DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – The cost for Detroit Public Schools Community District to provide the federally mandated curb-to-curb transportation for homeless and special needs students has jumped from $2.7 million in 2022-23 to a projected $7.5 million in 2025-26.
That’s because of the increase in the number of homeless students needing transportation, which has increased from 197 in 2022-23 to 506 in 2024-25. The number of students with special needs needing curb-to-curb transportation has increased from 111 to 256 over that same time period. The district has more than 49,000 students.
That’s according to data provided by the school district. For example, the city paid City Cab Co. $1.47 million over the past three years as part of the curb-to-curb contract. The city uses about a dozen different transportation vendors to meet its needs.
The costs for providing the transportation has increased from $2.7 million in 2022-23 to $5.6 million in 2024-25.
The $7.5 million contract would cover transportation costs through June 2026. The district projects there will be more than 300 special needs students and about 600 homeless students in 2025-26 needing curb-to-curb transportation. That’s about 900 students in 2025-26 compared to the total of 308 that needed curb-to-curb transportation in 2022-23.