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True efficiency in complex student transportation requires finding the district鈥檚 elusive reserve capacity level

Over the past 50 years, school bus routing has become increasingly complex in response to the growing demands placed by federal, state and local education authorities. Factoring significantly to the growing complexity is the large volume of mid-year route changes necessary to meet these demands.

It is common in many school districts to make thousands of route changes between September and May each year. Routing no longer can be understood as the static process that existed prior to the implementation of IDEA, McKenny-Vento and No Child Left Behind, the addition of magnet and charter schools and the increased complexity of family lifestyles governing where students are picked up and dropped off.

Meeting the demands posed by this volume of mid-year changes without disrupting service to students is impossible without a certain number of empty seats and unused minutes available as a reserve capacity. This reserve is often misunderstood as routing inefficiency by those rightfully concerned with the responsible use of tax dollars.