Using Public Transit for School Commute Linked to Higher Absenteeism
March 20, 2019
By: Linda Jacobson
Source: Education Dive
Dive Brief:
- As more metropolitan school districts cut back on student transportation to save money, a recent study focusing on Baltimore City Public Schools — an open enrollment district — shows that relying on public transportation to get to school is associated with increases in absenteeism.
Dive Insight:
Little research on absenteeism, the researchers write, has “examined the association between how students get to school and whether they get to school.” But in Baltimore, the study says, 90% of high school students attend a school that is more than 1.5 miles from where they live, which qualifies them to receive a bus pass for the Maryland Transit Administration system. Other metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, New York, Denver and San Francisco, have also eliminated pupil transportation for some proportion of their student population, in part to save money but also because of the “logistical challenges” of school choice policies “that detach school enrollment from residential location,” the authors write.