Audit Report On The Monitoring Of School Bus Safety By The Department Of Education

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit determined whether the Department of Education (DOE) adequately monitors bus contractors to ensure that they comply with safety regulations as they relate to school buses. DOE provides primary and secondary education to more than one million students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 at more than 1,200 schools. DOE has contracts with 51 school bus vendors to provide transportation services to approximately 172,000 students. DOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) is responsible for monitoring these contracts. In Fiscal Year 2004, DOE spent more than $576 million for yellow school bus pupil transportation.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

DOE inspectors adequately monitor school bus contractors to ensure that they comply with safety regulations as they relate to school buses they use to transport students. Based on reported delays, less than one percent of school bus routes experienced delays during the morning pickups due to school bus equipment safety and maintenance failure. When we accompanied inspectors during their inspections of buses maintained by three bus contractors, we found the inspectors to be knowledgeable regarding the inspection standards used by DOE. In School Year 2004, covering the period September 2003 through June 2004, DOE reported that it conducted 9,450 vehicle field inspections of contractors’ fleet of 6,948 school buses, an average of 1.36 inspections per bus. For the year, DOE inspectors issued 6,991 violations against contractors. Of these, 1,912 were upheld, and liquidated damages totaling $185,620 were assessed against contractors. Of the 1,912 upheld violations, only two were for having an invalid New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) inspection certificate.

However, DOE has inadequate controls to ensure that bus contractors meet their contractual requirement that the percentage of their buses placed out of service as a result of failed NYSDOT inspections (OOS rate) not exceed an average of 20 percent over three consecutive six-month inspection periods. Of DOE’s 51 bus contractors, 15 (29%) had OOS rates that exceeded 20 percent for State Fiscal Year 2004. Of these, one—R & C Transit—had a rate exceeding 20 percent in State Fiscal Year 2003 also. However, DOE took no disciplinary action against this contractor in light of its poor performance.

Audit Recommendations

We made five recommendations to DOE. DOE should:

• Improve its monitoring efforts of bus contractors to ensure that it is aware of contractors who fail to ensure that their out-of-service rates resulting from failed NYSDOT inspections do not exceed an average of 20 percent over three consecutive six-month inspection periods.

• Require that bus contractors with high out-of-service rates improve their preventive maintenance efforts to reduce those rates.

• Include a provision in its transportation contracts that identifies the disciplinary action (e.g., assess liquidated damages, decertify from contracting for student transportation) to be taken against bus contractors who do not comply with the contractual requirement that no more than 20 percent of a contractor’s buses be placed out of service for failing a NYSDOT inspection over three consecutive periods.

• Formally put on notice any contractors who exceed the average 20 percent out-of-service rate over two consecutive six-month inspection periods that disciplinary action may be taken against them if they do not lower their out-of-service rate to 20 percent or lower in subsequent periods.

• Take disciplinary action against bus contractors who exceed the average 20 percent out-of-service rate over three consecutive six-month inspection periods.