PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Some Philly students aren’t getting to school on time, and it’s not their fault. The School District of Philadelphia said more than a quarter of the time this year, its school buses were late.
Most Philadelphia students ride SEPTA to school, but those in first through sixth grades who live more than a mile and a half from school ride yellow buses.
A month into this school year, the district’s overall on-time bus performance is at 71%, District Chief Operating Officer Reggie McNeil told the school board Thursday night.
“Our goal is 100%,” he said, “but we’re realists. Because we have to deal with callouts. We have to deal with accidents that happen in and around the city that would inhibit us from getting to the school at a certain time.”
In fact, the current 71% on-time performance is actually an improvement from last year.
Still, the district is working to find efficiencies that would help more buses run on time. McNeil said a realistic goal for the district is an 80% on-time performance.
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In addition, it can take up to 10 days after a student requests bus transportation to be approved and assigned a route. McNeil said the district gets thousands of requests at the beginning of the year, but he’s working to streamline that process, too.