HopSkipDrive supplied the answer when Jerene Petersen was struggling to seek out rides for foster youth who had been positioned in houses removed from their common colleges.
At the time, she was the deputy government director for the Colorado Department of Human Services. She knew that getting college students again to their residence colleges would enhance their probabilities of graduating excessive school and constructing steady lives. It’s additionally required by federal regulation — however drivers had been onerous to seek out.
HopSkipDrive — a rideshare service just like Uber or Lyft that focuses on transporting kids — now contracts with greater than a dozen Colorado school districts, in addition to human providers companies, to supply rides for susceptible kids: homeless youth, these in foster care, and college students with disabilities whose specialised training plans embrace transportation.
But as a rideshare company, HopSkipDrive hasn’t been regulated like different firms that additionally present rides for at-risk college students. Those firms should observe Colorado Department of Education guidelines that guarantee drivers have sure coaching and automobiles meet security necessities.
Instead, HopSkipDrive has been regulated like different rideshare firms by the state Public Utilities Commission.
That was set to alter this summer time. In response to a grievance from a competitor, the PUC dominated that it shouldn’t regulate HopSkipDrive when the company is doing work for school districts. The Colorado Department of Education is ready to take over regulating HopSkipDrive’s school providers.
A invoice making its method by way of the Colorado General Assembly would stop the training division from assuming oversight and maintain regulating HopSkipDrive just like Uber and Lyft.
HopSkipDrive executives say that if the invoice doesn’t go, all of their providers for at-risk youth and others are in peril as a result of contracts with human service companies and youth shelters may be discovered to not be lined beneath rideshare laws. They say the company already follows essential security measures by way of company coverage and their contracts.
But advocates for college students with disabilities are elevating an alarm in regards to the invoice. Colorado’s legal guidelines and guidelines governing rideshare firms had been developed with grownup passengers in thoughts, and so they need all firms offering rides for college students to observe the identical requirements set by the training division.
“There is no reason that a child, by reason of their disability, should be getting transportation with fewer safety regulations than a child riding a yellow school bus,” mentioned JoyAnn Ruscha, who represents the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. “We can’t serve at-risk students by cutting corners. Then we’re not serving kids.”
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HopSkipDrive was based in California by three working moms who needed a answer to a downside that they had themselves: methods to get kids to after-school actions when school lets out hours sooner than the workday ends.
Trish Donahue, HopSkipDrive vice chairman for authorized and coverage, mentioned the company knew mother and father would wish to really feel secure, in order that they took additional steps. Those included operating background checks on drivers, utilizing code phrases to ensure drivers had the fitting baby and kids had the fitting grownup, and requiring earlier caregiving expertise, although that might embrace the driving force merely being a father or mother.
The company continues to serve mother and father straight, however authorities contracts are an essential a part of its enterprise. The Los Angeles County Department of Human Services was an early consumer. Now working in 10 states, HopSkipDrive entered Colorado in 2018 on the urging of Petersen, who’s now retired however continues to volunteer with foster youth. Many of them take HopSkipDrive to school.
Demand has grown in the course of the pandemic as school districts battle with bus driver shortages, extra households face homelessness, and extra college students want additional providers.
In Kansas and Missouri, the company has pushed for payments just like the Colorado one to be exempt from guidelines governing school transportation, which covers not simply school buses but in addition vans and personal automobiles that present rides for particular person college students.
Donahue mentioned the company seeks to be regulated as a rideshare company as a result of that’s what it’s. Drivers and shoppers join over an app, and drivers use their very own private automobiles. Having related laws in several states helps the company’s enterprise mannequin, and the flexibleness of rideshare permits HopSkipDrive to reply rapidly to altering demand, she mentioned.
“It doesn’t make sense for us to opt into other forms of regulation,” she mentioned.
Advocates need constant requirements
Other firms doing related work to HopSkipDrive are thought of school transportation and controlled by the Colorado Department of Education. Those guidelines embrace sustaining automobile security logs, carrying a first support package, finishing sure coaching, making certain college students don’t should cross site visitors to get within the automotive, and extra. Districts should preserve compliance information for periodic inspection.
For a number of years, school districts have raised questions on whether or not they might contract with HopSkipDrive and what laws utilized. HopSkipDrive’s predominant competitor for school district contracts, ALC Schools, is regulated as a school transportation service. But the state training division doesn’t regulate HopSkipDrive as a result of it’s registered as a transportation community company, or TNC — the technical time period for a rideshare company — with the Public Utilities Commission.
“The questions we got were: Why is one company regulated by CDE and one company is regulated by PUC when it’s the same service?” CDE spokesperson Dana Smith mentioned.
So when ALC Schools filed a grievance with the PUC, the training division filed an amicus temporary asking the fee to supply readability. The division was ready to manage HopSkipDrive, its attorneys mentioned, however didn’t take a place on the result.
Colorado Secretary of State lobbying reviews present that HopSkipDrive beforehand employed the training division’s legislative lobbyist. The lobbyist, Jennifer Mello, mentioned she did a few hours of labor in spring 2020, when colleges had been closed, serving to HopSkipDrive make connections with different authorities companies.
The State Board of Education has not taken a place on the invoice.
In a ruling on the grievance, an administrative regulation choose discovered that when HopSkipDrive contracts with school districts, it supplies school transportation and isn’t beneath the fee’s jurisdiction, although the fee might proceed to manage its shopper providers. The full fee upheld that call in March.
Meanwhile, laws was filed by state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat, to maintain HopSkipDrive totally beneath the fee. She mentioned failing to behave would endanger a big selection of public providers supplied by rideshare firms, corresponding to taking seniors to vaccine appointments and foster youth to supervised visits with their mother and father. The authorized arguments utilized to find out that school transportation doesn’t fall beneath the PUC’s jurisdiction may also apply to different authorities contracts, she mentioned.
“Until we clarify in statute this irregularity, all of these trips that are taking place are unregulated,” she mentioned.
HopSkipDrive made this identical argument to the fee — unsuccessfully.
The invoice moved rapidly by way of the Senate with broad bipartisan assist, although a few Democrats raised issues round shopper protections, security for kids, and labor rights.
“A 9-year-old with Down syndrome riding alone to school will have the same safety regulations as an adult hailing an Uber on a Friday night,” mentioned state Sen. Robert Rodriguez of Denver.
While a variety of native governments and human providers companies are supporting the invoice — as are Uber and Lyft — school districts haven’t weighed in.
Parents need security and care
Frankie Lopez’s 12-year-old son Xavier makes use of HopSkipDrive to get to Spectra, a specialised school for kids with autism.
The school beforehand contracted with ALC Schools, and Lopez mentioned she was steadily late for work ready for rides that by no means got here. Now Xavier has the identical driver almost day by day by way of HopSkipDrive. The driver drops off her grandson at a close by school and picks up Xavier. Lopez will get common notifications when the driving force is on her method and when she may be delayed.
The driver is form, Xavier is comfortable, and Lopez makes it to work on time.
Lopez mentioned she wouldn’t need laws to be so stringent they deter individuals from driving for HopSkipDrive.
“CPR and first aid certification is great. I would support them having that,” Lopez mentioned. “But I don’t want to lose what we have. They’re very caring and responsive people, and just going to a class doesn’t provide someone with that care.”
The invoice is now awaiting a listening to in a House committee. Disability advocates are hoping to see amendments that would offer extra security laws. Ruscha mentioned HopSkipDrive supplies a helpful service and present training division guidelines might have updating for a new period. But the training division is the fitting company to supervise these rides, she mentioned.
HopSkipDrive is the one company offering school transportation in Colorado that’s regulated as a rideshare company. Even if the company has good practices, Ruscha mentioned, the invoice might open the best way for brand spanking new operators, although Donahue mentioned school districts would proceed to have stringent necessities.
Disabled college students with various wants require the identical protections irrespective of who’s driving or what district they’re in, Ruscha mentioned.
“Some students might be runners,” Ruscha mentioned. “They may be extra prone to develop into agitated and attempt to bolt from the automotive. There are college students who may need epilepsy. Having first support coaching is admittedly essential.
“All drivers would benefit from ongoing professional development, and we do not want to remove that standard for one vendor because they happen to also have an app.”
Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers training coverage and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s training protection. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.