NYC Open Data Analysis
1 Introduction
The New York City school system is massive, servicing nearly one million students over 1597 public schools and 281 charter schools (New York City Public Schools (2025)). Naturally in a system of so many students, any delays in student transportation can lead to large numbers of students missing valuable class time. This threat is not a merely hypothetical, with data from the New York City Department of Education showing a total of 67542 delays in the 2024-2025 school year. According to one analysis from “City Limits”, approximately 150,000 students use NYC’s school buses. However, delays to these buses inflict harm at a disproportionate rate on racial minority and disabled students (Parra (2025)). The following analysis looks at these delays in greater detail, examining regional and temporal trends across NYC to try and provide insight into possible remedial measures.
2 Results
2.1 Trends in School Bus Delays by Borough
Figure 1 above shows the frequency of school bus delays per 10,000 students (based on 2021-2022 class size data) in each borough of NYC through the 2024-2025 school year. The highest frequency of school bus delays appears to be in Staten Island, with a delay rate of approximately 0.27 per 10,000 students. Queens appears to have the lowest delay rate at approximately 0.06. Other boroughs range from delay rates of 0.07 to 0.17.
| Boro | Reason | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Bronx | Heavy Traffic | 15616 |
| Bronx | Other | 2703 |
| Bronx | Problem Run | 515 |
| Brooklyn | Heavy Traffic | 16883 |
| Brooklyn | Other | 3488 |
| Brooklyn | Problem Run | 1743 |
| Manhattan | Heavy Traffic | 3449 |
| Manhattan | Other | 1489 |
| Manhattan | Problem Run | 384 |
| Queens | Heavy Traffic | 8203 |
| Queens | Other | 5120 |
| Queens | Problem Run | 392 |
| Staten Island | Heavy Traffic | 5039 |
| Staten Island | Late return from Field Trip | 91 |
| Staten Island | Delayed by School | 74 |
In spite of Staten Island’s notably higher rate of bus delays, it does not seem to differ heavily in reasons listed for delays (as shown in Table 1.) Much like other boroughs, heavy traffic is the top listed reason for bus delays, vastly outweighing all other categories.
2.2 Temporal Trends in School Bus Delays
Figure 2 above displays the monthly top 3 reasons listed for school bus delays as a percentage of total delays for that month. Heavy traffic routinely outweighs all other causes by a very wide margin, with problemed runs typically being a distant runner up. Problemed runs consist of cases in which the school bus vendor believes there to be too many stops on or too great of a length to the route. In Winter months, weather conditions also frequently show up as a reason for delays. Please note that the delay reason “other” was omitted from this figure due to lack of clarity.
3 Discussion
The per borough disbalance in frequency of delays and temporal differences in frequency of delay causes have numerous implications for NYC school bus policy. The substantially greater frequency of school bus delays in Staten Island relative to the rest of NYC warrants additional research. It is possible that poor road quality or greater distances between schools and students homes may contribute to the relatively higher frequency in delays, given heavy traffic being frequently cited as a reason for delay. Should these factors play into State Islands’ school bus delays, it may be worth increasing investment in road maintenance or making changes to school bus routes. The increased frequency of problemed runs in certain months may also indicate the need for school bus vendors to be more proactive in creating alternative routes for travel to school. Although some school bus delays are likely inevitable given NYC’s frequently congested streets, taking active steps to help address the root causes of these delays may improve students’ attendance and education quality.
References
New York City Department of Education. 2022. “2021–2022 Class Size Distribution by Borough.” https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Education/2021-2022-Class-Size-Distribution-by-Borough/m6ag-gfcb (May 29, 2026).
New York City Department of Education, Office of Pupil Transportation. 2026. “Bus Breakdown and Delays.” https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Transportation/Bus-Breakdown-and-Delays/ez4e-fazm (May 29, 2026).
New York City Public Schools. 2025. “NYCPS Data at a Glance.” https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/nycps-data-at-a-glance (May 29, 2026).
Parra, Daniel. 2025. “A New School Year Is Here—and so Are School Bus Delays.” City Limits. https://citylimits.org/a-new-school-year-is-here-and-so-are-school-bus-delays/ (May 29, 2026).