While alternative transportation providers frequently carry children with medical or behavioral challenges and students covered by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, they also have a solid record of coming to the rescue in other situations.
The Louisville High School in Los Angeles does not currently have any students experiencing homelessness or medical issues, but its administrators received word two years ago from the school’s bus contractor that it was unable to cover a route. “We’re an all-girls Catholic school, and enrollment is really important. We felt an obligation to those students, so we were looking for alternatives,” explained Tara Shuler, the school’s attendance manager.
Louisville High belonged to a transportation consortium with other local private schools, which is how Shuler first heard of HopSkipDrive. Louisville, along with its all-boys brother school in Encino, Crespi, opted to retain the alternative transportation company. “We had a lot of cars coming and going on that very first year and had some siblings going to both schools,” said Shuler.
“The drivers are all vetted and background checked, so you know you’re not just putting your kid in an Uber with some random person who decided to sign up,” she continued. “I think that gave our families confidence in the beginning .. and then it went forward with no real hiccups. They were rock solid from day one.”
Noting the school also needs after-school and evening routes, Shuler said the alternative transportation option enabled the school to continue both. “We really modeled it after our buses and it worked out,” she added.
Without the alternative transportation option, Shuler said she believes the school likely would have lost “quite a few kids” due to L.A. traffic. “Parents work so they can’t get to the other side of town and they’re not going to drive them an hour to school and then an hour back to get to work,” she added.
The nation’s leading alternative transportation providers may stake out their own territories or compete head-to-head in places, but they all agree that nothing is more important than safety when it comes to getting students with behavioral challenges where they need to be when they need to be there. A crucial component of managing those students is the recruitment and retention of drivers who share that commitment.
The alternative service was scaled back last year when the bus company was again able to cover one route, but the HopSkipDrive service was a “nice alternative for us to get our students to school and home safely and not having a bus,” noted Shuler. “It was what we did to fill the gap where we didn’t have a bus.”
She praised the provider for its “phenomenal” communication, calling and texting to share information about a late driver change due to illness, a car slowed in heavy traffic or if there was another issue.
Noting she had worked years ago at Nordstrom’s, a retailer which is known for setting the gold standard in customer care, Shuler said of HopSkipDrive, “They made it so easy to work with them. Their customer service was like Nordstrom’s. There was never any issue they didn’t take care of,” she concluded.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -HopSkipDrive today announced a significant expansion in its ability to meet the transportation needs of all students, enabling schools and school districts to seamlessly and directly book rides for students needing wheelchair-accessible vehicles, Rider Assistants, and car seats. With this development, school districts around the country will be able to solve even more student transportation challenges through HopSkipDrive’s unmatched technology-driven safety approach and operational expertise, and can learn more with a sign-up here.
“All children, especially those with disabilities, deserve a safe, reliable ride in a vehicle that meets their specific needs with adults who are fully prepared to support them,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and Co-Founder of HopSkipDrive. “Rising chronic absenteeism rates make clear that existing school transportation industry options leave behind students with unique needs.”
With more than 5 million rides across 95 million safe miles completed on its platform, HopSkipDrive continues to raise the bar for student transportation. The company supports over 600 school districts by supplementing yellow buses with a network of extensively vetted CareDrivers — local caregivers on wheels — through a care-centered transportation marketplace.
With the launch of these three new transportation offerings this fall, HopSkipDrive will provide schools and school districts with even more resources, all backed by rigorous safety standards and industry-leading Safe Ride TechnologyTM. Transportation teams can use HopSkipDrive’s ride management platform, RideIQ, to easily and simply book, track, and manage all rides in one place, and staff can get full visibility with Daily Queue, which provides a customized view for all HopSkipDrive rides for students at their school location.
Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicles and Rider Assistants
Following a successful pilot earlier this year, HopSkipDrive is expanding the availability of Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle rides and Rider Assistants to all cities in which the company operates. These rides are fulfilled by CarePartners, local professionals who undergo HopSkipDrive’s rigorous and comprehensive certification process, including name- and fingerprint-based background checks, clearing child abuse and neglect screenings where available, and enrolling in continuous criminal monitoring. Like all CareDrivers, they complete HopSkipDrive onboarding and a virtual orientation course. CarePartner drivers for Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle rides also undergo driving record screens, vehicle inspections, and more.
To meet the needs of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and those who thrive most when an additional adult is in the vehicle, HopSkipDrive offers a Rider Assistant for schools to book to join the CareDriver or CarePartner driver on the ride. The Rider Assistant will provide informed and compassionate support for the rider when needed.
HopSkipDrive continues to lead in forward-thinking safety measures by directly managing driver and Rider Assistant vetting, onboarding, and compliance. This unique approach sets HopSkipDrive apart in the student transportation industry, offering schools valuable features such as the Safe Ride Support system and enhanced Must Be Met process to support the development of new rider services all delivered with the company’s signature tracking and notification systems.
Car Seat Program
In select cities, schools and school districts can select HopSkipDrive’s car seat program for students whose height and weight, typically between the ages of four to six, require a car seat. CareDrivers can only opt in to fulfill these rides after completing comprehensive car seat safety education and using only the forward-facing car seat model approved by HopSkipDrive and Safe Kids Worldwide, the leading organization for childhood injury prevention.
HopSkipDrive collaborated with the industry’s leading child safety experts to design and develop the safest possible ride experience. Britney Lombard, who has spent more than a decade as a Safe Kids Worldwide certified Child Passenger Safety Instructor and performed thousands of car seat checks during her tenure, now leads HopSkipDrive’s car seat program. The HopSkipDrive Safety Advisory Council, composed of six leading experts in transportation safety, also played a key role in advising the development of the car seat program to confirm protocols meet the highest standards in the industry.
Compliance is a core principle of the car seat program. Ahead of the implementation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new safety standards, HopSkipDrive proactively selected a car seat model that goes above and beyond these requirements in consultation with the company’s expert advisors.
Safety Leadership, Including In-Ride Recording
HopSkipDrive continues to invest in leading the industry in safety with over 50 products, features, and initiatives woven throughout the ride experience. Over the past year, the company announced nearly a dozen new safety initiatives, including offering in-ride cameras through Safe Ride InSight.
Schools and school districts can request dashcam recording for rides with CareDrivers who have installed SafeRide InSight, which combines visual monitoring with audio recording. HopSkipDrive uses this technology along with advanced telematics to create a solution that’s unmatched in the student transportation industry. First piloted in Arizona and Colorado, the company is continuing to scale this technology to additional markets over the coming months.
About HopSkipDrive
HopSkipDrive is a technology company that solves complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, access, and care. HopSkipDrive is modernizing the $30 billion school transportation industry through two core solutions: a care-centered transportation marketplace and industry-leading transportation intelligence platform, RouteWise AI. HopSkipDrive’s marketplace supplements school buses and existing transportation options by connecting kids to highly vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters, and nurses in local communities. RouteWise AI helps schools and districts address critical challenges, including budget cuts, bus driver shortages, and reaching climate goals. HopSkipDrive has supported over 10,000 schools across 17 states, with over 600 school district partners. More than 5 million rides over 95 million miles have been completed through HopSkipDrive since the company was founded in 2014 by three working mothers.
A webinar discussed how Detroit Public Schools Community District in Michigan utilizes solutions like alternative transportation to combat chronic absenteeism and increase educational access.
Joe Brumfield, vice president of business development for webinar sponsor HopSkipDrive, is a former educator who underscored the importance of school transportation with a story of school bus drivers, “who might as well have been wearing big red capes,” when providing transportation for students displaced from a school that was impacted by the recent fires in Los Angeles County.
“The smiles on [students’] faces within this tragedy was just enough to get us all through,” he shared during the event Thursday. “Transportation is without a doubt the most critical part of the school day.”
Aaron Walter, executive director of transportation for Detroit Public Schools, shared the rampant local poverty levels and how chronic absenteeism was decreasing until the COVID-19 pandemic, when it rose sharply. The school bus driver shortage poses more problems, so multimodal transportation methods in use at the district include school buses, transit buses, taxis, vans, transportation network companies, and gas cards for parents. The options provide the right fits for students with special needs, parents who want more tracking technology, and any other unique requests.
“Without transportation network companies, without HopSkipDrive, we would be hard pressed to figure out how to get students to school right now,” Walter said. “Not every student is best supported by a bus.”
Brumfield referenced bus and staff shortages, budgetary pressures, heightened individualized transportation needs, geographic limitations, inefficient public transportation systems, and more trends reflected in HopSkipDrive’s annual State of School Transportation survey.
He shared that 75 percent of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds face chronic absenteeism levels of about 60 percent, compared to a two percent rate for students who attend affluent schools.
“This is really about students who are furthest away from opportunity,” he said. “Without a solution that really talks about multimodal transportation, I don’t see how we’re going to address chronic absenteeism.”
Walter noted that HopSkipDrive tracks repeated missed transportation pickups so districts can engage with families to learn their needs and ensure their children have educational access. He added that students experiencing homelessness may move around a lot, but the stability of their school, teachers and friends is crucial to their well-being.
For students who are homeless, in foster care, or with disabilities, Walter said that working with HopSkipDrive’s system lets him update or input new information to reroute their transportation vehicle overnight. With parental visibility being so important, bus driver assignments and school arrival notifications are also provided. Brumfield noted that special needs information like a student’s preferred seat, temperature or music can also be provided to drivers and monitors.
Walter said Detroit sends caregivers texts regarding students’ alternative transportation rides, which has reduced calls into the office. Brumfield confirmed that HSD also receives turn-by-turn ride information to take proactive action in the event of a stall or crash.
Both panelists agreed that combining HopSkipDrive’s driver training, driver behavior reports, and student ratings provides districts with helpful metrics and safety oversight.
Walter said Detroit places high value on timely arrivals, as school is likely the first or only place some students receive meals. The missed pickup report is also critical to ensure students are being served and the district isn’t paying for unnecessary services.
Student address and accommodations are the first two factors when deciding what type of vehicle is needed to transport them, Walter said. Legalities must be considered, such as whether a student is the right height and weight to sit in the front seat of the vehicle. Athletic trips, dual credit classes at colleges, and other unique requests must also be fulfilled. In the interest of efficiency, HopSkipDrive can schedule single or recurring trips based on optimized student schedules and needs, Brumfield stated.
Detroit doesn’t transport to schools of choice but will provide transit bus passes, set up different school bus stops, and otherwise work with families. Walter said good relationships with the special education and homeless departments are important in finding solutions that work for everyone.
Chronic absenteeism in schools remains above pre-pandemic levels nationwide. Recent reports show that a primary way to improve attendance is to ensure students have reliable school transportation.
During the presentation, Detroit Public Schools Community District will share how they have leveraged innovative technology and multi-modal transportation plans to address chronic absenteeism while delivering cost savings and driving operational excellence for their district.
This webinar will highlight:
The realities of chronic absenteeism across the country and actionable insights for attendees to bring back to their districts.
How districts can diversify their transportation mix to include buses, vans and small vehicles.
Ways DPSCD improved their attendance rates, while improving their daily operations.
With the school year quickly approaching, this webinar will help provide a framework for attendees to close out the year strong and set transportation and operations teams up for success next school year.
Brought to you by HopSkipDrive
REGISTER BELOW:
Speakers:
Aaron Walter Executive Director of Transportation
Detroit Public Schools Community District
Joe Brumfield
VP Business Development
HopSkipDrive
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – HopSkipDrive, a technology company solving complex transportation
challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, access, and care, today announced the appointments of David Katcher as Chief Operating Officer and Tyler Baldwin as Chief Revenue Officer.
Katcher and Baldwin bring extensive leadership experience across transportation, care, and
marketplace companies. Their appointments reflect HopSkipDrive’s continued investment in
scaling its operations and expanding its national footprint to ensure all students have access to safe, reliable transportation.
David Katcher joins HopSkipDrive after serving as COO at Rula, where he led a broad portfolio of go-to-market and operational teams. Under his leadership, Rula expanded from 11 markets to national coverage and launched several new service offerings. He previously held executive rolesat Lyft and AvantStay, overseeing global operations and field teams of 600+ employees. “I’m energized by HopSkipDrive’s mission to create mobility for all, and I’m excited to build the systems and services that allow us to scale with quality,” said Katcher. “Transportation is a gateway to opportunity, and we are here to make sure that access is never out of reach.”
Tyler Baldwin joins from CharterUP, where he served as CRO and led the revenue organization through a period of rapid growth, increasing gross bookings from $120M to over $200M. He has also served in executive roles at Reali and LinkedIn, building high-performing teams and launching scalable go-to-market strategies.
“I’m thrilled to help drive the next phase of growth for HopSkipDrive,” said Baldwin. “This is a company with demonstrated product-market fit, an inspiring mission, and a platform that truly makes a difference in communities. There’s a massive opportunity to support more school districts across the country, and we’re just getting started.”
“David and Tyler are incredible leaders with a deep commitment to impact, and their expertise will be instrumental as we continue to grow and expand our footprint,” said Joanna McFarland, Co-Founder and CEO of HopSkipDrive. “Their appointments reinforce our focus on quality, safety, and service at scale as we partner with more districts and solve the complex challenges of student transportation.”
HopSkipDrive’s announcement follows a string of recent milestones, including new district
partnerships, the launch of the new RouteWise AI planning platform to help schools optimize their transportation networks, and the announcement of new safety products, features, and initiatives.
About HopSkipDrive:
HopSkipDrive is a technology company that solves complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, access, and care. HopSkipDrive is modernizing the $30 billion school transportation industry through two core solutions: a care-centered transportation marketplace and industry-leading routing software, RouteWise AI. HopSkipDrive’s marketplace supplements school buses and existing transportation options by connecting kids to highly vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters, and nurses in local communities. RouteWise AI helps schools and districts address critical challenges, including budget cuts, bus driver shortages, and reaching climate goals. HopSkipDrive has supported over 10,000 schools across 17 states, with over 600 school district partners. More than five million rides over 95 million miles have been completed through HopSkipDrive since the company was founded in 2014 by three working mothers.
Despite hesitancy with artificial intelligence, Denver Public Schools learned with partner HopSkipDrive to optimize its school-bus routes with AI-driven software.
“I think that there’s a nervousness that AI will take over the world and get rid of the need of routing,” said Tyler Maybee, director of operations for transportation services at Denver Public Schools. “I honestly think this is just seen as a time saver and a way to create a really functional base level of understanding for a particular routing team. I think it’s meant to be a support tool. It’s never meant to replace … I’m not looking to reduce my staff because I use RouteWise AI.”
Maybee explained that during the pandemic, DPS formed a partnership with HopSkipDrive’s alternative transportation services for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act transportation. He explained that busing students protected by the federal law is sometimes inefficient because they are often located far from their home schools.
It was around early 2022 that the company brought up its idea of an AI solution to DPS.
“We’re a very innovative district, and we always jump on board any type of chance to help push the boundaries of transportation,” said Maybee, who has a data background. Before joining DPS, he served as a data analyst for a non-profit, One Earth Future Foundation.
He explained that when HopSkipDrive presented the RouteWise idea, he thought it could work well for the district.
“We partnered with them, signed an agreement to share data, and we worked with them on parts of the tool that would be beneficial for our business. We created basically the whole thing together,” he added.
Corey McMahon, chief product and technology officer at HopSkipDrive, said RouteWise AI officially launched in 2023 and the software “is a planning tool that helps districts make smarter and faster transportation decisions.
“What it does is it analyzes all their data, ridership, vehicles, traffic policies and it gives them customized routing scenarios that can save them time, money, reduce emissions, reduce student time in transit, whatever their district priorities are,” he continued.
He explained that when districts sign on, they’re paired with the RouteWise AI team of experts, consisting of former directors, routers and consultants from the industry. McMahon said the experts sit down with the district to understand constraints, policies and goals. From there, they build out a custom AI model specifically to represent their transportation system.
“That AI model generates thousands of scenarios, and from those produces optimized results based on their priorities,” he said, adding that districts can then adjust, tweak or tune them through their existing tools. The software is routing software agnostic and integrates with the district’s existing routing software.
A new function is the insights dashboard, which compares data points on a national level. It launched at the start of the year and McMahon said it serves as a spot for district leaders to see all their data in one place. Recently, a national benchmark function was added, which gives district leaders a chance to compare student ride times, cost per student, and bus utilization rates against their peers.
HopSkipDrive insights dashboard
Maybee explained that one of the data points DPS looks at on the dashboard is the utilization percentage. “For us, that’s kind of an important thing, making sure that our buses are full and that our buses are being well utilized,” he said.
Another function is its new feature for on-time arrival. “It kind of gives us the overall picture of which segments (segment is one run of service for a school) in our in a route package that are a potential risk for running late, based on the number of students that are on there … depending on the variability of traffic.”
McMahon said the lateness factor is determined by looking at how tight the routes are. “If everything has to go perfectly for a bus to be on time, it has a high lateness risk,” he explained. “If there is flexibility in the system for unexpected events, student comes out late, late traffic, etc., then your lateness risk is lower.”
By implementing the software, DPS has saved more than $500,000 annually. Maybee said the software is primarily being used to evaluate start times and adjust bell times. He explained that all secondary schools recently moved to an 8:20 a.m. or later start time, and DPS used the tool to inform decisions around bell time adjudgments, which resulted in the savings.
“We’ve worked with them a couple more times to look at our current state route packages, and they’ve given us a couple suggestions on merging some routes together, or putting bus packages together into one bus and taking a bus off the road that has saved us money,” he said, adding that the software will also recommend taking one student off a particular route to save time. “Their tool is pretty service agnostic. It’s not going to favor putting students on a vendor over putting them on a yellow bus. Their philosophy is generally, if we make a school district’s transportation system healthy, then there’s a natural spot for [alternative transportation] to exist, because there’s always going to be students that are inefficient in the overall system.”
Maybee added that the software is not meant to replace an existing routing provider or routers.
“We’re never going to lose routers because of this software,” he said. “It’s meant to be an additional set of eyes and a starting point to build routes. There are always going to be things that our routers know that that system does not. I have kids that are better suited to be on a yellow bus, and we put them on a yellow bus, even if it’s quote, unquote not efficient, but it’s the right thing to do for that student’s needs. And that’s something that our routers know and that our computer system is never going to know, but it at least gives you an 85 percent solution to get you in the right direction, to provide you the space that you need.”
Data Driven
As for the safety element of using RouteWise AI, Maybee related back to the lateness factor of the program. “In terms of buses running on time, you’re reducing your risk of danger zone infractions, as students aren’t running to get on the bus quickly or crossing a dangerous street.”
He said the software understands the factors that a router inputs, such as right-side only picks up that eliminate the need for students to cross the street, no highway travel, etc.
“It manipulates routes with the data that you provide, so it wouldn’t put a bus stop, for example, in the middle of a busy street,” he said.
McMahon said the challenge for increased safety is the entire ecosystem from the strain of the school bus driver shortage to inefficient routes. “You have a lot of chaos at pickup and drop off, where you have late routes, you have overcrowded busses or underutilized busses, etc. And so, reducing that chaos, minimizing ride times, and making sure that people are where they need to be, when they need to be there,” he said of elements that make pupil transportation safer. “If you have busses arriving late, you have students waiting in unsafe areas. And there’s a number of safety implications, as you can imagine there.”
Maybee added that by using the software, the amount of time it has taken for the routing team to get the entire school year up and running has been significantly reduced. “We kind of have a starting spot with the solution presented for RouteWise AI, that we can then implement as our base layer and build from there,” he said. “We have massive time reductions within our routing team, which allows them to pay attention to detail better, and allows them to take care of the accommodations and take care of the students that need to be taken care of at the highest level, really providing better equity in terms of our service.”
McMahon said one of the greatest elements of the insight dashboard is the availability of more data. “What we’re really trying to do is build a transportation intelligence platform that allows leaders to look at data from all of these sources as they deploy new technology, whether that’s cameras or telematics or ridership tracking or anything out there, they need a way to make sense of it all, and so that’s really where the dashboard is trying to fit in.”
Maybee concluded by saying there is a fear about AI in student transportation. But he cautioned other districts to not feed into the misconception.
“We’re the content experts, and a computer is never going to fully know what we know,” he said. “And I agree with that statement, but I also think that a computer has a better sense of being able to understand the entire picture and giving a solution that has at least the context of the entire picture that you can then kind of manipulate from there. We were surprised with some of the combinations that it came up with. …It never makes sense to just turn on RouteWise AI have it create things and then just like, spit it out and say, okay ‘Driver, go do this.’ That’s not going to lead to beneficial day-to-day service.”
LOS ANGELES, Cali. -HopSkipDrive today announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind AI-driven transportation planning platform as part of its RouteWise AI software.
This new offering delivers a major advancement to school districts focused on safe, reliable, and efficient transportation options. It provides comprehensive visibility into unlimited scenarios and national benchmarks, with artificial intelligence analyzing thousands of possibilities, including the risk of delays at existing bus stops and the impact of changing bell times.
Launched in 2023, HopSkipDrive’s RouteWise AI software has helped dozens of school districts around the country improve on-time arrivals, reduce transportation cost by up to 20%, and address chronic labor shortages.
For instance, Denver Public Schools implemented RouteWise AI’s suggestion of increasing the efficiency of small vehicles, leading to savings of more than $500,000 annually. And in Colorado Springs’ District 11, efficiency went up 46% when RouteWise AI increased the share of high-utilization bus routes (defined as 30 students or more), using the same number of drivers and addressing the district’s shortage.
“We’ve been working with RouteWise AI to assess our operational efficiency and support our district in sustaining operations through a driver shortage,” said Veronica Schmidt, transportation director, Snohomish School District in Snohomish, Wash. ”RouteWise AI brings together all of our data – ridership, history traffic, route policies and more – to deliver detailed optimization recommendations that aren’t possible with our current tools.”
The new RouteWise AI dashboard gives district leadership insights into the metrics that matter, including student ride times, costs per rider, and bus utilization rates. Users can compare these metrics against national averages, allowing them to benchmark against peers and track improvements. HopSkipDrive’s team of transportation and change management experts collaborate on the best transportation plan for each district that fit into existing routing software or platforms.
In addition, RouteWise AI is collaborating with EZTransportation, a leading transportation management platform, to deliver seamless end-to-end experiences for school district staff. This reinforces the RouteWise AI “Compatibility Promise” to ensure complementary efforts with, and not replacements to, districts’ existing technologies. This includes the range of solutions EZTransportation provides, such as daily route management, school and parent communication, driver management, fleet maintenance, and activity trip coordination.
“School districts often lack the time or resources to quickly analyze transportation data in one place and implement meaningful changes,” explained Corey McMahon, HopSkipDrive Chief Product and Technology Officer. “RouteWise AI bridges that gap, providing schools’ decision makers, board members and other officials actionable insights directly from their existing routing systems to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately improve student outcomes.”
School districts across the country, including Ohio County Schools in West Virginia, and dozens more, have utilized RouteWise AI. With RouteWise AI and its care-centered transportation marketplace, HopSkipDrive has supported over 10,000 schools.
About HopSkipDrive:
HopSkipDrive is a technology company that solves complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, equity, and care. HopSkipDrive is modernizing the $30 billion school transportation industry through two core solutions: a care-centered transportation marketplace and industry-leading routing software, RouteWise AI. HopSkipDrive’s marketplace supplements school buses and existing transportation options by connecting kids to highly-vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters, and nurses in local communities. RouteWise AI helps schools and districts address critical challenges, including budget cuts, bus driver shortages, and reaching climate goals. HopSkipDrive has supported over 10,000 schools across 17 states, with over 600 school district partners. More than three million rides over 61 million miles have been completed through HopSkipDrive since the company was founded in 2014 by three working mothers.
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, local professionals who undergo HopSkipDrive’s rigorous and comprehensive certification process, including name- and fingerprint-based background checks, clearing child abuse and neglect screenings where available, and enrolling in continuous criminal monitoring. Like all CareDrivers, they complete HopSkipDrive onboarding and a virtual orientation course. CarePartner drivers for Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle rides also undergo driving record screens, vehicle inspections, and more.
