National Congress on School Transportation Delayed Until 2025

March 10, 2021

2015 NCST proceedings — State delegates and interested parties observe the proceedings during the 2015 National Congress on School Transportation. (Photo by Max Christensen, Iowa Department of Education)

The steering committee for the National Congress on School Transportation (NCST) announced that the 17th deliberations on industry specifications and procedures will be postponed another four years.

NCST was supposed to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, last May but was moved back to this May 16-19 because of COVID-19. Last month, the steering committee met and decided the new date was not feasible amid ongoing travel restrictions for most state delegates and current public health mandates in Des Moines and the surrounding Polk County. The steering committee also determined that a virtual congress was not feasible.

The steering committee then set out to determine if it could further postpone the event until next year or wait until 2025, when the 18th congress was to be held. The NCST, which originated in 1939 and formalized the color school bus yellow, was held every five years from 1970 through 2015.

Patrick McManamon, NCST chair and the president of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, said in a letter dated Wednesday that work will begin next month toward updating the 2015 National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures manual with amendments derived from administrative proposals submitted to the various editing and writing committees.

He added that the amended document is expected to be completed by July 1.

Additional substantive proposals marked as non-urgent will be scheduled for deliberation at the next in-person NCST likely in May 2025, but no dates were provided.

McManamon explained that the process for accepting and reviewing proposals will reopen prior to the new dates of the 17th NCST. Until then, an interim amendment process already in place remains available for state delegates to submit urgent or emergency proposals.