Committee approves $600,000 pilot for student bus-routing software, requires district reporting

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved a one-time $600,000 general-fund appropriation for a student-transportation routing-software pilot and adopted language requiring participating districts to report cost and savings data. Jared Tetro, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee the division’s original request was for $5 million and that committee reductions had reduced the request to the current pilot amount.