Late on the first day: Boston's buses once again fail to bring students on time

Only about a third of buses delivered Boston Public Schools students on time to the first day of classes Thursday, according to data provided by the district. Around 62% of buses arrived within 15 minutes of the starting bell.

While it is typical of most school districts to have a low on-time arrival rate on the first day, the 2024 numbers in Boston were significantly lower than last year, when about 61% of buses got kids to class on time on the first day.

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper attributed some of the drop in performance to the use of a new bus tracking and navigation app, called Zum, which had its first real world debut on Thursday.

"Large-scale change always comes with growing pains," said Skipper in a written statement. "And we are incredibly grateful to all of our bus drivers, operations and school-based staff, and families who are working to help us build an improved transportation system to provide students with safe, reliable, and on-time transportation on a daily basis."

On-time arrival rates have improved since the first day of school on Sept. 5. They jumped to 61% on the second day of school and dipped slightly to 57% on Monday, which was the first day of classes for district kindergarteners. According to a district spokesman, the dip on the kindergarteners' first day was expected because bus staff and families often take extra time to greet each other on the first day.

While there has been an upward trend over the last few days, City Councilor Ed Flynn said the low rates of on-time arrivals are concerning.

"It's a terrible disappointment," said Flynn. "We had so much faith in this new [Zum] app and it has failed our students and BPS families as well."

Flynn said that he's fielded dozens of calls from frustrated parents, many of whom don't have flexible work schedules to accommodate late buses or the financial means to use a rideshare app to get their kids to class. He said he plans to request a hearing with BPS leaders to discuss what went wrong at tomorrow's city council meeting.

Boston Public Schools is currently under a state mandate to ensure that 95% of school buses arrive to school on time each day. The district has made progress on meeting that target since school officials agreed to enter a school improvement plan in 2022 in order to avoid going into state receivership due to a variety of instructional and operational issues, including bus transportation. At that time, BPS reported an 89% on-time arrival rate, but state officials argued that number was a significant overestimate since it did not include the bus routes that went uncovered on a given day.

The school system has since updated its calculations and reached on-time rates of up to 90% last spring. Skipper added that she anticipates continued improvement over the next few weeks as drivers staff and families become more familiar with the new Zum app.