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Albany board hears study recommending phased child-safety-zone transit expansion after youth testimony on missed buses
Summary
After youth speakers urged free or expanded transit, district staff presented a study showing Albany meets the state's child-safety-zone criteria and recommended a phased start (K'5 through 5, one-mile limit) that would add roughly nine buses at an estimated gross cost of $1.24 million and, after expected state reimbursement, a smaller net district share.
Parents, students and youth organizers pressed the Albany City School District board on March 9 to expand transportation for students, saying buses sometimes drive past children who live within 1.5 miles of their schools and that the lack of reliable transit contributes to chronic absenteeism.
District staff followed public comment with a detailed report on the state's child safety zone policy and several implementation scenarios. Ron Leco, the district's director of communications and operations, and Paul Overbball, the consultant who led the child-safety-zone study, told the board that recent regulatory changes and local crime data mean the district qualifies to establish a child safety zone covering the city.
Why it matters: staff said the district's violent-crime statistic cited in their analysis was 10.03% compared with a state average of 3.9%, a metric that can…
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