How Alternative Student Transportation Drives Educational Outcomes for McKinney-Vento Students
The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 requires that school districts offer transportation to students who are experiencing homelessness or live in unstable housing. This landmark legislation ensures that all students, especially those most vulnerable, get access to education.
Bringing this vision for equitable education to life is a challenge for school district leaders who are tasked with providing transportation that serves students living out of district or moving from place to place. At scale, the logistical complexities can be overwhelming.
While traditional bus routes are the epitome of safety, they are static. It’s not feasible or cost effective for buses to change directions or schedules to accommodate varying pick-up and drop-off locations like many students eligible for McKinney-Vento support require. Alternative Student Transportation solutions extend the capabilities of traditional school buses with smaller capacity vehicles that provide reliable, flexible transportation. In this blog post, we explore the unique challenges McKinney-Vento students face and how EverDriven helps students, families, and school districts drive educational outcomes.
Understanding the Complex Challenges of McKinney-Vento Students
Students relying on McKinney-Vento support often depend on school districts for their basic needs in addition to their education. Academic and social support at school, as well as meals and other free services, transform students’ day-to-day and their long-term opportunities. But if students can’t find reliable transportation, their attendance, academic performance, and quality of life suffers.
EverDriven’s Chief Growth Officer Danielle Press believes that school offers much-needed stability to vulnerable students. “Regular attendance at school puts a student in a scenario where they’re set up to thrive. Getting to school doesn’t just mean a stable learning environment and overcoming a family scenario, it also means that students get to socialize, have access to breakfast and lunch every day, which they may not be getting at home,” she says.
Students only benefit from these lifechanging, day-to-day experiences if they find transportation to school every day. Press summarizes: “For McKinney-Vento students, getting reliable and consistent transportation is quite difficult because their situation by design is unstable, putting more pressure on whether or not they have access to transportation that gets them to school.” As the number of students eligible for McKinney-Vento support increases, school districts are facing growing pressure with smaller budgets.
Modernizing Transportation for Vulnerable Students
To stay compliant with federal law, school districts must find streamlined, efficient ways to transport students eligible for McKinney-Vento assistance. But in their day-to-day, with tight budgets and competing priorities, administrators often struggle to find a solution. Staff members spend their time on the phone, trying to coordinate cabs or ride-sharing services for students and managing disjointed operations, which makes it harder for them to focus on students’ educational outcomes.
School districts need cost-effective, reliable solutions to manage the complexity of transporting students facing homelessness at scale, which can be particularly daunting for urban or low-income communities. That’s why EverDriven invented Alternative Student Transportation more than 20 years ago, transforming schools with student-tailored transportation. For kids already facing challenges in their personal life, taking a ride to school with the same driver reduces the stigma around their personal challenges and offers much-needed continuity.
As Press describes, “Using EverDriven in an everyday vehicle reduces the shame. They’re in a car like every other kid getting dropped off at school, which levels the playing field.” For districts, the results are even more powerful.
Empowering Districts and Students
EverDriven optimizes McKinney-Vento transportation with flexible trip configurations and carpools, ensuring that everyone benefits from a safe, reliable ride to school.
One-on-One Support: Eighty percent of students take their trips to and from school with the same driver, which offers stability and comfort to students without consistent housing.
Best-in-Class Technology: Our industry-leading technology, including our analytics-based routing systems, as well as TripCentral, the RideAware app, and our latest Camera Solution optimize for efficiency, visibility, and safety.
Scalability: Our flexible, scalable fleet ensures school districts can extend traditional school bus routes to hard-to-reach or changing locations, decreasing absenteeism.
Personal Partnerships: We work with McKinney-Vento Liaisons and Transportation Directors to meet the unique needs of every school district and every student as their needs evolve.
Reliable Transportation Is the Backbone of Educational Opportunity
When school districts partner with EverDriven, they on save administrative costs and benefit from higher attendance rates, better student test scores, and more funding. That’s because we believe changes in a student’s housing should not affect their ability to get to school, and we go the extra mile to make sure they can. “If schools have a new kid in need, districts can submit their request today, and EverDriven will run that trip for however long they need. If a student’s address changes, we’ll quickly reroute that trip,” Press said. The reliability of our modern, tech-powered transportation model, combined with the support of consistent, caring drivers, ensures students, teachers and administrators all thrive.
Discover how EverDriven can help your district support students experiencing homelessness by meeting with one of our experts today.
