Safety Analysis
NYC Logged 154,376 School Bus Complaints in One Year. Five Vendors Account for the Worst Ratios.
NYC OPT complaints jumped 82% in three years to 154,376 in SY2023-24. Five vendors lead in complaints per route. Comptroller audit, primary sources.
Key Finding
NYC's Office of Pupil Transportation logged 154,376 complaints about school bus service in the 2023-24 school year, an 82% increase from 84,849 in SY2021-22. The Comptroller's December 2025 audit identified five vendors carrying the worst complaint-per-route ratios: Van Trans, Empire State, L&M, Y&M, and Jofaz. DOE failed to collect $42.6 million in liquidated damages for GPS log-in violations the same year. From 2017 through 2022, school bus collision claims paid out $89.7 million across 8,172 unique claimants, with another $249 million in unpaid claims pending. The oversight failure is now documented in primary records.
Key Facts
NYC’s Office of Pupil Transportation logged 154,376 school bus complaints in SY2023-24. That’s an 82% jump from 84,849 in SY2021-22.
Five vendors carry the worst complaint-per-route ratios: Van Trans (29.45), Empire State (25.27), L&M (25.10), Y&M (23.83), Jofaz (21.81).
DOE failed to collect $42.6 million in liquidated damages for GPS log-in violations in SY2024-25. The penalty system isn’t being enforced.
From 2017 through 2022, NYC paid out $89.7 million on school bus collision claims across 8,172 claimants. Another $249 million sat unpaid as of June 2023.
NYC’s Office of Pupil Transportation received 154,376 complaints about school bus service in the 2023-24 school year. That’s an 82% jump from 84,849 in SY2021-22.
The Comptroller’s December 17, 2025 audit named the five vendors carrying the worst complaint-per-route ratios and surfaced an enforcement gap worth $42.6 million in uncollected penalties. The system is documented, the bad actors are named, and the safety risk lives inside the same dataset.
154,376
NYC OPT complaints in school year 2023-24, up 82% from 84,849 three years earlier. Five vendors hold the worst complaint-per-route ratios across NYC's 51-contractor fleet.
Methodology
The vendor and complaint figures come directly from the NYC Comptroller’s audit of DOE bus oversight (FM25PAR20002), published December 17, 2025 and covering school year 2023-24.
The audit reviewed OPT records for 51 contracted bus vendors operating roughly 7,458 routes across CTS (Curb-to-School) and STS (Stop-to-School) service, plus complaint logs, GPS compliance records, dry-run attestations, and liquidated- damages assessments.
The collision-claim totals come from the NYC DCAS Safe Fleet Transition Plan final report, which compiled City-paid bus-claim data from 2017 through 2022 (the City covers the first $1.5 million of each claim before contractor insurance attaches).
Complaint counts include CTS and STS routes combined. “Problem runs” are a separate sub-category for routes flagged repeatedly by the same school. Vendor complaint-per-route ratios were calculated by the Comptroller’s auditors directly from OPT logs and are reproduced here in the rankings.
Note
Limitations: the Comptroller’s audit does not publish per-vendor collision counts. The SFTP claim data does not break out by contractor. The City’s published file does not distinguish collisions involving students aboard the bus from collisions involving pedestrians struck by the bus. Both gaps remain in the public record.
Five Vendors Account for the Worst Service Failures
Across NYC’s 51 contracted bus vendors, five carriers carry the highest complaint-per-route ratios in the SY2023-24 file. Van Trans LLC led with 3,298 complaints across 112 routes (29.45 per route).
Empire State Bus Corp followed at 25.27 on 30 routes. L&M Bus Corp at 25.10 across 159 routes. Y&M Transit Corp at 23.83 across 162 routes. Jofaz Transportation at 21.81 across 211 routes.
The five-vendor list captures concentrated risk: bus contractors carrying complaint rates two to three times higher than the citywide average across the routes they run.
Two findings inside the same audit deepen the picture. Empire State Bus Corp also led the delay-per-route table at 49.47 delays per route across 30 routes.
Jofaz Transportation failed to complete dry runs on 55% of its 423 routes before the school year started. Third Avenue Transit, Inc. completed 0% of dry runs on its 24 routes.
Dry runs are the pre-school-year route rehearsal that lets drivers learn pickup locations and timing in advance. Skipping them produces the no-show pattern that drove the complaint volume.
The complaint volume isn’t random. It’s concentrated in the same five carriers, year after year.
The audit identifies 19 vendors with incomplete dry-run compliance before SY2023-24 even began. The Comptroller estimated $268,691 in liquidated damages went uncollected on dry-run violations alone.
Children with Disabilities Carry the Worst Routes
The single most striking finding inside the audit isn’t a dollar figure, it’s a population number. 99% of “problem runs” in NYC’s school bus system serve students with disabilities.
CTS (Curb-to-School) routes, which transport children who need door-to-door service for medical, mobility, or special-education reasons, account for the overwhelming share of late, missed, and reassigned trips.
Route K099 received 129 no-show or late-service complaints in SY2023-24 across 20 to 31 assigned students. Route K521 received another 129 complaints across 18 to 29 students. Route M107, serving the Manhattan iHOPE special-education program, received 87 no-show complaints serving only one to three students.
iHOPE reported that during the following school year (SY2024-25), 68 students collectively accumulated more than 400 absences attributable to transportation failures.
Federal IDEA law guarantees a free appropriate public education to every student with a documented disability. NYS Education Law § 3623 sets New York’s school bus approval and safety standards and the aidable transportation expense framework.
Both are bypassed when the bus doesn’t show, the child doesn’t get to school, and the lost school days compound into lost services.
The ‘problem run’ isn’t a transportation issue. It’s a denial of education for the children who need transportation most.
The Penalty System Stopped Working
DOE’s contracts with bus vendors include liquidated damages: per-violation fines that the City is contractually entitled to deduct from contractor payments when service standards aren’t met.
In SY2024-25, OPT recorded 200,556 instances of GPS log-in non-compliance, meaning bus drivers didn’t sign into the location-tracking system at route start. That’s the foundational accountability mechanism. Without GPS log-in, OPT can’t verify whether the route ran.
The Comptroller calculated $44.3 million in liquidated damages that could have been assessed for those GPS violations. DOE assessed damages in only 7,556 of the 200,556 violations, just 5.5%, totaling $1.7 million.
The gap: $42.6 million in penalties DOE was entitled to assess but didn’t. Across the broader audit, the Comptroller documented additional uncollected damages on dry runs ($268,691), missed routes, and other contract-compliance failures.
Separately, the audit reviewed the $51.7 million Via Transportation contract for technology modernization (routing software and student ridership tracking). The contract was awarded in 2019 with a December 2021 implementation target.
As of November 2025, ridership tracking was still in pilot phase with a December 2025 launch and a March 2026 expansion. DOE is roughly four years late on the technology that would let it verify whether routes are actually being run.
What This Means for Parents and People Hurt by School Buses
If your child rides an NYC contracted school bus, three points the audit changes:
The vendor matters more than the route. Van Trans, Empire State, L&M, Y&M, and Jofaz have demonstrated patterns of complaint concentration that DOE has been on notice about for at least three years.
Parents can look up which company runs their child’s route by calling the OPT hotline (718-392-8855) and checking the assigned vendor against the Comptroller’s complaint-per-route table. The contractor is the entity that owes a duty of care to the child on the bus.
If your child is hurt in a school bus collision, two clocks start. The bus contractor is a private company, so a direct claim follows ordinary negligence procedure with a three-year statute of limitations under CPLR § 214.
If the City or DOE is named (oversight failures, route assignment, special-education accommodation failures), a Notice of Claim must be filed within 90 days under General Municipal Law § 50-e , then suit filed within one year and 90 days.
Wrongful death claims have additional limits under EPTL § 5-4.1. Missing the 90-day GML deadline usually bars municipal claims regardless of injury severity.
If you witness a driver passing a stopped school bus with extended stop arm and flashing red lights, that’s a violation of NY VTL § 1174.
VTL § 1174-a , enacted in 2019, authorizes stop-arm cameras that mail civil-liability tickets to the registered vehicle owner. The penalty is $250 for the first offense, $300 by the third within 18 months.
The DCAS Safe Fleet Transition Plan notes that in 12 of 39 school-bus pedestrian fatalities nationally from 2011 to 2020 (about 30%), the bus was turning.
That pattern is why DCAS plans an audible turn alert pilot starting with fifty systems focused on electric buses. A separate intelligent speed assistance pilot covers 50 buses running on diesel and electric.
Where the Data Doesn’t Reach Yet
The Comptroller’s audit catalogs complaints, delays, dry-run failures, and uncollected penalties. It does not publish per-vendor collision counts. NYC’s Open Data Motor Vehicle Collisions file tags vehicle type “bus” but doesn’t reliably separate school bus from MTA, charter, or private coach.
The DCAS SFTP claim file aggregates all City-paid bus claims for 2017 through 2022 but doesn’t break them out by contractor. The federal FMCSA Safety Measurement System tracks DOT-registered carriers but pulls many NYC school bus operators into the same intrastate-carrier bucket without exposing per-route exposure.
Building a contractor-level collision and injury file would require joining the OPT vendor roster against NYPD MV-104 collision reports tagged to school bus operators by name, geocoded to route shapefiles. That’s the next data harvest on this beat.
Until then, the complaint-per-route concentration table published December 2025 is the most granular public view of which contractors carry the worst safety-adjacent risk.
Every NYC parent should know which company runs their child’s route.
Sources
- NYC Comptroller. (December 17, 2025). Audit Report of the New York City Department of Education's Oversight of Its Contracted Bus Services, FM25PAR20002. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/audit-report-of-the-new-york-city-department-of-educations-oversight-of-its-contracted-bus-services/
- NYC Comptroller. (December 2025). Routing Our Children's Futures: School Bus Audit Policy Wrap Report. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/routing-our-childrens-futures/
- NYC DCAS. (2024). The NYC School Bus Fleet, Safe Fleet Transition Plan Final Report. https://www.nyc.gov/site/dcas/agencies/fleet-management.page
- NY State Senate. (2019). Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1174-a, Owner Liability for School Bus Stop-Arm Cameras. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1174-A
- NY State Senate. Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1174, Overtaking and Passing School Bus. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1174
- NYS Education Department. Pupil Transportation Services Office. https://www.p12.nysed.gov/schoolbus/
Updated June 14, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How many school bus complaints did NYC receive in the 2023-24 school year?
NYC's Office of Pupil Transportation logged 154,376 complaints in SY2023-24, according to the Comptroller's December 2025 audit. That's an 82% jump from 84,849 complaints in SY2021-22. The top categories include 'no pickup' before and after session, late arrivals, and special-education vendor failures. 99% of so-called 'problem runs' are routes serving students with disabilities.
- Which NYC school bus vendors have the highest complaint ratios?
Per the SY2023-24 audit, the five vendors with the highest complaints per route were Van Trans LLC (29.45 complaints per route across 112 routes), Empire State Bus Corp (25.27 across 30 routes), L&M Bus Corp (25.10 across 159 routes), Y&M Transit Corp (23.83 across 162 routes), and Jofaz Transportation (21.81 across 211 routes). These are the worst-performing carriers in NYC's contracted fleet of 51 vendors.
- How much has NYC paid out in school bus collision claims?
From 2017 through 2022, NYC paid out $89,720,667 on school bus collision claims across 8,172 unique claimants, averaging $10,979 per claim. As of June 2023, an estimated $249 million in unpaid claims remained outstanding, with another $82 million in ultimate claims projected for the next year. Although contracts require $5 million in liability insurance, the City covers the first $1.5 million of every claim.
- What is the legal duty when passing a stopped NYC school bus?
Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1174, drivers must stop when a school bus displays flashing red lights and an extended stop arm, regardless of which direction they're traveling on undivided roadways. VTL § 1174-a, enacted in 2019, authorizes stop-arm cameras that mail civil-liability tickets to the registered owner. First offense is $250. Third within 18 months is $300. The duty exists because children frequently cross in front of or behind a stopped bus and most fatal school-bus pedestrian collisions happen while the vehicle is turning or starting from a stop.
- Can parents sue NYC if a school bus contractor injures their child?
Yes, but the procedure depends on who's liable. The bus contractor is a private company, so a direct claim against the contractor follows ordinary negligence procedure. If the City or DOE is named (failure to oversee, route design, special-education accommodation failures), a Notice of Claim must be filed within 90 days under General Municipal Law § 50-e. Missing the 90-day deadline usually bars the case. Wrongful death claims carry their own deadline under EPTL § 5-4.1, which runs from the date of death.
- What was the 1988 Carrollton, Kentucky bus crash?
The 1988 Carrollton, Kentucky crash is the worst drunk-driving crash in United States history. A drunk driver going the wrong way on Interstate 71 struck a former school bus carrying a church youth group head-on, killing 27 people, 24 of them children, returning from a day trip. In New York, school bus safety sits inside a different framework, with state Education Law requirements layered on top of VTL § 388, which extends liability to vehicle owners when a driver's negligence injures someone. If a child is hurt on an NYC school bus, the 90-day notice of claim deadline under GML § 50-e usually applies to any claim against the City or DOE, so the legal clock starts immediately.
- Who were the victims of the New York bus accident?
Identifying every injured person in a New York school bus accident depends on the specific incident, and details about the people involved are typically protected under privacy laws, particularly when minors are concerned. What NYC Comptroller audit data does show is that complaint volumes across school bus vendors have reached serious levels, with five vendors accounting for the worst safety ratios in recent reporting periods, meaning the people most at risk are overwhelmingly children riding those routes every day. When a child or accompanying adult is hurt on a school bus, they may have claims against the bus vendor, the school district, or the City of New York itself, and because a government entity is often involved, General Municipal Law § 50-e notice of claim deadlines, which can be as short as 90 days, apply immediately. Parents should document injuries, gather route and vendor information through NYC Open Data records, and speak with a personal-injury attorney as soon as possible to preserve their rights under New York law.
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Antin, J. S. (2026, May 13). NYC Logged 154,376 School Bus Complaints in One Year. Five Vendors Account for the Worst Ratios.. AEE Law Insights. https://aeelaw.com/insights/nyc-doe-school-bus-oversight-gap-2025/
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