PORTSMOUTH — A new legislative study commission will look for ways to improve the statewide school transportation system under a resolution that was sponsored by Sen. Linda Ujifusa and Rep. Terri Cortvriend and signed into law by Gov. Daniel McKee.

The joint resolution (2024-S 2523B, 2024-H 7915A) creates a 13-member commission that will be charged with studying the transportation needs of students, the most cost-effective way of meeting them and what changes need to be made to the state’s laws governing the statewide transportation program. 

The resolution was backed by the Portsmouth and Bristol-Warren school committees.

State law requires local school districts to pay the costs of transporting students outside their districts if they have special needs that can’t be met locally or they attend a private, parochial, charter or career and technical school within the district’s assigned transportation region. 

The law requires districts to use a statewide transportation service administered by the R.I. Department of Education (RIDE), or seek a variance from RIDE, for instance, to use district-owned buses, but receive no reimbursement.

The state law creating the program in 1977 sliced the state into five regions. While some regions include four or five communities, Region 3, which includes Bristol and Warren, consists of 12 cities and towns, most of which are on the other side of Narragansett Bay. 

That means the district has to pay to transport students to schools as far away as Johnston or Cranston.

“Many school districts are facing enormous costs for transporting students to schools across far-flung regions, and they have no control over the cost of the statewide transportation system, or the size of the region to which they are assigned,” said Ujifusa (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol). “At the very least, after nearly a half-century of this system, we should review this program to make it more efficient, cost-effective and beneficial to our students

Added Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown):“In 2023, Portsmouth spent over $600,000 on out-of-district transportation. With more students attending out-of-district career and tech programs, it makes sense to study what has likely become an outdated transportation system.”

The study commission will include legislators and representatives of the state education commissioner, the R.I. Association of School Committees, the R.I. School Superintendents Association, the R.I. Public Transit Authority, the secretary/treasurer of Teamsters Local 251, the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families, and a student from a school district currently experiencing transportation problems due to the existing statewide system.

The commission’s recommendations are due to the General Assembly by April 16, 2025.