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MMSD transportation staff report progress, outline special-education tracking pilot for April
Summary
Assistant Director Vanessa Cruz and transportation staff reported improved on-time performance and outlined a pilot to roll out route tracking for specialized and special-education routes beginning after spring break; staffing gaps (drivers and attendants) remain a constraint.
Vanessa Cruz, MMSD assistant director of transportation and logistics, told the Operations Work Group that district transportation service has improved over the prior year and that staff are moving from a reactive to a proactive approach to routing, capacity and safety.
Cruz said the transportation team currently manages routes for more than 9,000 students: approximately 8,000 on yellow-bus routes, almost 600 on specialized routes, and 335 students on TEP (transitional education program) rides; staff also support MSCR after-school routing. First Student is the district’s primary yellow-bus contractor; other providers mentioned include EverDriven, Madison Taxi and HopSkipDrive.
On tracking, Cruz said the district has 3,929 app downloads and 2,943 active parent profiles for yellow-bus tracking and plans a phased rollout for special-education route tracking. "We understand that it's complex. We're gonna figure out internally how to manage that because case managers receive the transportation assignment for students in their caseload, and then they're the ones getting that out to families," Cruz said. "So along with that information, needs to be given the route tracking information so that those families will begin to be able to track their their routes." (Vanessa Cruz.)
Cruz said the district will pilot special-education tracking at one school in April with the plan to expand and "group" rollouts depending on how much support each school requires; the team’s stated goal is to achieve majority coverage by the start of the 2025–26 school year. She cautioned that special-education routes are complex—"On average, we make about 54 changes a week to special ed routes"—and that accurate tracking requires stable route codes and reliable carrier support.
Board members raised operational concerns: several asked how families will learn about tracking, how the pilot school will be selected and whether the board will see pilot results before full rollout. Cruz said case managers and school staff would support family outreach and that the district planned a pilot with an identified school immediately after spring break. Several board members and staff also stressed continuing recruitment and retention of drivers and bus attendants; Cruz and other staff said driver shortages remain the leading constraint even where vehicles exist.
The department reported a 90% on-time performance for First Student in January and said it is negotiating routes and coordination with the City of Madison Metro, which provides a complementary network of fixed-route service and rapid-transit stops near several schools.
Why it matters: transportation affects students' access to school and after-school programming and intersects with equity for families who depend on district-provided routes. Expanding tracking and stabilizing staffing would improve service reliability and parent information.
What was not decided: the meeting recorded no board directive to change policy; staff described a pilot and a timeline for phased rollout.
