(1) PURPOSE. The purpose of the student transportation funding survey is to determine bus needs for allotment purposes, ascertain standard costs for allotment purposes, enhance safety, improve services to pupils, and promote the efficient operation of school transportation service.
(2) REQUIREMENTS.
(a) State funds for student transportation shall be based on the participation of the local boards of education in the funding survey process by making essential data available to the Department which reflects providing student transportation services, using to the extent possible, the following criteria.
1. Regular transportation.
(i) Buses shall be routed as uniformly as practical, planned and operated with minimum bus mileage, avoid traveling empty and making excessive bus stops, and designed without excess spur routes. Every effort shall be made to avoid routing buses across railroads and expressways, unless the crossings are protected by proper traffic signals.
(ii) Bus routes shall, to the extent possible, be designed so as to use all required buses for a minimum of one and one-half hours each morning.
(iii) The standard walking distance to trunk bus routes shall not be more than one-half mile. In addition to the standard walking distance, walk route conditions, road conditions and satisfactory turnaround places shall be considered in planning spur routes.
(iv) School bus stops shall not be closer than one-tenth mile.
(v) The number of students living within one and one-half miles of their assigned school shall be included in the data submitted to the Department although it will not be used for the allotment of state funds.
(vi) The first morning trip of a bus shall begin where the first student is picked up and end at the school to which the students are delivered. The second trip shall begin at the school where the first load was delivered and end at the school where the second load is delivered. Additional trips shall be measured in like manner.
(vii) Bus routes shall end in the morning at the school where the last load is delivered.
2. Special Education, State Schools and Transportation for Physically Disabled Students.
(i) Routing designs shall be as uniform and practical as possible with consideration given to efficiency and necessary services required by the special needs student. The routing of school buses shall be planned and operated with minimum bus mileage, utilizing, when possible, multi-system student assignments for buses servicing state schools.
(ii) The first morning trip of a bus shall begin where the first student is picked up and end at the school where the students are delivered. The second trip shall begin at the school where the first load was delivered and end at the school where the second load is delivered. Additional trips shall be measured in like manner.
(iii) Bus routes shall end in the morning at the school where the last load is delivered.
(iv) School systems shall ensure that student transportation to and from state-operated schools is provided. School systems are responsible for transporting students at the beginning and end of the school term and for school holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break.
3. Vocational Education Transportation.
(i) Routing for vocational education shall be school-to-school on the safest and most direct route. A minimum of 10 high school students shall be transported to a vocational program to earn transportation funds.
(ii) Local school systems shall annually provide to the Department the information necessary to determine vocational funds.