This article has been updated to reflect 2026 data and recent developments.
With tighter budgets and fewer resources to draw from, many school districts have been forced to find more ways to trim the fat. One expense that has made its way to the chopping block in more than one district is transportation. While school buses have always been a given where students live too far to walk to school, that commodity is no longer a freebie for all school districts. In an effort to balance the books, some schools have decided to charge students for the privilege of riding a bus to and from school. However, the decision is accompanied by complaints and irate parents in many districts when the fees are announced. We’ll take a look at both sides of the pay-to-ride issue.
The issue remains relevant in 2026. The most recent expenditure data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that public elementary and secondary schools spent an average of $608 per pupil on student transportation in the 2022-23 school year. Transportation policies and fees continue to vary considerably by state and district.
Public School Review's How Public Schools Coordinate Transportation Systems provides additional 2026 context on how districts balance routing, safety, technology, staffing, and transportation funding.
Franklin Township Now Outsourcing Transportation Needs
Franklin Township school system was hit hard in the pocketbook with an $8 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year. Instead of firing teachers and increasing class sizes, the school began charging parents to let students ride the bus to and from school. The charge for school bus privileges wasn’t cheap. According to reports at the time, the fee for bus service for a single student was $475 annually. Additional children in the same family received a discount, paying $405 per year for the same bus privileges.
The bus fee was on the table for the school district the previous year, but the idea was rejected after Attorney General Greg Zoeller issued an advisory opinion that a fee for transportation would be unconstitutional. However, when voters turned down a referendum in May, an additional budget shortfall led the school district down a path to get around the constitutionality of the bus fee. The district decided to outsource transportation to an outside non-profit, the Central Indiana Educational Services Center. The organization bought around 75 school buses from the district for $1 and agreed to provide transportation to students within the district at cost. At the time, Franklin Township was the only school district in Indianapolis to make such a decision.
The situation has changed substantially since then. In 2026, Franklin Township Community School Corporation once again operates a district transportation department. Its buses run more than 130 routes, transport more than 8,900 students, and travel nearly 5,000 miles per day. The department has more than 150 employees, including drivers, monitors, mechanics and transportation staff.
The choice to charge for school busing came with plenty of controversies. Parents turned out in force at town hall and school board meetings to protest the decision. At a town meeting at the end of July, 200 parents and taxpayers showed up to ask the school why they chose such a budget-cutting measure. Taxpayer Christina Bailey asked members of the school board and state lawmakers at the meeting, “When does the waste stop and common sense kick in?” Some parents also wanted to know why the school did not choose to tap into a $14 million emergency fund to cover the transportation costs, rather than making parents foot the bill.
Sarah Wiley, another concerned taxpayer, chose to point the finger at state legislators, rather than the school board. At the same meeting, she asked lawmakers, “I want to know how you expect us to do more with less when you all voted against schools? You voted for charters and vouchers that took money away from us.”
Despite the widespread concern, Superintendent Walter Bourke said he believed he did the right thing for his schools, especially when it came to conserving the district’s emergency fund. Bourke said at the time, “Quite frankly, the easy thing to do is spend that money the next five years and retire, but I can’t do that and sleep at night. There’s no other school district in the state impacted by property tax caps the way we are.”
Public School Review's Public School Transportation & Commute Planning Guide examines how transportation eligibility, bus operations, staffing shortages, and alternative commuting options affect families today.
This video reports on rising student transportation costs.
Texas Students Face New Bus Fees, Colorado Students Get More of the Same
In Keller Independent School District, parents faced a hefty fee to ride the bus or find another mode of transportation. At the time, Keller parents had to pay $185 each semester for a first child to ride the bus and $135 for a second child. Children who qualified for the free and reduced lunch program were charged a discounted fee of $100. After initially nixing the idea of a monthly payment plan, the district relented and allowed parents to pay their bus fees on a monthly basis. However, students had to carry identification cards that showed whether fees were up to date before they were allowed to board a school bus.
Superintendent of Keller James Veitenheimer tried to allay parents’ fears that bus service would no longer be available in the district. He told Keller parents, “There will be buses. They just won’t be free.”
Veitenheimer also said at the time, “We’re excited that we’re going to have a transportation option for students at all, and feel very fortunate that our partners at Durham and Radiant were able to help provide another payment option for our families.”
However, parents were not as pleased as Veitenheimer about the situation. Jennifer Rosenthal, a Keller parent who attended a meeting to protest the decision, said, “Had we known there was not going to be an option to get our kids to school, we’d have bought a house right next to the school.”
The situation is different in 2026. According to Keller Independent School District, the district's current transportation provider operates a fleet of 264 buses and transports more than 13,000 students. Keller ISD provides bus service to eligible students who live more than two miles from their regular campus and to students with special needs who require transportation to attend school.
Charging for school bus service isn’t anything new for Douglas County Schools in Colorado. This district broke the news of bus fees to parents at the beginning of the previous academic year and continued the practice the following year. With a major budget shortfall, the district explained at the time that transportation costs were eating up a large portion of the annual budget.
The pay-to-ride approach remains in place in Douglas County in 2026, although the fee structure has changed. According to the Douglas County School District, eligible general education students will pay $1 each way per ride during the 2026-27 school year. Transportation fees are waived for students who qualify for the free and reduced-price meal program and for students whose individualized education programs require transportation. The district also says its annual bus pass will not be available for 2026-27 because it is using a rolling route cancellation schedule amid a driver shortage.
Transportation itself has also changed considerably since the original article was published. Public School Review's What Rising E-Bike and Traffic Concerns Mean for School Commutes examines how e-bikes, heavier traffic, school drop-off patterns and changing bus operations are creating new considerations for families in 2026.
Big yellow school buses will still be on the streets tomorrow, but their free cost may just be a phenomenon of yesterday.
