Serving approximately 90,000 students across nearly 200 schools, Denver Public Schools (DPS) is one of Colorado’s largest and most operationally complex districts. Each day, the district transports roughly 30,000 students, and there are numerous simultaneous variables that make the job challenging:

• Declining enrollment
• Tightening budgets
• The need to offer safe, reliable access to transportation for students with special needs
• Language access and compliance
• School-level autonomy
• Data visibility at scale

Let’s unpack a few of these challenges, and explain how Denver’s partnership with EverDriven is providing a solution.

Safety for Students with Special Needs

One of Denver Public Schools’ big challenges surrounds periodic spikes in refugee resettlement, which can quickly increase demand for individualized transportation support.

As Albert Samora, executive director of transportation for DPS explained, “Students who are housing insecure might have different pick-up or drop-off locations throughout the school year. Frequently changing addresses can be a challenge when it comes to creating bus routes.”

In addition, a meaningful portion of students receiving alternative transportation services in DPS have specialized needs. Some cannot be left unattended during pickup or drop-off under any circumstances.

The district’s transportation leaders identified a common tension within rideshare-style models: drivers are often incentivized to complete more trips, which can conflict with strict supervision requirements. They needed to put practices in place that would ensure consistent handoffs and prevent unattended drop-offs.

Language Access and Compliance

Another big challenge: Colorado law now requires transportation vendors to provide communication and materials in at least eight languages. Districts cannot rely on tools such as Google Translate or certain apps to meet this requirement.

For a district serving highly diverse communities, including newly arrived refugee families, it’s essential to provide compliant, multilingual communication. Language access is not simply a convenience; it is a legal and equity requirement.

School-Level Autonomy

Meanwhile, DPS gives its schools significant autonomy, including control over their own academic calendars. Start dates, early release days, and schedule adjustments often vary by campus, and can change frequently.

While this flexibility benefits school communities, it adds operational complexity to transportation planning. Vendors must be able to react quickly to school-specific changes rather than relying solely on district-wide schedules.

Data Visibility at Scale

Transporting 30,000 students daily generates significant operational data. DPS leaders recognize the need to easily surface aggregate trends and insights, such as:

• Identifying students who are consistently late (e.g., arriving late 70% of the time)
• Understanding how many students require supervised handoffs
• Searching trip history by student ID
• Integrating transportation data with the district’s Student Information System (SIS)

Better visibility into trends allows DPS to move from reactive issue resolution to proactive system improvement.

A Strategic Transportation Model for the Large Urban District

In a district as large and diverse as Denver Public Schools, transportation is not simply about moving students from point A to point B. It is about safeguarding vulnerable students, responding quickly to shifting school schedules, ensuring language equity, and leveraging data to improve outcomes.

In addition to using yellow school buses and having some students ride Denver’s public transit, RTD, the district has partnered with EverDriven as a strategic component of their transportation model. As a result, they’re able to support students with specialized needs while navigating budget constraints and regulatory change.

The students that ride EverDriven often have special needs or are experiencing housing instability. EverDriven provides assigned, vetted drivers, and offers both families and district leaders peace of mind through ride tracking capabilities and cameras in vehicles. EverDriven puts additional safety measures in place, such as tracking vehicle speed, requiring annual vehicle inspections, and mandating that all drivers undergo background checks and drug tests.

The district’s partnership with EverDriven has boosted attendance records, even amidst the nationwide bus driver shortage. For Denver Public Schools, transportation is both an operational necessity and a strategic lever in delivering equitable access to education across a dynamic urban district.