In Kansas City, Kansas, a ride to school is a promise. It says, “You still belong here.”
Jessica Smith, the McKinney-Vento and Foster Care Liaison for Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS), understands that better than most. Over the past eight years, she has built a transportation program that doesn’t just meet compliance requirements—it keeps hundreds of children connected to their teachers, classmates, and a sense of normalcy when everything else in their lives is uncertain.
We spoke with Smith as part of our interview series, The Right Ride: Voices Shaping the Future of Student Transportation. In it, we’re highlighting the leaders who are navigating today’s most complex transportation challenges—especially those impacting McKinney-Vento students, students with disabilities or with special education needs, and children in foster care.
“About 80 to 85% of what we do is transportation,” she says. “Our program serves over 790 students—ranging from preschoolers to high school seniors—most are experiencing housing instability. EverDriven provides transportation for 569 of these students.”
For Smith, transportation is about so much more than getting from point A to point B. It’s about making sure school stays the one place where kids feel safe, known, and supported.
Why Student Transportation is More Than Logistics
For families facing housing instability or children in foster care, even basic routines can unravel. When home becomes a hotel room, a friend’s couch, or a car parked overnight, getting a child to school becomes a complex puzzle. Without transportation support, attendance drops. As a result, academic performance suffers, and many schools face a critical loss of funding to support these vulnerable student populations.
Smith sees it all the time: parents overwhelmed by a sudden crisis—fire, eviction, job loss—trying to piece together survival.
“They’re living at a hotel that’s 20 minutes away from where their kid goes to school, and they have to go to work,” she explains. In those moments, reliable transportation becomes a lifeline. “Transportation is just us providing that. It’s one less thing they don’t have to worry about.”
Even extracurriculars can become inaccessible without support. Smith has encountered families unsure whether their child should try out for sports or attend after-school programs, wondering how they’ll get home. “It’s okay,” she tells them. “We can do that.”
By removing these logistical barriers, Smith’s team helps ensure that regardless of their circumstances, students can participate fully in school life.
Removing Red Tape for Families
To serve these students and their families, KCKPS intentionally eliminates paperwork and waitlists wherever possible. Families can visit during open walk-in hours without needing a formal referral. Smith’s approach is based on a hard truth: families in crisis don’t have time to navigate bureaucracy.
“The fewer barriers you put into place for families, the more likely they are to benefit from the help they need,” she says. “It’s very important that districts don’t require proof of homelessness—because what proof do you have that you’re homeless?”
This system applies to pre-K families as well. Because the district’s Head Start program is closely integrated, young children affected by homelessness are often fast-tracked for enrollment. Smith’s team also ensures they receive essentials like food, clothing, and supplies.
“It’s not just about education—it’s about stabilization,” she explains. If a child can be placed in a program quickly, parents can focus on job hunting, accessing benefits, or securing new housing without worrying about their kids’ safety during the day.
Technology’s Key Role in Modern Student Transportation
With more than 40 school buildings, KCKPS once faced a flood of phone calls from staff wanting updates on transportation. “Between 2:30 and 4:30, we were getting 1,000 calls,” Smith says.
The solution came through technology. By giving schools read-only access to a shared district transportation portal, the number of calls plummeted. Now, front office staff can view real-time updates on estimated arrival times and trip status without needing to pick up the phone.
“Now our calls are down to maybe five a day,” Smith says. “Dramatic difference.”
That visibility gives schools peace of mind and frees Smith’s team to focus on higher-level coordination. But visibility is only part of the equation. Managing consistent, safe, and cost-effective rides for every student requires multiple modes of transportation:
- Traditional School Bus Routes: Safe and reliable, but limited in flexibility. Static routes can’t efficiently serve students with frequent address changes or those living far from school boundaries.
- Semi-Personalized School Bus Service: Uses existing resources more creatively—like special education buses or rerouted vehicles—but demands high levels of interdepartmental collaboration and logistical planning.
- Cabs, Taxis, and Ride-Share Partnerships: Offer flexibility, but often at higher costs and without student-specific training or real-time coordination tools. Legal considerations may arise when transporting unaccompanied minors.
- Private Alternative Student Transportation Companies: This is where companies like EverDriven come in, combining the flexibility of on-demand transportation with safeguards traditionally associated with school buses.
For districts like KCKPS, Alternative Student Transportation addresses key gaps that public systems can’t always manage:
- Consistency: Over 70% of students with disabilities maintain the same driver each day.
- Visibility: The EverDriven VIP app allows parents, guardians, and school staff to monitor trips in real time.
- Safety: Background-checked, informed drivers and optional in-vehicle cameras mirror the safety of school buses.
- Scalability: EverDriven has a 10% bench of drivers ready to scale up or down as needed.
- Operational Support: A full-time team handles scheduling and coordination.
All too often, staff like Smith juggle hundreds of cases and cost-sharing arrangements with multiple school districts. Having a streamlined transportation partner removes a massive part of their logistical load.
One Goal, Many Moving Parts
For most schools, transportation is an anchor that keeps kids connected to routines, friendships, and opportunities. But managing it well requires legal knowledge, community partnerships, technological coordination, and endless patience.
Smith never loses sight of the bigger picture. “I would love for my job to not have to exist any longer,” she says. “Because people are actually helping homeless families… not just the adults that are homeless… but families.”
Until then, she’ll keep doing the work. Quietly, persistently, she’ll be making sure every student she serves gets where they need to go, even when life tries to push them off course.
About the Series
The Right Ride series shares insights from education leaders shaping the future of student transportation. From compliance to compassion, our goal is to elevate the voices behind today’s most critical transportation solutions.
For help navigating chronic absenteeism or building a safe, inclusive transportation strategy, contact EverDriven.
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.
