We would like to share a few updates regarding transportation for the upcoming year as we look ahead to the start of school on Friday, Sept. 6.
Yellow bus service expansion
The City School District of Albany provides transportation on yellow buses for all eligible elementary students (those living 1.5 miles or more from school), and for all students K-12 whose Individualized Education Plan calls for specialized transportation.
New for the 2024-25 school year, the district will have three yellow bus partners – First Student, Durham and Rejha. We are excited to be able to provide this combination of providers, which will allow us to expand and improve the service we have been able to provide since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the pandemic, the district partnered with First Student to operate 91 daily yellow bus routes. Since our return to in-person instruction during the pandemic, First Student only was able to operate 70-75 daily routes due to the chronic driver shortages that plagued transportation providers nationwide.
We know these limitations caused significant frustration and inconveniences for our students and families, and we appreciate your patience and support through that difficult period.
This school year, our expanded yellow bus partnerships will allow us to begin the year with 98 daily routes. This will allow us to add back routes that we have not been able to operate since the pandemic, and also to reduce the number of students on routes in many cases.
We have used this combination of three providers for this year’s summer school programs and have experienced a significant improvement in on-time arrivals and consistency of service. We expect that to continue in the upcoming school year.
If your student is eligible for yellow bus transportation in the upcoming school year, watch your mail for more information about your route and provider later in August.
If you have any questions, you can contact our Transportation Department at (518) 475-6170.
Late yellow bus communications
When one of our yellow bus routes is running 15 minutes or more behind schedule in the morning or afternoon, the district uses SchoolMessenger email and text notifications to update parents and guardians.
To receive text notifications, make sure you are signed up to receive text messages through SchoolMessenger.
- To sign up, just text “Y” or “YES” to 67587
To receive SchoolMessenger email notifications, you just need to be sure that we have your correct email address on file in SchoolTool.
You also can download the SchoolMessenger app to manage your messages and contact preferences:
Reviewing all of your contact information in SchoolTool also is a good idea so your school also has the correct information in case they need to contact you for any reason throughout the year.
CDTA
We once again will partner with CDTA to provide transportation for students in grades 6-12 who are not eligible to ride a yellow bus.
Tripper buses once again will be in place for our three middle schools and Albany High School. Please note that while these routes are assigned to serve our secondary schools, CDTA is required by law to make those buses available to the public as well.
We will have more specific information about all of our CDTA tripper routes for each school later in August.
Eligible students also are able to ride any regular CDTA route with the activated student ID card they will receive at the start of the school year.
All students in grades 6-12 will be able to ride CDTA buses for free for the first two weeks of school – through Friday, Sept. 20.
Beginning Monday, Sept. 23, only eligible students in grades 6-12 (those living 1.5 miles or more from school) with an activated student ID will be allowed to ride without paying the standard CDTA fare.
You can find additional information on CDTA’s website, including CDTA's Trip Planner tool to help you find the best bus route to get where you need to go.
