In May, Rachel Taradash addressed the Select Board to express concerns about families living within two miles of Swampscott Elementary losing school bus service.
“For the first year of the new elementary school, Swampscott offered school buses for families living 1.6 miles or more from the elementary school,” Taradash said on May 7. “I am grateful to say that my children have taken that bus every single day, with the exception of one timing mishap.”
A week before speaking to the Select Board, Taradash and other Swampscott families were notified that those living within two miles of the school would lose bus service.
“Families impacted by this change include a large number of families surrounding the Clarke School potentially going back as far as Essex Street and Stentson (Avenue),” Taradash said. “Without the bus, our children would have to cross Paradise Road, a road where cars don’t stop for red lights or even other cars.”
Now, Taradash’s concerns are a reality.
Citing budget constraints, the Swampscott School District eliminated one of its buses. The bus had been added the previous year, when three elementary schools combined into one, “out of an abundance of caution to reduce traffic at the new Swampscott Elementary,” according to Superintendent Jason Calichman. But it might be indicative of a bigger trend.
“It is too early to say how it has been working so far,” Calichman said.
Massachusetts policy guarantees free transportation for K–6 students who live more than two miles from school and over a mile from the nearest bus stop.
Taradash cited Massachusetts Department of Transportation data showing that Paradise Road accounts for one-third of all crashes in Swampscott.
“This averages nearly one accident per week,” Taradash said. “Increased bus service means safe routes to school for young children. It means fewer cars on the road. It means working parents can continue working.”
There is an exception to the Massachusetts Department of Education’s policy when “road conditions do not provide for the physical safety of the children and when the health of students make this service essential.”
Swampscott, however, is not the only school district that is facing budget constraints and the need to cut transportation programs.
In June, the Revere School Committee unanimously approved a plan to close a $1.3 million transportation shortfall by cutting high school busing and service for middle schoolers living within two miles of school. Instead, students would receive a CharlieCard Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) pass.
Stoughton Public School announced last year that 150 students would go without transportation after needing to cut one school bus.
Beyond budget cuts, a nationwide driver shortage is pushing districts to trim routes, cut stops, and shift transportation burdens to families. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the driver shortage stems from “more than a decade of disinvestment” and reflects a broader underfunding of public schools.
In 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) reported that nearly half of students rely on school buses. As of 2024, there were 12.4% fewer school bus drivers on the road than in September 2019, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
“As long-term declines in funding for public schools generate a cascade of damaging consequences for students, their families, and their broader communities, it is particularly important to have services as basic as bus transportation functioning effectively,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. “Roughly half of school children rely on bus services to get to school. Reduced and unstable bus services cause school delays, disrupt learning time, and contribute to absenteeism.”
Safe Routes Partnership has noted this issue isn’t even just a local challenge.
“School districts all across the country are struggling to balance budgets and save money,” the organization wrote. “When school districts face financial challenges, a common target for cuts are the school transportation system by cutting back bus routes, trimming the number of bus stops, or widening the walk radius around a school.”
The nonprofit national organization, which works to advance walking and rolling to schools, noted that the lack of bus routes or stops “without a simultaneous and planned effort to address student safety concerns” leads to more traffic congestion, higher costs to parents, and poorer air quality overall.
“When school transportation is transformed from a public service that every family can use to a private responsibility, some families—and especially low-income families—will have a much harder time finding a workable alternative,” the Economic Policy Institute wrote. “The current bus driver shortage is a result of more than a decade of disinvestment in these workers and reflects a broader trend of underfunding public schools. The unfair burden of these disruptions is most damaging to the education and well-being of the students who need it the most, particularly those from low-income families.”
