This bill adds new sections to chapter 28A.160 RCW and amends RCW 28A.160.170 to require the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to collect and disaggregate detailed student transportation data, analyze district transportation costs, mileage, ridership, and allocations, and use that analysis to develop a transparent, predictable, and comprehensive student transportation funding model that accounts for urban and rural district challenges. The bill expresses legislative intent to establish a flat-rate per-pupil funding model for qualifying students experiencing homelessness and requires OSPI to report its analysis to the legislature’s education and fiscal committees by June 1, 2028 (using 2026–27 school year data). The bill creates new reporting and financial requirements for school districts: districts must submit transportation reports to OSPI three times per year (October, February, May) including numbers of eligible students transported (with stop and school locations), miles driven for pupil transportation the previous school year, counts of students requiring special transportation under McKinney-Vento, other operational data as required by the superintendent, and separated cost reporting in annual financial statements (to-and-from-school transportation, non-to-and-from costs, expanded services costs, and fuel purchase detail). Timely submission of the required information is made a condition of continuing receipt of school transportation moneys. The bill also directs OSPI to provide additional funds to support alternative transportation costs for students experiencing homelessness, setting the amount at $400 per qualifying student reported under RCW 28A.160.170; those funds are restricted to transportation costs associated with those students. The text establishes or references categories of students to be tracked (students with IEPs requiring special transportation, students covered by McKinney-Vento, students in foster care placed out of district, students attending skill centers, and “eligible students” under RCW 28A.160.150). Important details are missing from the extracted text: the precise eligibility criteria for the proposed flat-rate model beyond McKinney-Vento, the funding source or appropriation mechanism for the $400 per-student payment, the implementation timeline and deadlines for adopting the new funding model beyond the June 1, 2028 analysis, and the full definitions in the RCW sections that are only cited.

If enacted, school districts will have to collect and submit far more detailed transportation data three times a year and break out transportation costs in their annual financial statements (including miles driven, stop and school locations, fuel purchases, and specific counts of students needing special transportation such as those experiencing homelessness). Timely submission will be required for districts to keep receiving state school transportation money, so districts should expect higher administrative work and tighter accounting of transportation budgets and fuel use. Districts that report students experiencing homelessness who need transportation will be eligible for an additional $400 per such student, but that money can only be used for those students’ transportation costs. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction will analyze that district data and is tasked with creating a new, transparent student transportation funding model that aims to address both dense urban and large rural district challenges, with an initial analysis due to the legislature by June 1, 2028. Practically, this shifts more planning and funding-design responsibility to OSPI and could change how transportation funds are allocated once the model is developed. Important uncertainties remain: the bill text here does not fully define which students qualify for the proposed flat-rate homelessness funding, does not specify where the additional $400 per student will be funded from, and does not set a firm implementation schedule beyond the 2028 analysis deadline.