- Office of the Inspector General
Media Contact
Carrie Kimball, Communications Officer
Boston, MA — The Office of the Inspector General yesterday released a study, Special Education Transportation Study: Strategies to Mitigate Rising Costs, as directed by Section 2A of Chapter 7 of the Acts of 2025.
“The OIG, as mandated by the Legislature, reviewed how school districts procure and deliver special education transportation and made specific recommendations to the Legislature, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and local school districts to mitigate rising costs,” Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro said. “Throughout our work, we have been keenly aware that behind the numbers, laws, and regulations are families who depend on these services to give their children access to educational resources.”
Among the OIG’s findings are that:
- Massachusetts is an outlier in its use of a reimbursement model to fund student transportation, which puts significant administrative and financial burdens on local districts;
- Vendors are not required to provide school districts with detailed invoices, making it impossible for districts to understand what they are paying for; and
- There is no central repository for school transportation bids and contracts, depriving districts of helpful information when procuring these services.
According to the study, Massachusetts is one of only six states in which nearly all state funding for special education pupil transportation is delivered through reimbursement. Under this model, known in the Commonwealth as “circuit breaker” funding, local school districts must bear the full cost of special education transportation services up front and are reimbursed a percentage by the state in the following fiscal year. The OIG believes this model is burdensome to local school districts and creates a system that is expensive to administer and inequitable to districts that have fewer financial resources to carry such expenses.
In addition to modifying the circuit breaker model, the OIG recommends that the Legislature make the necessary amendments to require transportation vendors to submit more detailed invoices that include a breakdown of expenses such as labor, fuel, vehicle maintenance, insurance, and other costs. The OIG further recommends that DESE create a central repository of school transportation bids and contracts, along with a list of licensed providers under contract with school districts. These actions will promote greater transparency and help school districts better understand their actual costs, as well as what neighboring districts are paying.
Over the past 20 years, four different studies addressing student transportation costs produced numerous recommendations, many of which overlap. Some still resonate today. IG Shapiro expressed concern that there has been limited follow-through on these recommendations and urged stakeholders to work together to develop solutions.
“I am hopeful that this study will help pave a path toward meaningful action on this issue,” IG Shapiro said. “I respectfully urge the Legislature, DESE, and local school districts to work together and not let this be one more study to simply grace a shelf in the State Archives.”
###
Media Contact
