
With over 330 buses, nearly 400 employees, and a service area encompassing one of Colorado’s most diverse urban populations, Denver Public Schools (DPS)’ transportation department is a logistical powerhouse. But it is also a department that has had to contend with nationwide challenges like driver shortages and rising costs, all while ensuring equity and efficiency for its 10,000 daily riders.
“We may be one of the most complex systems in the nation,” said Albert Samora, executive director of transportation at Denver Public Schools. “We provide a high level of choice in Denver with enrollment zones, shuttles, and traditional routing.”
For years, DPS has relied on a multi-modal system, incorporating yellow school buses, public transit through the Regional Transportation District (RTD), and, more recently, partnerships with supplemental student transportation providers like HopSkipDrive.
HopSkipDrive is a technology company solving complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, equity, and care. This is accomplished through a marketplace arranging care-centered transportation, connecting school districts with highly-vetted caregivers on wheels called CareDrivers to provide rides for students who may not be a fit for a yellow school bus. Second, HopSkipDrive builds software that solves the biggest transportation challenges facing schools and school districts around the country.
To meet its complexity challenge, DPS has leaned on innovative partnerships, including its relationship with HopSkipDrive—which has not only bolstered services for vulnerable student populations but has also allowed the district to reimagine how it allocates its resources.
Managing transportation for Denver’s sprawling school district requires a balance of operational oversight, strategic planning, and adaptability. The district serves approximately 30,000 students eligible for transportation, though only about a third of them use the service daily. The yellow bus fleet covers a variety of functions, including traditional routes, shuttle-like systems, and specialized transportation for specific student populations.
“The one thing about transportation here in Denver is that we’re a multi-modal system. We’ve never really functioned any other way,” Samora said.
Still, the system isn’t without its struggles. Staffing shortages have been a recurring problem. When Samora joined DPS in 2019, the district was short 100 drivers, a gap that made it difficult to meet basic transportation demands.
“We had to re-strategize our entire thought process,” he said. “It wasn’t just about fixing the yellow bus. It was about balancing all of our services efficiently.”
Incorporating Supplemental Student Transportation
While supplemental transportation providers like HopSkipDrive are now an integral part of DPS strategy, there was a time when the district relied entirely on its own resources to meet its transportation needs. Samora first encountered HopSkipDrive in his previous position at Boulder Valley Schools.
“Back in 2017, we started using HopSkipDrive for McKinney-Vento and foster students,” Samora said. “These routes often made no sense for a yellow bus due to inefficiency.”
When he transitioned to Denver, Samora brought HopSkipDrive into the fold, saying that the company’s expertise in handling specific student populations could alleviate pressure on the district’s resources. Today, HopSkipDrive plays a key role in serving students with unique needs.
“The partnership we’ve developed with HopSkipDrive is that they provide a lot of services for our McKinney-Vento and foster students,” Samora explained. “They also now transport wheelchair students for us and special education students who don’t have intensive needs.”
Introducing a new partner into a system like DPS requires careful planning and deliberate onboarding. Samora and his team approached this process in increments.
“We started them off with a small amount of work—about 28 rides—and ramped up gradually,” he said.
The key to this successful integration was aligning HopSkipDrive’s operations with DPS’s high standards, Samora said.
To ensure this alignment, DPS provided HopSkipDrive with access to its employee handbook and operational procedures. Frequent meetings and open communication helped resolve any early issues and build a foundation of trust.
This foundation builds on HopSkipDrive’s leading focus on safety, including its Safe Ride Technology, which includes a 15-point certification process to become a HopSkipDrive CareDriver, a proactive and proprietary system of alerts, real-time tracking, and a direct relationship with CareDrivers.
HopSkipDrive also proactively releases its safety data annually, believing transparency is critical. The company’s latest report disclosed that 99.7 percent of rides in 2023 were completed without a safety incident of any kind.
Expanding the Partnership
What began as a focus on McKinney-Vento and foster students has since grown into a broader collaboration. HopSkipDrive now arranges services for Special Education students transitioning to real-world experiences, as well as those who require wheelchair-accessible transportation. This evolution reflects the district’s commitment to matching services with student needs.
“We utilize vendors based on their expertise,” Samora said. “It’s about finding the best fit for each student.”
One of the most significant benefits of incorporating HopSkipDrive has been the ripple effect it has created across the entire transportation operation. By assigning long or otherwise inefficient routes to HopSkipDrive, DPS has freed up resources to focus on improving services for other students.
“When we reduced our workload and increased efficiency, it allowed us to serve more schools with our existing resources,” Samora said. This approach has led to better on-time performance, improved parent communication, and a stronger focus on equity.
DPS Director of Operations Tyler Maybee, who has a professional background in data analytics, described how technology has played a role in optimizing routes.
“We partnered with HopSkipDrive when they were building RouteWise AI™, a tool that helps us analyze which students are best suited for yellow buses,” he said. “The goal is always to balance efficiency with equity.”
To start the 2023-24 school year, DPS implemented a large-scale bell time change in order to align start times with recent sleep science for older students. While DPS completed a district-wide bell time change at the start of the 2023–2024 school year, 23 schools were interested in further modifying their bell times for 2024–2025 to better meet their teachers’ and families’ schedules.
Before making these bell time changes, the DPS transportation team wanted a tool that would identify the operational impact of any new bell time changes.
In less than three weeks, RouteWise AI enabled DPS to assess this change and finalize and communicate decisions, a process that otherwise would have taken months. Using RouteWise AI to assess and optimize routing, HopSkipDrive ran 173 models to analyze different permutations of bell time changes for DPS, accounting for the operational impacts of different change combinations. With these insights, DPS confidently accepted changes for 11 of the 23 schools with a full understanding of the operational impacts. DPS was also able to propose alternate bell times for schools where the initial request was not feasible.
No system is without its challenges, but DPS and HopSkipDrive have collaborated on a standardized problem-solving process. For example, at one point GPS pins for student pickups were misaligned, causing confusion for drivers and families.
“HopSkipDrive quickly adjusted their system to match family expectations,” Maybee said. “That level of responsiveness strengthens our partnership.”
Data Transparency
The success of this partnership also relies on a shared commitment to data transparency. DPS and HopSkipDrive have established a data privacy agreement, enabling them to share bus stop and student information securely. This collaboration ensures that both parties work from the same dataset, reducing inefficiencies and improving decision-making.
“Our data-sharing agreement went through our legal department and IT team to ensure compliance,” Maybee said. “Having this framework in place allows us to make our transportation system as efficient as possible, which ultimately benefits our students.”
For other districts considering alternative transportation solutions, Samora and Maybee offered this advice based on their experience:
“Build a foundation of communication and shared values,” Samora said.
“Your partner should reflect your department’s values,” Maybee added. “They’re an extension of your team, so it’s critical to set clear expectations and maintain open communication.”
Moving Forward
As DPS continues to refine its transportation strategy, the lessons learned from its partnership with HopSkipDrive offer a blueprint for other districts. By leveraging innovative solutions and fostering collaborative relationships, DPS has addressed immediate challenges and also positioned itself for long-term success.
“It’s a constant balancing act,” Samora said. “But with the right strategies and partnerships, we’re delivering better service to our students.”