A Baltimore City Council hearing on what causes students to miss school will examine how unreliable public transit contributes to the problem.

The hearing will be the first time public officials discuss the harm students suffer in the two weeks since a Baltimore Banner investigation found it’s nearly impossible for them to get to school on time every day using public transit.

The investigation revealed that students have worse grades and attendance in first-period classes than the rest of the school day, and that 1 in 4 Maryland Transit Administration buses students try to board on their way to school doesn’t show up on time or at all. As many as 25,000 students spend an average of 40 minutes getting to school on transit — longer than the average adult commute, and more than twice as long as neighboring Baltimore County students spend on yellow school buses.

Thursday’s hearing is for a bill Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway introduced in January that would require the school system to study the root causes of chronic absenteeism — when students miss 10% of school days a year — and to propose solutions.

Conway said he thinks transportation will be a focus of the hearing. “It will take up a pretty good portion of it, in part because of that article. I think it gave us a lot to chew on,” Conway said.

The city does not provide yellow bus service to students after fifth grade, so students must rely on public transit or a ride from their parents. In addition, middle and high school students can pick the school they want to attend from a long list. That choice has come with a price: Students as young as 11 are traveling across town to get to the school they believe is best for them.

“Demographic shifts, deliberate transportation policy choices, and deliberate education policy choices stretching back years or decades have left us with an inequitable and deeply flawed student transportation system which hinders student performance and hurts student well-being in families and communities across the city,” City Councilman Mark Parker said in a statement.

Parker said the problem has been made worse by the rapid growth of neighborhoods that are far removed from most high school options and the heart of the transit system.

“I look forward to beginning a conversation about this,” he said.

The City Council study would examine causes of absenteeism both in and out of school. Baltimore’s chronic absenteeism rate has fallen since its pandemic high of 52%, but it is still not below what it was in 2019.

Both Conway and Councilman John Bullock, chair of the Education, Youth and Older Adults Committee, said the council should examine transit separately.

“I can envision us having a separate hearing to address the issues of transportation and how kids get to school,” Bullock said.

Baltimore City school board members have had little discussion this school year about transit issues for students.

“We haven’t scheduled time in the balance of the school year to dive deep on transportation,” said Robert Salley, the chair of the board. He said he hopes that “stakeholders” will raise transportation as a concern in listening sessions and during discussions about the school system budget this spring.

The Maryland State Board of Education also has not addressed the issue. The MTA, a state agency, runs the transit system in Baltimore. There is no Maryland law that requires school systems to give students rides to school, although every other school system in the state offers yellow bus transportation to students who do not live within walking distance.

Neither the MTA’s top administrator, Holly Arnold, nor Baltimore City schools CEO Sonja Santelises, believe the responsibility for getting students to school rests solely in their hands. Arnold has said that students are just one of the many constituencies they must serve, and Santelises blames the state for failing to provide reliable public transit that students can use to get to school.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.