Texas school districts are eligible to receive state funding for transporting regular and special education students based on funding rules set by the Texas Legislature. The regular education allotment is limited to students who live two or more miles from school or who face hazardous walking conditions, such as the need to cross a four-lane or wider roadway without a traffic signal or crossing guard. Local funds pay for any transportation costs the state allotment does not cover. TEA evaluates these group assignments every two years by recalculating linear densities with data from the first of the previous two school years. During 1996-97, CISD received a reimbursement of 97 cents a mile for regular education transportation.
Costs exclude capital costs and debt service.
CISD's costs per mile for regular and special education transportation combined are very low compared to those of the peer districts, due to CISD's long average trip lengths and its resulting high number of miles traveled. CISD's costs per rider for regular education are more comparable to the peer districts, while its cost per rider for special education is significantly higher. CISD experiences higher amounts of deadhead mileage than most peer districts because the district is so large. Comal also experiences more mileage for maintenance runs because most of its buses are not assigned to the main shop facility but are taken to the main shop for anything but minor maintenance. This higher mileage results in a lower cost per mile.