As part of a transportation cost-cutting effort, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) high schoolers will need to opt in to the school district’s bus system by June 18 — or else find another way to get to school this fall.
NHPS Supt. Madeline Negrón provided that update Tuesday evening during the most recent full Board of Education meeting at King/Robinson School.
NHPS high schoolers and their families have until June 18 to opt in to the school district’s bus system for next school year.
The opt-in link should go live on NHPS’s website on Wednesday. Negrón said the district plans to send out notifications to high school families this week, and then every three days between now and June 18.
Finally, on June 22, a confirmation email will be sent to families who opted in with “notice to expect transportation details the week of August 17th.” An email notification will also be sent to families who did not respond to the survey or who responded “NO” to receiving transportation services for the 2026-27 school year.
This major change to how NHPS handles busing for high school students comes as the district has identified transportation as a growing budget concern. As of April 30, NHPS had forecast that its transportation line item will be $12.7 million over budget — meaning that NHPS expects to spend a total of $42 million this school year on student transportation.
That rising cost is exactly why Negrón tasked her team over the last few months with identifying cost-saving recommendations related to busing.
Negrón did not seek a Board of Education vote on the matter on Tuesday. Instead, she updated members that the district would be moving forward with two previously presented transportation recommendations.
One of those plans is to shift to an opt-in-only busing program for all NHPS high schools except for Riveride Academy, the city’s last remaining alternative school.
The second plan moving forward is to drop busing for Riverside entirely, and to give all of Riverside’s students public bus passes.
NHPS estimates that the opt-in bus plan for high schools will save around $620,000, or the equivalent of 20 full-size buses. The Riverside transportation reduction, meanwhile, could save around $217,000 by eliminating seven smaller full-size bus loads.
Negrón said Tuesday this is just the start of the district working to reel in its transportation costs, as Supervisor of Transportation and Student Transfers Sequella Coleman continues to work on mitigation efforts.
NHPS currently contracts with the company First Student to operate a total of 331 buses, including 246 full-size Type 1 buses and 85 smaller Type 2 buses.
During an April school board meeting, Coleman and Chief of School Operations (CSO) Paul Whyte presented four ideas for cost savings — including the opt-in and Riverside plans. The other two ideas were to eliminate summer transportation for grades K-4 which, would potentially save $196,000, and consolidating 10 identified special-education bus loads, potentially saving $930,000. Mayor Justin Elicker, who sits on the school board, also expressed interest in organizing community conversations about just how much the district spends each year busing students to and from schools across town, miles away from where those students live.
On Tuesday, however, Negrón recommended only moving forward with the opt-in and Riverside plans.
She laid out the district’s end-of-year communication plan with families to get the high school opt-in process started.
On Wednesday, she said, the high school opt-in survey messaging will be posted on the district’s website. This will notify families to look out for the official email this week that will ask them to choose whether or not to opt in to busing. On Thursday, the district plans to communicate with families via Apptegy and through school-by-school efforts.
“Yes, you might get annoyed, but we have to make sure that we can confirm that you have received the message,” Negrón said.
Before the end of day on Thursday, high school students’ guardians should receive an email from Central Office Transportation asking whether they would like to opt in to transportation or not for their student next school year.
Negrón emphasized that no response from families will be counted as declining transportation serviced because the district “cant hold up the process” in order to kick off the transportation plan next school year.
Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox asked about reaching out to families via mail or phone, in case some have problems accessing email. Negrón said she is asking the district’s school leadership teams to help spread the message in the most effective ways they know their school buildings need. She also said the district plans to gather weekly reports of families that haven’t yet answered the opt-in survey to pass along to the Youth, Family and Community Engagement team to help get in touch with families.
See below for Tuesday’s full presentation about the upcoming transportation changes.