of any schools budget. The cost of transporting kids to school needs to be reduced.

The greatest thing about bus management and routing these days is the ability to complete everything through technology and software. You don't have to worry about the mountains of paperwork that goes into tracking students, distances to different bus routes, making sure buses are on time, and a bunch of other responsibilities.

Finding ways to save more money for education is always a valid and worthwhile endeavor, as there can’t be an upper price placed on your children’s education. However, whether your district chooses to consolidate the total number of schools into a smaller number consisting of larger schools, or minimize school transportation costs, can have serious effects on your most valuable commodity: your students.

The greatest thing about bus management and routing these days is the ability to complete everything through technology and software. You don't have to worry about the mountains of paperwork that goes into tracking students, distances to different bus routes, making sure buses are on time, and a bunch of other responsibilities.

We are currently living in the era of speed and mobility. While this can have numerous economical advantages, things are not always positive when it comes to children’s education. For the little ones, stability is very important and the lack of it can seriously impact their psychological and intellectual development. This is why, when the shift in your family’s residence allows it, parents should do their best to let kids attend the same school, even if it requires the use of public or private transportation. However, the choice of the preferred means of transport is not so easy. Here are some aspects to consider:

With rising gas prices and decreasing school budgets, minimizing school bus transportation costs has never been more beneficial to a school than now. Because of the great variability in how much you might get from one year to the next for transportation costs, you may end up taking money from other school functions to help make up the slack. Since this is inevitably barring new legislation, it is a good idea to try your best to optimize the school transportation costs, by employing a handful of practices:

With school transportation costs rising, many public schools are beginning to make drastic changes to their transportation polices. The more the schools must depend on themselves and less on government funding, the burden of school transportation costs falls to schools and parents alike.

For instance, in the case of Westford Public Schools in Massachusetts, they are requiring a fee for allowing children within two miles of the school to ride the bus. At present, those who live outside a two-mile radius are still allowed to ride without a fee. However, all students are required to have bus passes. These can range from $225 to $600, depending on how many children from each family are riding.

Whereas, Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado are charging students $150 per student for all those who ride. Children who are within walking distance of the school will be required to pay $200, but will be allowed only if there is room. Kindergartners, either half- or full-day students will be required to pay between $75 to $100, depending on whether they attend the neighborhood schools or an optional one.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has taken a different view, in hopes of reducing the school transportation costs. The bus schedules have been tiered, to allow the same bus to cover two different routes. This reduces the number of buses and personnel required. However, this also changes the daily schedule for the school, of when they begin and end for the day. They also require that children attending option schools, instead of neighborhood schools, be transported by the parents. There have even been changes in the boundaries for which areas will be serviced by the neighborhood schools. The Kenai Schools also are reducing their driver contracts from five years to one year, in hope of finding more ways to reduce costs, without commitments to employees. This way, they are able to see if merely changing schedules and using fewer buses will reduce school transportation costs significantly enough to keep their doors open.

Are there ways that you have found that work? Has there been a situation where an idea has been tried and did not work? It may be helpful for different schools to share some ideas, in order to reduce the trial and error stage of trying to save money on school transportation costs. In this economy, every little bit helps and schools need all the help they can get.