District Name and #
SPECIAL TRANSPORTATION PROCEDURE
Procedure
At the beginning of each school year the
District MARSS Coordinator will run a report
with the names of students identified as a
MARSS Transportation Code 03, (Special
Transportation). This list will be shared with
IEP managers to confirm that the student’s
listed continue to require special
transportation. The IEP manager will be
requested to return the list with any changes
or additions, along with a copy of the
student’s first page of the IEP and service
grid. These pages will document the need for
special transportation and the IEP manager
must verify with the MARSS Coordinator that
the student has a MARSS evaluation status
of either a 4 or 6(4 means they are evaluated
and receiving special education services; 6
means they are receiving services from
multiple agencies, i.e. school, county
programs, etc.) When the student has more
than one transportation record during the
year, the code selected for the year will be
the MARSS Code based on the
transportation service that is most expensive
to provide.
After making any necessary changes to the
MARSS system, the MARSS Coordinator will
send a copy of the list to the Business
Manager and the Transportation Director.
During the school year, IEP managers will
complete a Special Education
Transportation Request form for any
students requiring special transportation.
This form will be routed to the building
principal for approval prior to being submitted
to the transportation director. The IEP
manager will also send a copy of the first
page of the IEP and service grid to the
MARSS coordinator whenever an additional
student is identified as needing special
transportation.
March 2016
Timelines
July 1
The transportation director will note the
beginning mileage for each bus.
September
The MARSS coordinator will run a MARSS
Report listing the students identified as
MARSS Cod 03, (Special Transportation)
and send to IEP managers. After verification
has been completed and corrections made to
the MARSS system, a list of special
transportation students will be sent to the
business manager and transportation
director.
The third party billing contact will provide the
IEP manager with MA logs for each student
identified as having MA billable special
transportation.
The transportation director will in-service the
drivers on the accurate completion of the
special transportation log.
November
The MARSS coordinator will verify that
changes made to MARSS special
transportation are correct in preparation for
the December reporting deadline.
December
The MARSS Coordinator will submit data to
the State.
Monthly
Drivers will turn in MA logs for each student
to the IEP manager, if the student is MA
billable.
This includes special transportation during
the summer months provided to ECSE
children and any other students requiring
extended school year services. (The
MARSS Coordinator will need to create a
new date specific record when a student is
provided special education transportation for
only part of the year.) The MARSS
Coordinator will make changes on the
MARSS system and notify the business
manager and transportation director.
The transportation director will review the list
and assign the student to a specific
vehicle/route. The transportation director will
determine the number of miles traveled each
day on these routes and record it
appropriately on a trip log.
The business manager and/or third party
billing contact for the district will determine if
trip logs for MA Special Transportation will be
required for any of the students. If a
student’s transportation is MA billable, the
appropriate log will be provided to the
transportation director for distribution to the
route driver. The IEP manager will collect
the log from the driver monthly and compare
the log data to the student’s attendance
record. Once verified, the completed log will
be sent to the third party billing contact for
submission into the MA third party billing
system.
At the end of the year, the MARSS
Coordinator will run a report for all students
indicating the number of students transported
in each transportation category. The
business manager will calculate costs to
categories based on a cost per mile. If the
bus/vehicle is used on a predetermined route
(same miles every day), the daily miles will
be multiplied by the number of days in the
school year to determine the annual mileage
for the vehicle. If the buses/vehicles are not
used on a predetermined route, the mileage
will be recorded by the number of trips.
March 2016
June
The business manager will calculate the cost
per mile for all transportation categories and
report allocated mileage and route costs
under the proper finance dimensions. The
MARSS transportation report, cost allocation
worksheets, Annual Transportation Report
and corresponding log sheets will be retained
for audit purposes.
June 30
The transportation director will note the
ending mileage for each bus and retain the
logs for records retention.
The business manager will determine the
cost per mile by dividing the expenditure
coded to Finance Dimension 720 by the total
miles driven. The cost for each type of
service will be calculated by multiplying the
mileage reported in each category times the
rate that was calculated for cost per mile and
make the appropriate finance code journal
entries.
On June 30th the transportation director will
note the ending mileage for each bus and
turn in the logs to the business manager for
record retention.
March 2016