Welcome to The Right Ride, a video interview series from EverDriven that highlights the people living different parts of the student transportation journey. In this episode, host Courtney Pallotta sat down with Barbara Duffield, Executive Director of SchoolHouse Connection, to talk about McKinney-Vento transportation protections and what they mean for students experiencing homelessness.

Barbara’s work on this issue goes back decades, starting as a tutor for children experiencing housing instability in Washington, D.C. That early experience shaped a career focused on turning the intent of federal law into action at the school level, and it gives her a rare vantage point on where districts succeed and where there is room to serve this population more effectively. 

Watch the full interview here.

Why Identification Is the First Step

Before a district can meet its transportation obligations under McKinney-Vento, it has to know which students need support. Barbara points out that homelessness is often hidden, especially among teenagers, who tend to be more independent and less likely to raise a flag when something changes. Without staff trained to notice McKinney-Vento eligibility patterns like chronic absence, students can go unidentified for months or years.

She references a district in Kansas City, Kansas, where a stronger identification process led to a dramatic increase in the number of students receiving support. The results were striking. Once students had reliable transportation, their graduation rate outpaced the district average. As Barbara puts it, a district can’t meet a need it doesn’t see.

Three Transportation Obligations Under McKinney-Vento

Barbara breaks the law down into three clear requirements. First, if staying at the school of origin is determined to be in a student’s best interest, the district is responsible for providing or arranging that transportation, regardless of what other students receive. Second, comparable transportation applies. Whatever a district provides to other students, such as transportation to an after-school program, it must also provide to students experiencing homelessness. Third, McKinney-Vento carries a broader mandate requiring districts to identify and revise any policies, including transportation policies, that create barriers to enrollment or retention.

Together, these three obligations form the foundation every district should be working from, whether the barrier shows up in a single bus route or in district-wide policy.

How Stability Drives Academic and Emotional Success

For students experiencing homelessness, school can be one of the few constants in an otherwise unpredictable life. Barbara describes school as a place of safety and normalcy, somewhere students can be themselves without the weight of their housing situation following them into the classroom.

Courtney shares an example from a caregiver who worked with her school district to keep her children enrolled at their school of origin after an unexpected move. The caregiver credits that consistency directly with her child’s academic success. Barbara connects this back to the research: when everything else in a young person’s life is in flux, being able to walk into the same classroom with the same teachers gives them something to hold onto. Stability isn’t a side benefit of transportation. It’s the outcome the law was written to protect.

What Transportation Directors Need to Know

Transportation directors are not caseworkers or attorneys, but they play a central role in making McKinney-Vento transportation requirements work. Barbara says the single most important relationship a transportation director can build is with the McKinney-Vento liaison, the position required in every district. That liaison is responsible for identifying students experiencing homelessness and informing families of their rights, and transportation directors cannot meet their own obligations without a strong, collaborative connection to that person.

She also points to bus drivers as an underused resource. Drivers often notice changes in behavior or pickup locations before anyone else does, which makes ongoing education for drivers and other frontline staff a meaningful part of a district’s identification efforts. Finance and Title I staff round out the team, since funding for McKinney-Vento transportation can draw from multiple sources.

Meeting the Need Under Tight Budgets

With many districts facing flat or declining budgets, Barbara offers a practical starting point: begin with a needs assessment. Understanding existing routes, vehicles, and vendors gives districts a clearer picture of what they’re working with before making changes.

She also reframes how districts should think about the cost. Meeting McKinney-Vento obligations isn’t just money going out. When students attend school consistently, average daily attendance rises, and that has a direct connection to district revenue. Barbara encourages districts to look at all allowable funding sources, including Title I, and to build relationships with community partners and shelters, since student placement decisions made with school stability in mind can reduce both logistical and financial strain over time.

Key Takeaways

• Identification is the first and most critical step. Districts can only meet the needs of students experiencing homelessness once those students are identified, and hidden homelessness among teenagers is a common blind spot.
• McKinney-Vento sets three clear transportation obligations: school of origin transportation, comparable transportation, and the removal of policy barriers to enrollment and retention.
• Stability supports more than academics. Consistent transportation helps students maintain the safety, routine, and sense of normalcy that support both emotional wellbeing and long-term success.
• Transportation directors depend on strong partnerships, especially with their district’s McKinney-Vento liaison, to fulfill their responsibilities effectively.
• Budget constraints don’t remove the obligation, but they do call for a broader view of funding sources and the long-term connection between attendance and revenue.

Districts looking to go deeper on this topic can also look out for SchoolHouse Connection’s Transportation Talk Tuesdays series, running every Tuesday in October, with sessions in November and December, as well.