Every spring, school transportation departments across the country begin the same difficult work: figuring out how to serve more students, with more complex needs, on school transportation budgets that are holding steady at best and shrinking at worst. This year, that work feels harder than usual for many directors. While the pressures may be familiar, they are intensifying in ways that deserve a closer look.
To better understand what transportation leaders are actually navigating, EverDriven partnered with School Transportation News to survey nearly 200 transportation directors across the United States. The result is our State of Student Transportation: 2026/27 Budget Survey report, and the findings paint a clear picture of where the field is right now.
The State of Student Transportation: What the Survey Found
Here are three key takeaways:
1. School Transportation Budget Cuts Are Widespread
Nearly one in three directors expects their school transportation budget to decrease in the coming year. The reasons behind those cuts are largely outside any one department’s control, from district-wide reductions to shifts in state and federal funding to rising operational costs that pull resources away from transportation entirely. Even where budgets are holding steady, the expectation is the same: deliver the same quality of service for the same students, with the same or fewer resources.
2. Enrollment is Shifting, and Transportation Plans Have to Keep Up
Forty-four percent of directors expect student enrollment to increase in the coming year. A meaningful share expects it to decrease. What is striking is that both groups face the same core problem. Routes designed for last year’s students may not serve next year’s students in the same way. The survey captures what directors are already doing in response, and some of the approaches are worth paying attention to.
3. The Students Who Need Transportation Most Cannot Afford Service Gaps
Driver shortages remain one of the most persistent structural challenges in student transportation, and directors are making hard choices about where limited school transportation budget dollars can have the most impact. Running through all of it is a deeper concern about the students whose access to school depends most directly on reliable transportation, including students with disabilities and students experiencing housing instability. Budget pressure and the growing complexity of student needs are arriving at the same moment, and transportation leaders are feeling that tension acutely.
See How Transportation Directors Across the Country Are Responding
The challenge transportation directors are navigating heading into 2026/27 is genuinely hard, with real consequences for real students. When transportation falls short, attendance suffers. When students with the greatest needs go unserved, equity gaps widen. And when districts stretch limited school transportation budget dollars across too many competing demands, the students with the most complex needs are often the first to feel it.
Companies like EverDriven can provide safe, reliable, student-centered transportation that flexes up or down to meet changing district needs. For students with disabilities, for students experiencing housing instability, and for the families who count on consistent rides to keep their children in school, it is the bridge to everything else.
Rather than paying for the operational overhead of hiring, training, and retaining drivers, districts can optimize budgets with contracted student transportation to solve for systemic school bus driver shortages. Paired with optimized routing, districts can make the most of their existing fleets and resources.
If your district is considering flexible student transportation and consolidated routing services, reach out to our team.
Courtney Pallotta is an energetic, customer-driven marketing executive with more than 20 years of experience leading go-to-market strategy, branding, product marketing, demand generation, and customer advocacy for startup and growth-stage companies. As CMO at EverDriven, she leads the GTM team in delivering modern, student-centered transportation solutions that meet every student’s unique needs.
Courtney has built and scaled marketing functions across some of the most dynamic enterprise technology categories, from data warehousing and analytics to cloud infrastructure, data privacy, and SaaS. She has taken companies from stealth through IPO, led acquisitions, launched open-source platforms, and consistently built marketing engines that drive pipeline and market position. Along the way, she has developed a deep belief that the best marketing is both simple and authentic, and that listening to customers is the foundation for great products and lasting communities.
Outside of EverDriven, Courtney serves as a Board Member at the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, where she mentors the next generation of business leaders.
