Edgewood City Schools is a small school district halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton that’s responsible for transporting and educating approximately 3,000 students. Their transportation department is facing a universal transportation challenge: There’s an increased demand for specialized transportation and tight budgets.
Lindsay White, director of special services at Edgewood City Schools, is guiding the district to modernize its approach to specialized transportation, prioritizing the safety and well-being of students. Here’s how EverDriven’s hands-on, collaborative approach ensures that Edgewood students receive the highest level of care in a sustainable way for the district.
A Rising Challenge for a Small School District
Edgewood City Schools has a higher percentage of students in special education than neighboring school districts. With rising housing costs, the school district is also seeing increasing rates of homelessness among the student population. “We have a growing population of students who need specialized transportation services,” White says. “We want McKinney-Vento students to get continuity of care at their school of our origin. That way, they’re with their friends, their teachers, and in their safe place. That’s our biggest need and our biggest challenge.”
She was looking for a solution that offered the flexibility to immediately ramp up transportation for students who lost their housing. “I heard from a colleague at another local school district that they were using EverDriven. I reached out to them to work together and come up with some cost-effective solutions,” she says.
Cost-Efficient, Exceptional Service
When White first reached out, she was transparent about their budget. “We’re a small district, and I was very upfront. We want all the best things for our students, and they come at a cost,” White summarizes. EverDriven helped her make the numbers work with their unique pricing model.
“The largest cost savings for us is not paying per kid but per trip. We can have two or three kids on a trip with close pickup locations, and they’re going to similar places. The kids still get the same service—and a short trip—while still maintaining cost-effectiveness for us.” she says.
White credits EverDriven’s point person, Account Manager David Oglesby, for ensuring Edgewood City Schools adheres to their budget, even and especially as they support a rising number of students with specialized transportation. “When we add a new student to EverDriven, I ask them to help make it work. They’re really, really good about saying, ‘This kid lives close to this kid, so we can add one student to our existing route and it’s not going to cost you additional resources. And it doesn’t lengthen the time of the students’ rides significantly, either,” says White.
With this kind of continuous problem-solving, EverDriven helped Edgewood implement a sustainable solution that adapts to their needs in the moment. “EverDriven has been wonderful for us from the financial standpoint,” White summarizes.
A Problem-Solving Partnership
Between EverDriven’s cutting-edge technology and personalized support, they’ve also helped streamline the transportation department’s operations. “The biggest blessing has been the online portal. It makes it really easy for me to pull reports. From a parenting perspective, having EverDriven’s VIP app also allows families to cancel easily rather than require I do it.”
Because of EverDriven’s flexible operating model, Edgewood has been able to adapt to White’s specific preferences and operational strategy. “I said ‘I really need you to work with me. If a kid misses their morning ride, I don’t always have the time to cancel the afternoon drive. I need those things to be automatic.” EverDriven works as an extension of White’s team every day, making adjustments anytime they’re needed.
White credits that ethos with the success of the partnership. “Our point person at EverDriven has been incredibly easy to communicate with compared to calling a hotline and waiting,” she says. “He usually responds via email, which is so easy for me. And he’s always on the ball. Sometimes, there’s a problem he knows about before I do and he’ll say, ‘Here’s how I’m going fix it.’” As experts in student transportation, EverDriven and White agree that this level of support is essential when transporting a vulnerable student population. “We have students riding EverDriven that have some behavioral challenges, and that has been handled with the utmost grace and care,” she says.
EverDriven partners with school districts in Ohio and around the country. to help them navigate unprecedented transportation challenges in a cost-efficient way. To learn more about how EverDriven can support your team, reach out today.
