Districts transport students with disabilities every day under an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The cost recovery opportunities that supports those rides sit in several places at once: school-based Medicaid, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), state categorical aid and grant programs. Knowing which dollars apply, and holding the documentation to claim them, is where most operations lose ground.
In September 2026, Zonar and School Transportation News (STN) surveyed transportation professionals across the U.S. about how their districts fund and document specialized transportation.
Join Zonar and a panel of experts for an open conversation about where the money comes from, what districts document today and what gets missed along the way. Get direct insights from the perspective of consultants, district leaders and the staff who handle claiming.
What we’ll cover:
- Where cost recovery for transporting students with disabilities comes from, and which sources districts already use
- How school-based Medicaid reimbursement works for specialized transportation, from eligibility through the claim
- Why documentation is where most claims break down, and what a defensible ridership record looks like
- How one Florida district handles Medicaid claiming today, including the manual matching behind every submission
- Where the survey data shows the widest gap between cost recovery options that are available and funding claimed
- Practical next steps for transportation and special education leaders heading into the rest of the 2026-2027 school year
- How ridership tracking makes applying for cost recovery easier and more reliable.
Brought to you by Zonar
REGISTER BELOW:
Featured speakers:
Karen Thomas
Medicaid Coordinator
Leon County Schools
Karen Thomas handles Medicaid claiming for Leon County Schools in Tallahassee, Florida, where she manages the documentation behind every reimbursement the district submits for transporting students with disabilities. Her work covers pulling the daily records, matching each ride to the correct route and the correct student, then compiling the full file for submission.
She brings a ground-level view of what it takes to get funding for transporting students with disabilities, along with the tools and tricks that make her job easier.
Tim Ammon
Owner
Ammon Consulting Group
Tim Ammon has spent more than 25 years supporting transportation and fleet operations, working with more than 500 organizations across three countries. His work focuses on identifying opportunities to improve operational performance through process improvements, technology adoption, and personnel practices, consistently helping organizations bridge the gap between desired and actual performance.
Tim has also provided extensive professional development services in leadership and management, decision-making, organizational resilience, and cost and technical analysis. He holds a Master of Public Administration from American University and certifications in School Risk Management, Operational Risk Management, and Change Management.
Rob Consoli
Chief Revenue Officer
Zonar
Rob Consoli is Chief Revenue Officer at Zonar, where he leads global revenue strategy across sales, partnerships, and customer growth. With an engineering background and extensive technology experience, Rob brings a technical and business perspective to telematics, with a focus on revenue growth, cost recovery, and helping school districts maximize the value of their technology investments.
