BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston Public Schools (BPS) is out with a new progress report and initiative, hoping to get its school buses up to speed.

The road to improvement for BPS transportation has been undeniably bumpy, but a new report has found significant progress. According to the report, 94 percent of buses arrived at school on time last month, the highest percentage since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A few years ago, BPS agreed to try to achieve a 95 percent on-time arrival rate for the buses, as well as a 99 percent arrival rate within 15 minutes of school starting. Since time is starting to run out to meet those goals, BPS Transportation Director Daniel Rosenguard said students will start being removed from the routes if they haven’t ridden the bus for two straight weeks.

“We will be pausing your bus assignment,” said Rosenguard. “They, at any point in time, can say, ‘Now I’m ready to return to the bus and ready to reinstate transportation.”

Rosenguard said they will start implementing the new system over April Break, but this is not the first major step taken to boost arrival times. At the beginning of the school year, they launched an app that tracks the school buses, which has received mixed reviews from both parents and officials.

In the report, BPS blamed the apps rollout for a 27 percent decrease in on-time performance on the first day of school. Some parents said it has been a night-and-day difference as they got adjusted to the app, while others said the new app has been inaccurate.

On Wednesday, BPS and city officials hosted a roundtable discussion with parents at the Rafael Hernández School in Roxbury. BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper encouraged more feedback from parents as they try to reach transportation goals.

“That’s how BPS becomes the system that’s first in the nation that we all want,” said Skipper.

WBZ NewsRadio's Madison Rogers (@MadisonWBZ) reports.

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