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Video Transcript

Qiana:

Hello, everyone. I’d like to welcome you to HopSkipDrive’s second installment of our Transportation Trailblazers video series. My name is Qiana Patterson and I will be hosting today’s video. At HopSkipDrive, I lead strategic development. Today I have the pleasure to share, alongside our special guest, outstanding research on HopSkipDrive as a form of alternative student transportation and its effects on students from vulnerable populations. Our special guest today is an urban planning doctoral student at UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies and the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, a fellow Los Angeles resident, and my friend, Sam Speroni. Hey, Sam.

Sam:

Thank you for having me, Qiana. I’m happy to be here.

Qiana:

Awesome, awesome. Let’s just dive in and let’s talk about the project that you work on. 

Sam:

Sure. The project that I work on is an applied planning research project. It’s our equivalent of a master’s thesis at UCLA. The project that I undertook was analyzing school travel behaviors in Los Angeles County for vulnerable students, in partnership with HopSkipDrive data from the 2018-19 academic year.

Sam:

The project stems from my background. Before I was a transportation researcher, I was a teacher and administrator at a high school in North Carolina. The bond that I have with my students from that, most of whom experienced extreme hardships growing up, is really strong. I know that this is an area where we can do much, much better, and that HopSkipDrive is an important piece of what that better can look like.

Qiana:

Sam and I both have teaching and administrating in our backgrounds, so I appreciate his expansive research and also his experience that is so near and dear to not only my heart, but also to the work that we do here at HopSkipDrive. Let’s think about what you discovered from this research. What were your findings? Let’s dive into that.

Sam:

Sure. The research looked at three basic subsets of student populations that are in vulnerable situations. The first is foster youth, they are protected by the Every Student Succeeds Act, otherwise known as ESSA. [The second is] kids who are experiencing some form of homelessness, they’re protected by the McKinney-Vento Act. [The third is] kids who are students with disabilities, who are sometimes protected by their individualized education plans, such that they receive transportation. This work largely looks at those three populations over the course of the 2018-19 year.

Sam:

The project looks at three components of that. First, it compares trips on HopSkipDrive for these students and how that compares to Los Angeles as a whole and California as a whole. It also looks at what type of neighborhoods these trips began in. Since we don’t know specific details about the students, we can draw conclusions based on the neighborhoods that these trips serve. Then lastly, looking at how these trips would have been different on one of the alternative modes of transportation here in Los Angeles, which is public transit. We’ll talk about why we make that comparison in a little bit.

Qiana:

Okay. I think that you touched on it a little bit so far, really honing in on whether we have equitable transportation amongst some of the most vulnerable students. Obviously, the work that HopSkipDrive is to support these most vulnerable, whether they’re McKinney-Vento or the students that fall under ESSA. But I would love to go deeper into what did you uncover as you researched this, in terms of that equity issue.

Sam:

First, look at what typical travel behaviors are in California. How does HopSkipDrive in LA County compare? The first thing to know is that in California, schools don’t provide meaningful yellow bus school transportation to all their students. Across the country in the other 49 states, almost 40% of students take the yellow bus to school. In California, we have the second-lowest share of any state in the country, at 8%, so dramatically lower. That stems from policy and funding decisions at the state level.

Sam:

The reality is that the vast majority of kids in California are driven to school in vehicles. Almost three-quarters of students in this state get to school in a private vehicle, owned by their parents, driven by their parents, and so on. In the other 49 states, that percentage is only half, so it’s a dramatic difference here in California. Just for points of reference, walking is about 10% and then transit and biking are in the very low single digits, both for California and for the country. The big shift that we see here is that most kids in California, and much more so than the rest of the country, get to school in a car.

Sam:

In terms of how long it takes them in the state, it’s about five miles for the average kid getting to school, and that takes about 15 minutes. For HopSkipDrive, for the trips that are serving those three vulnerable groups, whether it’s kids experiencing homelessness, foster youth, or kids with disabilities, both the distance and the duration are more than double. The trips that HopSkipDrive are much longer in large part because those legislations allow kids to go to schools that are not the closest school to them, but the right school for them. Particularly for foster youth and kids experiencing homelessness, that’s often the school that they begin their school year at, so that as their situations change and they move from district to district or school zone to school zone, they’re allowed to stay at the school they started at.

Qiana:

We can think about the transit options that kids normally would have because of what your research uncovered about the routes and the rides that HopSkipDrive is doing. What would be the alternative for parents or for school districts for the same group of vulnerable students?

Sam:

Yeah. In California, the only real alternative other than being driven in a private vehicle, whether that’s by a parent, or in the case of foster youth by a caregiver, the only real alternative is public transit. A lot of school districts will be quick to move to that option because on the one hand, it already exists, and on the second hand, a bus pass is pretty inexpensive. Super easy for district administrators to just say, “Give the kid a bus pass,” but for this group of kids, these three subgroups of kids, it’s not the right option and here’s why.

Sam:

Although most trips that HopSkipDrive served started and ended within a half a mile of a bus stop, there’s a big difference between accessing the network and navigating the network of a transit system. Let’s say a kid goes to the bus stop nearest to their house that just gives them access to a bus, regardless of where that bus is going. The challenge that these particular routes face, in that they go from longer than usual distances to and from school, is that most of the kids on these HopSkipDrive trips would have had two or three transfers between vehicles. Meaning that one particular trip that started in Santa Clarita and ended in South Los Angeles,  might involve a bus to a Metro Link commuter rail, to a subway, to another bus, which is not only a lot to ask of anyone, but a lot to ask of a kid who’s 12 years old and in foster care and is in a new home for maybe the second time in a school year, or a third time in a school year.

Sam:

On top of that, public transit leads to, as you would expect, much longer trip durations. If we look at the trips that could be done in 90 minutes or less on transit, those trips that HopSkipDrive served, those durations would be more than double what it was on HopSkipDrive on transit. Remember, those durations were already double that of the state average, so we’re looking at wildly longer durations than what most kids face on a daily basis. And we’re asking that of the kids who already are in the most challenging situations.

Qiana:

Which I think we would both agree is not equitable, right?

Sam:

Yeah.

Qiana:

That’s not a true example of equity, right?

Sam:

Not at all.

Qiana:

Giving a child a bus pass is equitable to every child, but if one child has 15 minutes on one bus or one child has 90 minutes on three different modes of public transportation plus walking, that wouldn’t actually be equity in a practical sense.

Sam:

Yeah, exactly. It’s 60-something percent of HopSkipDrive trips could have been done in 90 minutes or less on the transit, but of those, two-thirds of those required two or more transfers. We’re talking about a lot of added variables in duration. With an equity lens, you look at the neighborhoods that these trips began in. The origin neighborhoods of these trips are far more likely to begin in neighborhoods with higher percentages of people of color. The average percentage of the origin neighborhoods for these trips was over 80% of people who identify as people of color. Additionally, for all of the origin neighborhoods, there are lower household incomes, far below the county average and the average for HopSkipDrive trips that aren’t part of these partnerships. There’s also lower educational attainment levels there, so far fewer adults who have graduated high school or gone to college. All of that contributes to these trips serving kids who are in vulnerable situations, but they’re also serving neighborhoods that are minority neighborhoods or underserved neighborhoods in general.

Qiana:

Yeah. I appreciate that, you illuminating that. By and large, what does your research mean for kids and the most vulnerable kids as it relates to being served by HopSkipDrive and our mission to remove transportation or mobility as a barrier to accessing opportunity? What does this ultimately mean for you and the kids that we serve?

Sam:

To the point of removing barriers that transportation hurdles create, that’s the biggest thing. This allows kids to stay at their school of origin, which is hugely important. Also, is the spirit of Every Student Succeeds Act and the McKinney-Vento Act, students should be allowed to remain at the school they started in, not just because it’s federal legislation, which it is, but because it has huge implications for curriculum, for calendars, for instructional practices that are not the same across different schools and different districts. If you think about a kid who’s in foster care who begins the year at one school that’s on a yearlong class schedule and then moves halfway through the year to a school that has half-year semester classes, suddenly they’re behind in some things, ahead on other things, and they got halfway through the book they were reading in English class only to arrive at a different English class reading a different book. Schools should be able to choose curriculums that are right for their students. It’s transportation that can overcome that barrier when it’s best for the student to remain at that same school.

Sam:

The other thing HopSkipDrive does is reduce travel time to school, which is huge. Previous UCLA research pointed at about 45 minutes. After that, it’s pretty bad for kids to be spending more than 45 minutes each way to school. Then the last thing is the equity of how we get to school. The system we have in California isn’t a good one. We rely on families to provide transportation. If you have a parent who works a traditional nine to five, then it’s a little bit easier, but for those who don’t, who might work two or three jobs, it’s incredibly difficult to ensure that your kid gets to school. What this does is allow some of those who are in the most vulnerable situations to still get to school in the way that everyone else does.

Qiana:

Right. I think ultimately, just thinking about it, this ultimately impacts outcomes, whether they be academic or they be graduation rates or social-emotional learning. This does impact the whole child. I see ESSA and McKinney-Vento as being really great legislation in the spirit of something good that can have meaningful impact from academics to social-emotional wellbeing. I truly believe that the school day starts the moment you walk out of the door.

Sam:

Absolutely.

Qiana:

So we have to be mindful of what that looks like, getting to the front door for every child, which to your last point, is really about the equity lens of this all.

Sam:

Yeah. The academic outcomes part of this is huge, , and there’s really not a lot that we know about this. What’s the role of transportation in students’ academic outcomes, how they get to school, how long it takes them, how far away do they live… You mentioned a lot of the things, test scores, graduation rate, but also participating in extracurricular activities, that sense of belonging at school, that social-emotional piece you brought up. We look at education beginning at the first bell and ending at the last bell, but when we look at it from when you walk out the door to when you get back home, it’s a different story.

Qiana:

It sounds like you have a wide opportunity for what’s next and how do you sort of expand this research, so I’d love for you to share with everyone who’s watching and listening, what is next for this research and where would you like to take this?

Sam:

Sure. The answer to that big question is what role does transportation have in educational outcomes, and how does transportation affect particularly vulnerable kids and what does that look like in an equity lens. More specifically to this research, one big thing is figuring out what’s the role of HopSkipDrive within broader school transportation systems. Obviously, we’re not going to have thousands and thousands of care drivers traversing education areas and replacing yellow buses, yellow buses are very good at what they do, but there are these vulnerable populations in unusual situations where HopSkipDrive is exceptionally good at providing those rides. You think about the duration of trips to school, to reroute one yellow bus with 45 other kids on it to go get one kid out of the district is not only disruptive to the system, it’s disruptive to the other 45 kids on that bus. Their trips just got longer. What HopSkipDrive does is enable that yellow bus to continue its same route.

Sam:

Then additionally, figuring out what policy measures would allow schools to partner with HopSkipDrive and to serve these vulnerable student populations in the way that HopSkipDrive is serving some of them now. Even if a district has yellow bus service, adding this is an important piece of making sure that those students who are experiencing homelessness, who are foster youth, who have disabilities. There are transportation options that get them to the right school for them.

Qiana:

It sounds like you are in favor of a more holistic and more personalized solutions around transportation. I appreciate you coming and joining us today. I really think that there are huge obstacles that many children face and I’m super glad that HopSkipDrive can ride alongside school districts and others to support transportation for all of these youth. I really appreciate your research and your time today, Sam. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us before we sign off?

Sam:

One of the things that became pretty apparent through studying this is that HopSkipDrive is, in a lot of ways, a service for the greater good. It’s somewhat unique in this space of ride hailing and transportation in that so much of the emphasis is about serving the students who need it most and not just the families who can pay for that trip the most. Obviously you need both, but the difference is that there’s so much emphasis on these trips and how important they have ultimately proved to be for those students.

Qiana:

Thank you. Now, everyone, you know why Sam is my good friend. That will conclude our second Transportation Trailblazers video series. We’ll see you on the next one.