How School Transportation Shapes Attendance, Stability, and Educational Access for McKinney-Vento Students
A White Paper by
Kim E. Davis, Ph.D.
Practitioner-Researcher, School Transportation & McKinney-Vento Transportation Systems
Transportation Safety and Operations Leader
July 8, 2026
Intellectual Ownership & Practitioner Expertise Statement
This white paper represents original practitioner-research grounded in direct operational experience within school transportation, McKinney-Vento systems, and district-level safety coordination. The frameworks, analyses, and recommendations contained within are uniquely informed by daily district practice and are not derived from university coursework, faculty guidance, or academic research agendas.
All concepts, ideas, and language herein are the intellectual property of the author, Dr. Kim E. Davis. This work may be cited, referenced, or discussed, but it may not be reproduced, adapted, or presented as original scholarship without explicit written permission from the author.
Abstract
This white paper examines the critical role of school transportation in ensuring educational access, attendance stability, and emotional safety for students protected under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Drawing from practitioner experience, field observations, and existing research, it identifies systemic gaps in morning operations, communication patterns, and cross-department coordination that shape the daily experiences of displaced students. Transportation is reframed as a stability system—one that directly influences student outcomes, family continuity, and compliance with federal protections. The paper introduces a high-level conceptual framework designed to guide districts and state agencies in strengthening transportation stability; detailed operational protocols and implementation tools are intentionally reserved for collaborative development.
Executive Summary
Each year, U.S. public schools identify more than one million K–12 students experiencing homelessness, yet districts continue to struggle with consistently applying processes for determining McKinney-Vento eligibility (T.K. Dhaliwal et al., 2026). While schools have made progress in removing enrollment barriers, significant operational barriers persist—particularly in transportation. Staffing shortages, communication gaps, and inadequate data sharing between drivers, transportation offices, and schools directly affect McKinney-Vento (MV) students’ access to stable, timely transportation. Compounding these challenges is the chronic underfunding of McKinney-Vento programs; federal grants remain insufficient and competitive, limiting districts’ ability to identify and support homeless families effectively.
Transportation is the first and last point of contact in a student’s school day. It is a predictor of attendance, safety, and educational stability. For students experiencing homelessness—especially those from families led by mothers, one of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups at risk of family separation (Ariba et al., 2025)—transportation often becomes the only consistent touchpoint in their lives. Yet field observations reveal that many drivers lack understanding of the experiences and needs of homeless students. Even when transportation plans are in place, McKinney-Vento (MV) students continue to face attendance challenges. Drivers are rarely trained on the emotional, safety, and relational needs of these students, nor are they educated on the purpose and protections of the McKinney-Vento Act. As a result, students who ride alone from shelters, motels, or temporary placements often do so without the informed support of the adults responsible for their daily transport.
To strengthen educational stability for this population, transportation must be recognized as an educational intervention—not merely an operational service. This requires route stability, intentional driver training, and the inclusion of transportation staff in conversations about student outcomes. Districts should invest in McKinney-Vento touchpoints across departments, including transportation, school staff, and families. A consistent outreach rhythm, paired with a shared transportation–McKinney-Vento onboarding process, equips families and staff with clear expectations and strengthens identification, communication, and continuity of services.
Action is required at multiple levels. School districts, state agencies, and policymakers must work together to stabilize transportation systems, elevate the role of drivers as frontline educators, and ensure that McKinney-Vento (MV) students receive the consistent, informed, and compassionate support they need to access school and thrive academically.
Section 2
The Problem: Transportation Instability for McKinney-Vento Students
Transportation instability for McKinney-Vento (MV) students does not begin on the road—it begins inside the transportation department itself. Chronic driver shortages, low wages, and limited professional development create an environment of internal instability long before a bus ever reaches a student experiencing homelessness. Highly mobile youth (HMY) already face frequent residential moves, disrupted routines, and barriers to engaging in regular school activities (Cazares-Minero, Huang, & Bishop, 2025). When the transportation system they rely on is equally unstable, the result is a compounding of vulnerabilities rather than a mitigation of them. For this reason, district transportation offices must be understood not merely as logistical units but as potential stabilizing anchors in the educational lives of McKinney-Vento (MV) students.
Transportation is already recognized as integral to educational access for students with disabilities, requiring complex coordination and influencing inclusion and exclusion practices (Comeau, Chan, Buliung, Lewis, & Ross, 2025). Globally, accessible school transportation remains a challenge, with barriers such as driver shortages, insufficiently equipped buses, negligent or untrained driver practices, excessive travel times, and unreliable pick-up and drop-off schedules. These same barriers disproportionately affect McKinney-Vento (MV) students, who depend on consistent, predictable transportation to maintain school stability—the very purpose of the McKinney-Vento Act.
The current compensation and staffing structure in many transportation departments does not attract the most qualified or emotionally prepared individuals. High turnover is the norm, not the exception. For students experiencing homelessness—who often rely on the bus driver as their first and last point of contact each school day—this revolving door of adults erodes trust, predictability, and emotional safety. Without McKinney-Vento-specific and trauma-informed training, drivers are left to interpret student behaviors without context, often relying on guesswork, assumptions, or other channels rather than guidance grounded in policy and child development.
Compounding this is the siloed nature of transportation operations. Communication gaps between supervisors, drivers, and school-based staff create fragmented systems where critical information about student needs, safety concerns, or family circumstances is not shared. This isolation undermines the very stability the McKinney-Vento Act seeks to guarantee. When transportation is unstable, McKinney-Vento (MV) students experience the consequences first: missed pickups, long delays, unpredictable routing, emotional distress, and ultimately declining attendance—one of the strongest predictors of academic disengagement.
Professionalizing school transportation—through improved salaries, structured training, trauma-informed practices, and intentional cross-department collaboration—is not merely a logistical improvement. It is a student stability intervention. For McKinney-Vento (MV) students, the school bus is often the only consistent environment they encounter during periods of displacement. When transportation systems function with stability, coordination, and care, they become a protective factor. When they do not, they become another barrier in a child’s already disrupted educational journey.
Section 3
Why It Matters: Attendance, Safety, and Collaboration
Transportation matters because it directly shapes student attendance, safety, and access, making it a critical component of any educational intervention. Unlike small to medium enterprises (SME) where interdepartmental collaboration is standard practice, education systems often lack cross-system coordination and data-sharing protocols, creating gaps for students who move throughout these structures (Cazares-Minero, Huang, & Bishop, 2025). Transportation leaders and drivers hold daily, first-hand knowledge of student behaviors, routines, and emerging concerns—information that is rarely captured or shared but deeply relevant to a child’s developmental and educational experience. While transportation is often viewed as a logistical service focused on reliability and safe passage, its role extends further: drivers create stability through their presence, observe patterns that school staff cannot see, and contribute valuable data that should be integrated into school-level decision-making and student support.
School bus drivers play an integral role in the educational experience of every student who boards and deboards their bus each day. They are responsible for safely maneuvering a 40-foot vehicle while simultaneously managing behavioral challenges in a firm, consistent, and supportive manner (Carey & Phillips, 2024). Drivers must be able to recognize and intervene in situations involving bullying, emotional distress, or signs of abuse, fulfilling their role as mandated reporters within the broader school safety structure. Their work often unfolds amid road hazards, unpredictable weather, medical needs, route changes, and shifting stops—conditions that require deep knowledge of individual student needs and strong situational awareness. In this way, transportation is not simply operational; it is a daily point of contact where student well-being is observed, protected, and supported.
Given these responsibilities, school bus drivers are essential contributors to making in-person learning possible. They create the conditions for students to arrive safely, consistently, and ready to engage. The question, then, is how to position drivers in their rightful place within the educational ecosystem—recognized not only for the logistical service they provide but for the relational, developmental, and safety-centered roles they play in the lives of students.
Section 4
Field Evidence: Practitioner-Scholar Insights Across Student Populations
A recent example of an operational disruption on a morning route demonstrated how delays, routing inconsistencies, and communication gaps within a transportation department affect all student populations—general education, special education, and McKinney-Vento (MV) students alike.
When another driver’s bus experienced a mechanical failure that prevented the door from opening and closing properly, the assigned driver was still completing the previous drop-off and the mechanic had only just arrived at 8:00 AM. With no immediate communication from dispatch and no contingency plan activated, the elementary route was minutes away from becoming another example of the chronic instability routinely observed: late arrivals, missed pickups, and unpredictable routing that disrupt the school day for students across programs. Drawing on my practitioner judgment, I assessed my schedule and determined I could assume the route without compromising my responsibilities to my assigned McKinney-Vento (MV) student. At 8:05 AM, I radioed the driver and offered to take the elementary run, ensuring all students—regardless of program classification—arrived safely and on time. Upon boarding, students responded with immediate regulation and familiarity; they engaged in their preferred literacy game, led by a third-grade student. This stands in contrast to other mornings when delays or inconsistent routing have left students dysregulated, confused about pickup locations, or reporting stressors such as uncertainty about whether the bus would arrive.
Parent reactions further underscored the importance of relational continuity: several expressed relief at seeing me back on the route while others noting their frustration when I had previously been removed from the route. Their feedback reflects a pattern I have witnessed across the year—families, regardless of program status, rely heavily on transportation staff for predictability, communication, and reassurance, especially when attendance is already fragile. This single incident illustrates how practitioner-level intervention can temporarily stabilize a system marked by structural gaps, while also highlighting a broader truth: transportation instability is not a niche inconvenience but a recurring barrier that affects general education students, students with special needs, and McKinney-Vento (MV) students, shaping their attendance patterns, emotional regulation, and daily access to school.
Section 5
Research Connections: What the Literature Says
Attendance and Academic Outcomes
The ability to offer critical resources to displaced families begins with schools being able to identify families that are in a homeless crisis and provide services to families that help minimize mobility, increase student attendance, and support their educational achievement (Dhaliwal et al., 2026). Although the McKinney-Vento Act establishes this responsibility, researchers question whether districts consistently identify eligible students or fully implement required services. When identification fails, students in key transition grades—kindergarten, 9th, and 12th—along with those facing eviction, lacking transportation, or at risk of suspension, are disproportionately affected. Even students who are identified and receive transportation plans through case managers and McKinney-Vento liaisons continue to struggle with chronic absenteeism, signaling gaps in implementation and follow-through.
Mobility and Trauma
In High Income Countries, (HIC) one study points to 38.5% of families experiencing homelessness are headed by single mothers (Ariba et al., 2025). With gender attached to the problem, homelessness seen through a gender-specific lens shows there may be other factors peculiar to women’s experiences that are distinctly shaped by these gender-specific factors including domestic violence, financial insecurity, and systemic poverty. Youth in foster care, who comprise one group of Highly Mobile Youth (HMY) usually experience neglect or physical, emotional, or sexual abuse (Cazares-Minero, Huang, & Bishop, 2025). Karabanow (2025), points out that the more recent definition of homeless youth is more focused on the familial, behavioral, and systematic. This presents the case why transportation departments should employ more trauma-informed care practices for driver professional development as drivers encounter these students every day and need training on how to engage with them on the bus socially and emotionally. School bus drivers are uniquely positioned to better serve these displaced and often traumatized youth groups.
Importance of Stable Routines
Mothering in the context of homelessness is a different concept. The constraints placed upon the mother often encompasses poverty, housing instability, and exposure to gender-based violence (Ariba et. al, 2025). The difficulty in creating a stable routine for children in risky situations such as shelters, abandoned buildings or public spaces where there are no institutional regulations or privacy undermine a mother’s role and increases psychological distress. These things coupled with fluctuating income can attract the attention of child welfare authorities further exacerbating the problem viewing the mother as a failure to parenting.
Transportation as a Barrier to Access
Transportation is one of the most overlooked determinants of whether a child can reliably access school. When transportation is unreliable or unavailable, attendance drops, learning time disappears, and vulnerable students are disproportionately harmed. Transportation is a gatekeeper to educational opportunity for K-12 students. The benefits of instruction time, meals, counseling, and other enrichment activities all pertain to whether a child can physically reach school. When transportation falters, access collapses. With a growing shortage of school bus drivers, according to a survey of school transportation directors, 52% of the respondents claimed that “driver shortage is…(their)… number one problem/concern” (Carey and Phillips, 2024). For many students attending public schools in the U.S., the only way to get to and from school is by riding a school bus. Thus, transportation barriers can disproportionately impact low-income families, rural students, students with disabilities and McKinney-Vento (MV) students.
McKinney-Vento Protections and Compliance Issues
Transportation must be provided when needed to ensure school stability and remove barriers to attendance and districts across the country struggle to comply. These failures create systemic barriers that disproportionately harm students experiencing homelessness and further undermine both federal protections and educational equity. While every district must have a McKinney-Vento Liaison/District Homeless Liaison (DHL) who oversees identification and support, state education agencies are tasked with monitoring district identification and providing assistance to their constituents (Dhaliwal et al., 2026). Under McKinney-Vento, eligible students have the right to remain in their school of origin, receive transportation, and access transportation services that remove barriers to attendance. Transportation cannot be denied because a student lives in a walk zone, a route is inconvenient, or a district lacks drivers. When safety concerns, domestic violence, or disability are present, those protections take precedence over local transportation policies.
Districts often fall short in compliance under McKinney-Vento when there are delays in arranging transportation causing students to miss days or weeks of school. At times, there are inter-district disputes over cost-sharing, even though the law requires collaboration and does not allow delays. At the top of the compliance list is the failure to identify students experiencing homelessness, often due to funding associated with the act (Dhaliwal et al., 2026), and further a lack of training for transportation staff. Without reliable transportation, students experiencing homelessness face repeated school changes, compounding trauma, and widening achievement gaps.
Section 6
System Gaps in Transportation Operations
Persistent delays in school transportation routes reveal significant systemic gaps in daily operational practices. Each morning, transportation supervisors spend substantial time “moving pieces on the chessboard” to compensate for driver absences. When a driver is out, the common response is to redistribute routes—often combining multiple runs onto a single bus—and communicating these changes to drivers through text messages. These adjustments are frequently assigned to veteran drivers who possess broad familiarity with district routes, but reliance on informal knowledge rather than standardized procedure introduces considerable variability and risk.
The consequences of these practices are immediately visible. Parents frequently contact transportation offices to ask whether a bus will arrive for morning pickup, signaling a lack of reliable communication protocols and eroding trust in the system. These concerns compound existing driver shortages; when even one driver is absent, the strain on an already overextended operation intensifies. Students with special needs, who depend heavily on routine and predictability, experience disruptions that can affect their entire school day. Likewise, parents attempting to maintain their own work schedules face frustration and uncertainty when routes are delayed.
Research supports these observations. In a study conducted by Prakasha et al. (2026), one transportation director noted that daily operations require navigating difficult conversations with parents not only about delayed routes but also about student behavior. Without a standardized communication protocol—beyond text messages that drivers may misinterpret—miscommunication becomes cyclical and persists throughout the school year.
Schools are inevitably drawn into this operational loop. Their instructional schedules depend on timely student arrival, and when transportation delays occur, schools experience parallel disruptions that mirror the chaos within transportation offices. Thus, systemic gaps in transportation operations create a domino effect: transportation departments struggle to stabilize routes, parents struggle to plan their mornings, and schools struggle to begin instruction on time. These interconnected challenges underscore the need for standardized communication, consistent operational procedures, and system-level coordination across all stakeholders.
Another significant systemic gap within transportation operations for McKinney-Vento (MV) students is the absence of structured data tracking and the lack of MV-specific driver training. Districts increasingly rely on drivers to understand and appropriately respond to student behaviors on the bus, yet most drivers receive no formal preparation for working with students experiencing homelessness or trauma (Prakasha et al., 2026). This gap is exacerbated by inconsistent communication between McKinney-Vento Liaisons/District Homeless Liaisons and transportation departments. While transportation directors may receive detailed but confidential information about a student’s circumstances, yet what reaches drivers and aides is typically limited to the word ‘homeless,’ leaving them without the context required to respond with emotional sensitivity and supportive engagement.
As a result, drivers often know they are transporting students who are homeless but lack insight into the emotional needs, behavioral patterns, or disability-related considerations that shape these students’ daily experiences. In some cases, drivers and aides rely on informal conversations or repeated assumptions rather than accurate information. Limited collaboration between McKinney-Vento Liaisons and transportation staff places drivers in the position of guessing how best to support students—despite being the first adults students encounter each morning and the last they see at the end of the school day.
The school bus environment itself further underscores the need for targeted training. Students frequently initiate school-related conversations that evolve into deeper discussions about their personal lives, family instability, or the broader world around them. Drivers occupy a unique position in these moments: they can help stabilize a student’s mindset before the school day begins, yet they are rarely equipped with the training or guidance necessary to do so safely and effectively.
The absence of MV-specific data tracking represents an additional operational gap. Without systematic monitoring of MV transportation performance, districts cannot evaluate whether transportation functions as a meaningful intervention for students experiencing homelessness. Data on ride times, route stability, attendance patterns, and communication frequency could provide critical insight into how transportation influences academic engagement and achievement. Transportation departments are uniquely positioned to report attendance trends directly to MV liaisons and school case managers, creating a feedback loop that strengthens student support systems.
Implementing McKinney-Vento-specific training and establishing a robust data tracking system would help close the systemic gap between transportation operations and schools. These measures would enhance communication, improve driver preparedness, and elevate transportation from a logistical service to a strategic component of student support and educational stability.
Section 7
Transportation Stability Implementation Framework (TSIF)
High-Level Overview
Transportation is a critical determinant of stability, access, and attendance for McKinney-Vento (MV) students, yet morning operations across districts often function without the structures needed to support predictable, student-centered decision-making. The purpose of this framework is to offer a high-level model that helps districts and states understand the essential components required to strengthen transportation stability for displaced students. It addresses the need for clearer commitments, coordinated communication pathways, trauma-informed practices, and shared visibility into transportation-related attendance patterns. Together, these components create the foundation for data-driven decision-making, enabling districts to identify emerging barriers, respond proactively, and align transportation practices with the broader goals of student stability and school access.
This framework outlines the core components districts and states must consider to strengthen transportation stability for McKinney-Vento (MV) students. It provides a conceptual model that can guide planning, collaboration, and policy alignment.
Foundational Commitments
Districts and states must establish shared commitments that anchor all transportation decisions for McKinney-Vento (MV) students. These commitments include:
Cross-Department Coordination Structure
Transportation stability requires intentional coordination between:
Communication and Notification Framework
A high-functioning McKinney-Vento transportation system depends on predictable communication. This includes:
Data Visibility and Monitoring
Districts and states benefit from systems that allow them to monitor transportation-related attendance barriers. High-level components include:
Professional Learning Priorities
Transportation teams require training aligned with the needs of McKinney-Vento (MV) students. High-level priorities include:
Stability-Focused Routing Principles
Routing for MV students must be guided by principles that support stability, safety, and predictability. These principles include:
Continuous Improvement Cycle
Districts and states should adopt a cycle that allows them to evaluate transportation stability over time. High-level components include:
Availability of Full Model
A comprehensive implementation model—including detailed protocols, workflow guidance, and operational tools—is available for districts and states seeking to adopt this framework. Collaboration opportunities can be arranged to support planning, rollout, and evaluation.
Collectively, these high-level components establish the foundational structures districts and states need to strengthen transportation stability for McKinney-Vento (MV) students. Although centered on the unique needs of displaced youth, the underlying principles of predictable communication, coordinated support, and data-driven decision-making are equally applicable to general education and special education populations when student needs warrant additional stability. This framework offers the conceptual architecture for more responsive and equitable transportation systems, while the detailed protocols and implementation tools remain reserved for collaborative development. The conclusion that follows situates this framework within the broader urgency of transportation stability and outlines the opportunity for deeper partnership as districts and states move toward more aligned and student-centered practices.
Section 8
Conclusion: Enhancing Student Outcomes Through Coordinated Transportation
Transportation is often treated as a logistical function, yet for McKinney-Vento student passengers it operates as a daily stability system that determines access, attendance, and emotional safety. The patterns observed in morning operations, student disclosures, and cross-department communication reveal a deeper truth: transportation is not simply a service that moves students from one location to another. It is a frontline environment where instability becomes visible, where barriers emerge, and where early intervention becomes possible. This white paper has outlined a high-level framework that repositions transportation as a critical component of student support, offering districts and states a new conceptual lens for understanding how stability is created—or disrupted—before the school day even begins.
The Transportation Stability Implementation Framework (TSIF) provides the foundational architecture needed to strengthen this system. It identifies the commitments, coordination structures, communication expectations, trauma-informed practices, and data-visibility priorities that shape a more predictable and responsive transportation environment. While centered on the needs of McKinney-Vento (MV) students, the principles embedded within this framework are adaptable to general education and special education populations whose circumstances require additional stability and cross-department alignment. In this way, the framework serves as both a targeted model and a scalable foundation for broader student-centered transportation reform.
As a practitioner-scholar working within the daily realities of school transportation, I have witnessed firsthand how instability in the morning hours reverberates across attendance, engagement, and emotional well-being. The insights presented here emerge from lived practice, field-based evidence, and the patterns disclosed by students themselves. They reflect a gap in current statewide guidance and district operations—a gap this framework begins to address. The detailed protocols, tools, and implementation guidance that operationalize these components are intentionally reserved for collaborative development with districts, state agencies, and professional organizations seeking to strengthen transportation stability.
The opportunity ahead is clear. By adopting a more intentional, coordinated, and data-informed approach to transportation, districts and states can reduce barriers, improve attendance, and create more stable pathways for students navigating displacement and adversity. This white paper invites leaders to recognize transportation as a central contributor to student stability and to engage in deeper partnership as we move toward more equitable, predictable, and responsive systems.
References
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Carey, B. P. & Phillips, S. D. (2025). Why school bus drivers stay in their jobs. Journal of School Leadership, 35(1), 43–62. doi: 10.1177/10526846241280901
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