News Update

Proposal would guarantee free transportation for all California students, reimburse districts

State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, introduced a bill Tuesday that would ensure all TK-12 students in California are offered free transportation to and from school starting in the 2023-24 school year, and that districts are reimbursed for it.

Currently, there’s no state guarantee that students receive free school transportation; it’s up to individual school districts to either operate their own bus program or contract with local transit providers to bus students to and from school. Districts also pay for transportation out of their own apportionment of money through the Local Control Funding Formula.

SB 878 would create a new state fund to reimburse districts for school transportation, but only if districts confirm that it is available to all students. Skinner’s office did not have an estimate Tuesday as to how much that would cost.