Boston City Councilors want state to investigate BPS ‘transportation failures’

BOSTON — Three weeks into the school year and Boston city councilors say buses continue to be late bringing kids to and from school. They are now taking their concerns to the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

City Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy went before DESE to ask for their support in addressing what they are calling transportation failures. They say they are still receiving phone calls from parents saying their kids are either extremely late or not getting picked up at all.

Boston 25 News has been reporting on the new bus app Zum that Boston Public Schools started using this year. The mayor and superintendent said there were some learning curves. On the first day, only about a third of the buses made it to school on time, impacting thousands of students. That’s a far cry from the 95% on-time arrival the school agreed upon with the state. While times are slowly improving, city councilors say there are still some major issues, including parents claiming that their kids are still at school at 6:30 or 7 at night, and in some cases, kids aren’t even getting a ride at all.

“Just this morning I got a call from a single mom where three weeks into school she still doesn’t have a bus for her son and when she calls the hotline at BPS they’re hanging up on her and not helping her, so it’s not just the first week they’re working to get the kinks out,” said Erin Murphy, a Boston City Councilor.

Councilor Murphy and Flynn are asking DESE to support the city council in addressing Boston Public School’s bussing issues with a thorough investigation, an action plan with improved timelines, and a monitoring system to provide accountability.

Murphy also says the city council has asked BPS to come to their meeting to discuss transportation issues, but claims BPS says the earliest they could meet would be October 29th, which is already more than 20% into the school year.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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