2026 State of School Transportation Report: Key Findings on Attendance and Enrollment
Transportation teams tell us every day that their department is stretched thinner than it used to be. They know the downstream effects of reduced service: not just burdened operations but impacts on enrollment, attendance, even test scores.
Districts are used to thinking about transportation as a cost to manage. Our 2026 State of School Transportation Report, which draws on survey data from district administrators and parents of K-12 students across the country, shows it’s something else: a strategic lever most districts aren’t fully using.
What the 2026 Report Found
The data makes a clear case that transportation deserves a seat at the table in conversations about attendance, enrollment, and equity. Right now, it’s mostly limited to compliance and logistics conversations. Three-quarters of districts surveyed acknowledge the connection between transportation and student attendance. Almost none are acting on it.
“A district can report fewer shortages and still be worse off than it was five years ago, because it’s absorbed the problem by cutting service rather than solving it,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and Co-Founder of HopSkipDrive. “Districts are being asked to cut transportation costs without the visibility to know where the real savings are, and that’s the same blind spot keeping transportation out of conversations about enrollment and attendance, where it actually has the most leverage.”
What This Year’s Data Reveals
Districts believe transportation affects attendance, but few are tracking that relationship. More than three-quarters (75%) of districts believe transportation access affects attendance, but only 25% are actively tracking that relationship. That gap means most districts are making decisions about routes, staffing, and service cuts without the data to know what those decisions will cost them in attendance. We’ll look at what closing that gap actually requires.
Driver shortages are causing longer rides, missed pickups, and burned-out staff. The majority (71%) of districts have experienced at least one tangible operational consequence of driver shortages in the past year. Every one of those consequences eventually shows up somewhere else, whether that’s in attendance, in staff turnover, or in a parent’s decision to keep their child home rather than deal with an unreliable ride.
Most districts are being asked to cut transportation costs, but they don’t have full visibility into what it actually costs to transport a student. Almost two-thirds (61%) of districts don’t know their cost per student for district-provided transportation, and only 9% have completed a formal cost of ownership analysis for district-owned vans and non-bus vehicles, or “white fleets.” Cost mandates without proper financial insight often result in cuts to the line items that are most visible, such as routes, driver hours, and service levels. Meanwhile, the costs that are hardest to see keep costing what they always cost. Without that visibility, districts risk cutting the services that are working and leaving the inefficiencies untouched.
Students experiencing homelessness often wait days for a ride they’re legally owed immediately. Only 14% of districts can arrange a same-day ride for a student who is identified as experiencing homelessness, and 31% require three or more days’ notice, despite a legal mandate for transportation without delay. Given how frequently these students’ housing situations change, that delay can mean the difference between a student making it to school and a student accumulating unexcused absences through no fault of their own.
Families are choosing schools based on whether transportation is available. Nearly half of parents (49%) cite transportation availability as a major factor in choosing their child’s current school. Among charter and private school parents, the families districts are actively trying to win back, that number is even higher: 79% and 82%, respectively, say they’d consider switching schools for better transportation alone, even with no academic improvement. Almost half (44%) of parents have already seriously considered switching their child’s school over transportation problems. This isn’t a future risk. It’s happening now, and most districts aren’t tracking it as a cause. For districts facing enrollment declines, transportation is a lever sitting in plain sight, and one that costs far less to pull than a new curriculum, a rebrand, or a community outreach campaign.
Transportation rarely comes up when districts talk about chronic absenteeism. Transportation is part of the conversation 49% of the time when districts discuss vulnerable populations, but only 32% of the time when they discuss chronic absenteeism. That disconnect means one of the most fixable drivers of absenteeism is often left out of the room when districts are trying to solve it.
