Final Letter Report on The New York City Department of Education’s Compliance with Local Law 33 of 2019 Regarding the Reporting of its Policies and Goals of School Bus Transportation Services

Introduction

This Final Letter Report concerns the New York City Comptroller’s audit of the New York City (City) Department of Education’s (DOE’s or the Department’s) compliance with Local Law 33 of 2019. The law requires that DOE:

1.     Report publicly and to the City Council twice a year: (a) how school bus routes are determined, DOE’s goals for the length of time a school bus should take to complete its route, and other goals relating to school bus services; and (b) names of school bus vendors that, respectively, completed and failed to complete dry runs of their routes before the first day of school as required by contract;

2.     Share with parents or guardians, before the start of the school year, information pertaining to their children’s school bus routes, scheduled arrival and departure times, the vendor assigned to such routes, how a parent can appeal or make a request about a route, and information that relates to Pre-K students receiving school bus services; and

3.     Inform parents or guardians daily whether children’s school buses are late in arriving at or departing their schools.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether DOE has complied with Local Law 33’s requirements.

 Audit Findings and Conclusions

Our audit found that DOE partially complied with Local Law 33. DOE submitted its first and second biannual report regarding school bus routes, and both reports are available on DOE’s InfoHub website.  However, while DOE issued its first report on school bus routes by October 31, 2019 as required, DOE did not issue its second report by April 30, 2020 as required. Instead, DOE issued its second report on school bus routes in January 2021, approximately eight months late. We are aware of COVID-19’s impact requiring suspension of school bus transportation services in March 2020 when schools were closed. However, DOE’s second report was required to contain data for only July 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019, a period in which it provided school bus service which was not affected by the subsequent suspension of service.

Additionally, the third report on school bus routes, which was to cover the period of January 1, 2020 through June 30, 2020, was due by October 31, 2020 but had not been issued by that date, or by the time our audit work was completed and the results reported to DOE via our  preliminary draft letter report on May 13, 2021. Although COVID-19 halted school bus services between March 2020 and June 2020 while schools were closed, DOE should have had reportable data regarding part of the relevant reporting period, specifically, January and February 2020, two months in which school bus transportation services were available to eligible students.

At the exit conference held on May 24, 2021, DOE informed us that the required October 2020 reports, i.e., the third set of reports, and the required April 2021 reports, i.e., the fourth set of reports, were available and had been posted on DOE’s website as of May 21, 2021. DOE posted the reports between the dates of our preliminary draft letter report and the exit conference. We verified that the reports are now available on the DOE website and that they include the required information. While DOE’s posting of the abovementioned reports is a positive development that occurred after our audit was substantially completed, we reiterate that the Local Law requires DOE to post all pertinent reports on time.

Audit Recommendations

The audit recommends that:

1. DOE maintain and where warranted improve its compliance with Local Law 33 to ensure communication of specific information regarding school bus transportation services to and with parents and guardians of students who receive school bus services.

2. With respect to improved compliance, DOE should ensure that its reports on school bus routes are issued and posted on its website by the required dates in accordance with Local Law 33.

Agency Response

In its response, DOE agreed with the audit’s findings and recommendations, stating that the agency “agrees with the summary findings of this Report related to reporting about school bus transportation services in accordance with Local Law 33 . . . and we are pleased that the Report acknowledges that the DOE adequately complies with the data, substance, and content of [the] Local Law.”