Sun Prairie Area School District, located in a rapidly expanding community and suburb of Madison, WI, serves a diverse population of approximately 8,600 students across 15 schools. As the McKinney-Vento (MKV) Coordinator, Claire Bergman is responsible for coordinating support and transportation for all students who qualify for McKinney-Vento transportation in the district, a critical role given that the community has seen a steady increase in homelessness.
Background: Navigating the Transportation Challenge
Prior to consistently utilizing HopSkipDrive, Sun Prairie Area Schools relied heavily on local taxi services to fulfill their McKinney-Vento transportation needs. This approach presented a number of significant logistical, educational, and safety challenges:
Unreliability and Absences: Taxi services in Dane County became unreliable, especially for early morning rides starting at 8 a.m., which led to student lateness and absences.
Safety Concerns and Lack of Visibility: With taxis, there was no app for real-time tracking of the ride or the driver’s location, meaning everything had to go through dispatch. This lack of technology created significant safety risks, with drivers occasionally dropping off children — some as young as five years old — at the wrong locations.
Operational Inefficiency and Stigma: Taxi companies relied on a time-consuming and error-prone daily spreadsheet dispatch system. Additionally, many students felt a stigma in being transported in taxis. While the taxi services were perceived as cheaper, Bergman ultimately found a different calculus. As she explains, “HopSkipDrive delivers so much more value and is worth it in terms of safety and peace of mind.”
The Situation: Seamless and Inclusive Transportation with HopSkipDrive
Recognizing the crucial need for a more secure and reliable alternative, Sun Prairie Area Schools chose to increase its use of HopSkipDrive, which offered the operational efficiency and stringent safety measures that the traditional taxi service model lacked.
Care-Centered Technology: Using the RideIQ platform, Sun Prairie Area Schools can now easily manage transportation long-term, including the ability to quickly add or cancel rides without having to rely on phone calls to dispatchers.
Safety and Peace of Mind: HopSkipDrive’s technology allows school staff and parents to see exactly where the ride is at any time, a feature that was impossible with taxis. For parents, this transparency is invaluable.
“With HopSkipDrive, there’s a real peace of mind for parents since they can see exactly where the ride is at any time. The security and peace help, given that they are going through some chaos/uncertainty in their lives.”
—Claire Bergman, McKinney-Vento Coordinator, Sun Prairie Area School District
The Results: Value Beyond Cost
The partnership with HopSkipDrive has transformed how Sun Prairie Area School District handles transportation, ensuring students in transition have equitable access to education and feel more comfortable getting to school.
Improved Reliability and Time Savings: Staff now have visibility into rides, eliminating the need to wait until late in the afternoon for unreliable taxi pickups. This efficiency has been a game-changer for the staff. “The ability to move kids around and cancel things easily saves a lot of time,” Bergman shares. "In that sense, to do things right then and there has been immensely helpful.”
Reduced Stigma: Students are more comfortable with HopSkipDrive because the vehicles are “just another car.” This is especially important for middle and high schoolers who do not want to be seen using a taxi service.
Transparency and Grouping: HopSkipDrive provides reporting transparency through RideIQ. This is a significant benefit over the taxi service, where staff suspected they were being double-billed when grouping children from different districts. The ability to group kids on the platform saves money and also helps create a sense of community for the students.
The switch from local taxis to the technology- and safety-driven platform and vetted network of CareDrivers with HopSkipDrive has given Sun Prairie Area Schools the transparency and time savings needed to support their McKinney-Vento transport needs. The ultimate success, however, is the impact on families. As Bergman summarizes: “HopSkipDrive delivers so much more value and is worth it in terms of safety and peace of mind.” For Sun Prairie Area School District, the partnership ensures every student, regardless of their circumstances, has a reliable, safe, and stigma-free journey to and from school, setting them up for educational success.
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