Chicago Public Schools provides bus services, which it outsources, to about 16,000 students who have special needs or who are enrolled in magnet or gifted programs, like Alvarez’s daughter, if the school is 1.5 to six miles from their home. When the school year began, Chicago reported that 2,100 of those students were without transportation, including 910 with disabilities whose Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) mandated transportation.
