Special commission to study student transportation meets Monday, rep. cortvriend to chair

STATE HOUSE — The special legislative commission studying student transportation will meet Monday with the Department of Education chief operations officer to discuss existing and potential transportation districts.

The meeting is scheduled Monday, March 3, at 3:45 p.m. in the House Lounge on the second floor of the State House.

The commission will meet with Rhode Island Department of Education Chief Operations Officer Dr. Mario Carreño to discuss state transportation districts. The commission is also set to discuss potential legislative priorities. No public testimony will be accepted at this meeting.

The meeting will be televised by Capitol Television, which can be seen by Cox Communications subscribers on channels 15 and 61 for high definition, on channel 15 by i3Broadband viewers, and channel 34 for Verizon subscribers. Livestreaming will be available at https://www.rilegislature.gov/CapTV/Pages/default.aspx.

The 13-member commission, co-chaired by Rep. Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown) and Sen. Linda Ujifusa (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol), is studying the transportation needs of students, the most cost-effective way of meeting them and what changes need to be made to the state’s laws governing the statewide transportation program.

State law requires local school districts to pay the costs of transporting students outside their districts if they have special needs that can’t be met locally or they attend a private, parochial, charter or career and technical school within the district’s assigned transportation region. The law requires districts to use a statewide transportation service administered by RIDE, or seek a variance from RIDE, for instance, to use district-owned buses, but receive no reimbursement.