NYC Approves New Three-Year School Bus Contract: What To Know

NEW YORK CITY — New York City has approved a new three-year contract for its school bus companies, ensuring that roughly 150,000 public school students have a ride to and from school.

The new contract is shorter than the five-year contract that the companies agreed to with the Adams administration in the summer.

The contract did not earn enough votes to get approval from the Panel for Educational Policy at that time. Before Wednesday's vote, school bus drivers had been operating on emergency extensions their vendors have said were unsustainable.

"We know that this shortened contract term still does not address many abiding concerns that must be tackled to ensure bus service is everything it should be for all our students who rely on it, especially those with disabilities,” Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said after the vote at the Prospect Heights Campus in Brooklyn.

Parents of school children had complained about bus delays in some cases, how some failed to show up to scheduled stops.

The current school bus contract will expire by summer 2028.