Delayed Buses: Philly parents say it's been a bumpy road getting kids to school on time

Back here, a newly hired bus company in the Philadelphia school district is having some growing pains. And some parents say it's affecting the education of many students with special needs. Investigative reporter Ciampadelli shows us the issues raised by parents, and he's learned that the bus company has other complaints in other states as well. The company is Zoom, and it received a five-year, $483 million contract to bus students in the Philadelphia school district beginning this school year. It touts itself as a technology and transportation company with a tracking app for parents. Think Uber for school buses. But some parents say their children are chronically late to school, and the app isn't working. Thursday, September 3rd, the first day of school. Zoom bus pulls up at 10.40 a.m. as mother Tamira Hicks waited and waited for eight-year-old son Asir to get picked up. It was nearly three hours late. School start time at Green Tree in West Oak Lane, a special school for emotional and autistic children, is 8.30 a.m. Dismissal that day was noon, about the time Hicks says her son finally arrived. They just made sure that he went to the bathroom and then gave him his school lunch and left him on the bus. And Hicks says day after day, as you can see in these timestamp videos, the bus would pick up a seer around 8.30. Every day has been something. I've been calling literally reporting every day since the first day of school. He has never been picked up on time. Newt Tong of West Philadelphia says her 19-year-old son, Jose, also goes to Green Tree, but on a different bus route. She says not only has he been late almost every day to school, one day he didn't arrive home until well after 5.30 p.m. She says the app wasn't working to track him, so she called Zoom. My son is not verbal. What if they dropped him off somewhere wrong and he doesn't know what's going on? Jose arrived home safely, but Tong was told by the driver that There was a fight on the bus, and they pulled over and called police. The driver had to handle the fight on her own while driving the bus. The investigative team reached out to both the Philadelphia School District and Zoom to address the issues. The school district declined a request for an on-camera interview, but in a statement, they said they value parents' concerns and are working with Zoom to make adjustments. The district said since our inquiry, it did a review of the on-time performance at Green Tree, but did not share the results. Spokesperson also said the district will continue to monitor service at the school and make improvements as deemed necessary. I just hope the school district can get better with this. Because it has affected a lot of people's lives, not even just mine. Zoom also declined an on-camera interview in a statement the company said it experienced initial challenges at the start of school, which were resolved in the first week. Zoom also said remaining issues are related to routing and that the company is working with the district leadership as improvements are implemented to support reliable service. I just want them to get better with their transportation, getting these kids to school, and showing that they really do care about these kids. Zoom is a Silicon Valley-based company. Its website says it serves 7,500 schools nationwide and claims it has a 98% average on-time rate. It touts its app to allow parents to track their child's bus ride from a phone. But Tong and Hicks say that application had glitches, but since we began asking questions, improved. And there are reports from Rhode Island to Kansas to Illinois about complaints over delayed routes and tracking app failures. According to Zoom's website, performance is improving as it works with the district to make changes. That's my son's right to be in school, and his right to get transportation to the school. We wanted to know what sort of due diligence the district did when it hired Zoom. In a statement, it says the Board of Education authorized the contract, but the district declined to answer further questions. I'm investigative reporter Chad Prudeli, Channel 6 Action News.