Seattle school buses are stretched thin amid start of academic year - Axios SeattleLog InLog InAxios Seattle is an Axios company.

Seattle school buses are stretched thin amid start of academic year

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Teachers in Seattle Public Schools remain , with the district canceling classes Thursday for the second day in a row.But even once school resumes, it's unclear whether all students will be able to rely on their regular routes to get to class. Driving the news: District officials warned last month that not all bus routes would be in service by Sept. 7, which originally was scheduled to be the first day of the academic year.At the time, the district said families whose bus routes wouldn't be operating would get notified by the first day of school. Over the past two days, however, the district hasn't responded to questions from Axios about the bus situation.It's not clear whether notifications about route cuts have gone out or not, given the delay in the start of classes. State of play: Nationwide, is complicating students' commutes. But Seattle's issues with its longtime school bus contractor, First Student, stretch back years. Zoom in: Earlier this year, state regulators identified 396 safety violations by First Student, which the company admitted to with the state Utilities and Transportation Commission.Last fall, the company's inability to find enough drivers caused the school district to routes.Before that, found nearly 5,000 instances between 2016 and 2019 when buses never showed up or were more than an hour late. This year, after a bidding process, Seattle Public Schools decided to hire two companies to operate buses, so that all routes wouldn't necessarily be left to First Student. The new company, Zum, has promised to the school district's transportation system and make it more efficient. Yes, but: Zum is still ramping up its service, the district says, and isn’t able to take on 50% of the district’s bus routes just yet.That issue came up during contract negotiations over the summer and wasn't a surprise, the district told Axios.Still, it's caused the district to assign more routes to First Student for now. Even with that reassigning of routes, however, "some bus routes may not be in service for the start of the school year," a district spokesperson wrote in an email to Axios last Friday. What they're saying: Zum says it will be fully staffed and able to handle half of the district’s bus routes by January. What we're watching: Whether Zum will be able to meet that deadline — and whether First Student will be able to handle all the routes it says it can in the meantime. Of note: For now, the school district parents to take advantage of a new state program that lets riders 18 and younger board public buses and other . Get more local stories in your inbox with .Subscribe Support local journalism by becoming a member.

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