As the new school year begins, yellow school buses are once again a familiar sight on the roads.
But those large vehicles come with a hefty price tag. In 2025, the average cost of a new school bus ranges from $90,000 to $140,000, not including ongoing expenses like maintenance and insurance.
Faced with rising transportation costs, some districts are eyeing public transit as a potential alternative—particularly for older students. In large metropolitan cities like Chicago and New York, eligible secondary school students already receive free or discounted metro passes. But for other communities, the switch isn’t so simple.
“Everybody should look into it, but I’m aware that not everybody is going to have the same circumstances that we have here in Seattle,” said Steven Richard, the director of transportation for Seattle public schools.
Here are some factors school leaders should consider before exploring a potential partnership with their local transit agency.
Cost
Getting students to and from school isn’t cheap.
Nationwide, the United States spent more than $28 billion on student transportation in the 2018-19 school year, according to federal data. State laws vary on when and for whom districts must provide transportation, usually based on how far students live from school, and states differ in whether they fund transportation or leave it up to local districts.
Public transit may offer savings, but it’s not free. Some cities, like Seattle, offer free rides for riders 18 and under. Others do not.
In Miami-Dade County, Fla., for example, the district receives funding for each student who qualifies for school bus transportation, said James Hicks, the administrative director of transportation for the school system.
In Cincinnati, switching to transit saved money. Chris Burkhardt, the chief operating officer for Cincinnati public schools, said it costs about $3,000 per student to transport them by school bus compared to just $350 per student using the city’s metro system. This fall, the district transitioned primarily 7th and 8th graders to public transit, excluding those who have school transportation accommodations.
Why the gap in cost?
Burkhardt pointed to several factors: The district must still provide yellow bus service for younger students and those whose Individualized Education Programs require transportation accommodations. And because Cincinnati has school choice, the school system must provide transportation not just for district students, but also for private and charter school students across the city. That drives up the per-student cost.
Safety
One major concern: who students are riding with.
The only people on a yellow school bus are students, Hicks said, and sometimes educators. School bus drivers transport students directly from designated stops to school. City transit drivers, by contrast, operate routes open to the general public.
Still, some leaders argue that public transit prepares students for real life.
“As you get older, as you get into secondary school, these are spaces that you need to learn how to navigate, and this is the best way to nudge yourself to sort of take baby steps into the adult world,” Seattle’s Richard said.
Communication
Transitioning to public transit takes more than logistics—it takes trust.
Burkhardt said consistent communication with city leaders, families, and community groups has been crucial.
That includes answering practical questions: “How to insert the card into the fare box, for example, [or] what to do if you’ve lost your card,” Burkhardt said, “so there’s a lot of those types of questions that students and parents and caregivers have prior to even getting on the bus to begin with.”
To smooth the transition, the Cincinnati district created a detailed communication plan: TikTok-style social videos explaining the system, local news interviews, and school-based orientations where families can ask questions. Parents can even ride free with their child during the first week of school.
To further build confidence, extra Metro staff members are stationed at major transit centers along with police officers to help ensure student safety.
“We know that students are safe because we have roughly 13,000 students traversing Metro, both in the morning and the afternoon,” Burkhardt said. “That’s 26,000 transactions per day, times 180 days—that’s almost 5 million transactions of those you’ll hear about, just a handful of fights or issues or ‘incidents.’ Five out of 5 million really shows how safe it is to traverse our metro system.”
Infrastructure
Public transit is only a realistic option where the infrastructure already exists.
“You wouldn’t want to put a city bus system out there just for high school,” Richard said. “If it’s not already there, then that’s not going to work out for you.”
In rural or suburban areas, students may live too far apart or lack safe walking routes to bus stops. Overcrowding at stops or long wait times could pose challenges.
Timeline
A move this big takes time.
The Cincinnati district sent the city’s metro system the home and school locations for each student to map out potential routes.
The goal? Ensure every student’s commute can be covered in 15 minutes.
Burkhardt said the district and Metro were able to turn the “concept to be operational within about six months,” but clarified that the timeframe depends on external factors such as the size of the school district.
Clarification, Aug. 22, 2025: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Tony Stillwell’s last name in a photo caption.
