New law to aid transient, homeless students

Benjamin Grove

Monday, July 6, 1998 | 10:54 a.m.

A new Nevada law may help highly transient and homeless students get to school.

The law allows school districts to pay for municipal bus passes for high school students who from day to day do not live on fixed school bus routes. That means students who live in Las Vegas motels or shelters could hop the nearest CAT bus to get to class.

"They're (school buses) not going down Fremont Street looking for kids," said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas.

Giunchigliani, a middle school teacher, included the bus provision in a law aimed at curbing truancy. The overall law took effect last year, but the bus provision took effect last Wednesday.

School buses transport 50 or fewer homeless students to high schools, said Clark County Schools transportation director Ronald Despenza. The new law could help put other homeless students on CAT buses, although the number would probably be low, he said.

Despenza said just about every student, even many homeless students, have fairly easy access to a school bus, even if they move around a lot. Students must live at least two miles from school to ride the bus.

"I don't think there will be a massive rush as long as you've got the yellow buses," Despenza said.

CAT officials agreed with Despenza that CAT buses do not deliver students to the school door, as school buses do. Sometimes, CAT bus routes simply are not convenient for students, said Scott Wilkerson, Regional Transportation Commission spokesman.

CAT officials said they did not keep records of how many high school students ride their buses. But Wilkerson said he welcomed any more students who wanted to ride.

"Any increase in ridership we're all in favor of," he said.

The Clark County School District operates an 880-bus fleet, the largest transportation system in the state. This year officials expect to transport roughly 82,000 students about 15 million miles.

Paying for a few CAT bus passes would represent a tiny fraction of the department's $34 million budget, Despenza said.

Giunchigliani said she hoped Nevada school districts would examine the law and consider issuing CAT bus passes in any case where it would save money.

"If we could save the cost of five buses because kids are taking advantage of municipal bus passes, then that's something we should take a look at," Giunchigliani said.