BPS officials cite improvements after Zoom rollout but capacity, vendor and scheduling gaps persist for student-athlete transportation

Boston City Council Committee on Education Chair Harry Santana opened a Feb. 27 hearing on Boston Public Schools transportation for student athletes, pressing the district and its contractor to explain recurring late or missing buses and the steps taken to fix the problem.

The hearing focused on recent operational changes, including the district's switch to the Zoom routing and tracking platform, new scheduling practices and plans to add backup vendors — moves district transportation leaders say have already reduced some coverage gaps but have not eliminated them.

Why it matters: student athletes and families say missed buses disrupt games, practices and team opportunities; some teams and coaches have had to arrange alternate rides, which raises equity concerns because not all families can pay for taxis or provide private rides. Councilors repeatedly tied transportation reliability to equal access to extracurriculars and to broader district spending priorities.

Boston Public Schools Transportation Executive Director Dan Rosengard said the district has been working to modernize routing and operations and highlighted near-term improvements tied to the Zoom platform. “Using the student ridership tracking through Zoom, we've identified over 2,000 students, or nearly 10% of the riders that we started the year with, who consistently don't ride the bus,” Rosengard said, and added that about 1,000 families have opted out after outreach. He said the district provides roughly 5,000 yellow-bus trips for athletics and field trips…