Daily Life For Students Has Changed Dramatically Over The Years, But One Aspect Has Been Left Behind: Student Transportation.
Student transportation is the largest mass transit system in the U.S., transporting 27 million children to and from school each day. At Zum, we are leading the charge to modernize the school bus system and make it safe, reliable, sustainable, and equitable for all students and families.
Our third annual survey, the 2024 Student Transportation Report Card, helps us understand the top concerns of families and the critical trends we need to address. We commissioned a third-party national survey of 1,500 U.S. parents of school-aged children to see how they feel about the student transportation system, particularly with regard to safety, environmental sustainability, and technology-enabled efficiency.
Table of Contents
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Summary of Key Findings
- 84% of parents believe the school bus system in America could improve.
- 81% would use a mobile app to stay informed of their child’s location on the school bus.
- 83% said they’d use a mobile app to know their child’s bus arrival time, similar to tracking an Uber driver’s arrival.
- 80% of parents expressed concern about environmental issues that stem from the harmful fumes that diesel school buses emit into our communities.
- 64% think it is important to convert diesel school buses to electric school buses.
- 70% of parents surveyed said they think teachers and school bus drivers should be compensated better than they currently are.
- The majority of parents cited child safety as their biggest concern with the school bus system.
- More than half of parents said their child has missed the school bus because they did not know when it was arriving.
- 43% of parents said their child has been negatively impacted by unnecessarily long bus commutes or failures in the school bus system (i.e. missed after-school activities, arrived at school late, or gotten home from school late in the evening).
- Nearly half of parents surveyed said their ability to work or perform well at their job has been impacted by school transportation issues for their children.
Parents Agree Student Transportation Needs Modernization
Student transportation hasn’t meaningfully changed in several generations, and 84% of parents surveyed feel the school bus system in America could improve. The majority of parents do NOT agree that the current school bus system is safe, efficient, and good for the environment.
In addition to student safety on the bus, parents are concerned about the environmental impact of school buses, long commute times, challenges in accessibility, and not knowing the location of their child and/or the bus.
Failures in the school bus system are affecting many families: 43% of parents surveyed said their child has been negatively impacted by unnecessarily long bus commutes or failures in the school bus system, such as missed after-school activities, arriving at school late, or getting home from school late in the evening. Nearly half of parents (47%) said their ability to work or perform well at their job has been impacted by school transportation issues for their children, an increase from 2023.
Parents Voice Concern About Environmental Impact of Buses
Transportation accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., with over 90% of the nation’s 500,000 school buses running on diesel and putting 8.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses into the air every year.
80% of parents surveyed expressed concern about environmental issues that stem from the harmful fumes that diesel school buses emit into our communities.
64% said they believe it is important to convert diesel school buses to electric, a significant jump from 52% in 2023.
Increasing concerns about the environmental impact of diesel buses underscores the urgency of transitioning to fully electric school bus fleets, which is currently underway at Zum. In the 2024-25 school year, Zum and Oakland Unified School District will make history with the nation’s first all-electric school bus fleet, and plans for more 100% electric districts are underway.
The majority of parents surveyed said a transition to electric school buses would be a positive thing for their family and community: 29% said they would feel that their school district is doing its part to address environmental issues, 19% said they’d feel incredibly proud, and 15% said they’d feel that their school district was an industry leader.
Parents Demand Tech-Enabled Solutions
An overwhelming majority of the parents surveyed expressed a desire to modernize student transportation with increased technology and digital communication. 81% said they would use a mobile app to stay informed of their child’s location on the school bus, and 83% said they’d use a mobile app to know their child’s bus arrival time, similar to tracking an Uber driver’s arrival. 77% of parents surveyed agreed knowing if and when a child got on or off their school bus should be as easy as when a package was delivered.
Additionally, more than half of respondents (53%) said their child has missed the school bus because they did not know when it was arriving.
These numbers illustrate the evolving expectation we have on utilizing technology to benefit our lives, and Zum is leading the way to make student transportation more transparent and reliable.
Parents Express Concerns About Child Safety
When asked to name their biggest concern about their child while riding the school bus, the majority of parents said safety, which was also the top concern in 2022 and 2023. The second-biggest concern was lack of tracking or visibility (i.e. not knowing if or when their child gets on or off the bus), followed by concerns about a pickup and/or dropoff that is not reliable or convenient; buses that are not accessible to everyone in the community; and buses are harmful to the environment.
Looking Ahead: Student Transportation in 2024 and Beyond
In review, data show that the vast majority of parents have concerns about today’s student transportation system and believe it needs improvement. Parents are ready for more sustainable solutions and a transition to electric school buses. Parents also want increased safety and transparency on the school bus, which feature tech-based solutions that focus on their child’s safety and location.
Out of those who don’t use the school bus to transport their children, 40% said they would reconsider if they could track their child’s arrival and departure. 15% said they would reconsider if the school buses were electric.
As a school bus driver shortage persists in school districts across the nation, 70% of parents surveyed said they think teachers and school bus drivers should be compensated better than they currently are.
Zum’s mission to modernize student transportation to make it safer, more reliable, more sustainable, and more equitable aligns with parents’ feelings about the current school bus system. Zum provides real-time location information to parents and administrators and optimizes routes to reduce commute times. Zum also facilitates better communication, reduces transportation costs, and prioritizes sustainability.
At Zum, we are proud to partner with school districts across the U.S. and are committed to improving student transportation for all children and families.
Methodology
All data found within this report are derived from a survey by Zum conducted online via survey platform Pollfish from June 26-27, 2024. In total, 1,500 adult American parents with school-aged children were surveyed.
Press Contact Information
For more information about this report, please contact us at press@ridezum.com. To view the press release about this annual survey, visit here.