A. Mission: AACPS seeks qualified Contractors to provide student transportation services. Contractors must provide all necessary management, supervision, labor, training, material, equipment, and other resources and procedures required to safely and efficiently perform the specified general objective, as required by applicable statute, regulation, policy, procedure and practices related to the provision of student transportation services. Contracts related to the provision of student transportation services shall be for an initial term of seven school years beginning from August 2025 initial acceptance inspection date and continuing for up to five additional single school years thereafter, subject to conditions set forth herein and continued satisfactory performance. The single-year contract renewal is automatic without action by either party unless AACPS notifies Contractor in writing not less than 90 days before the renewal date that the contract will not be renewed. The contract term shall not be extended beyond the AACPS-permitted life cycle of the school bus originally placed in service at the commencement of this contract. Absent certified vehicle replacement authorized by AACPS and authorized approved contract extension, this Agreement terminates at the end of the vehicle life cycle. B. Student Population & Site Number Priority: AACPS services over 86,000 students over the course of a traditional school year. Approximately 58,000 of these students receive transport services to some degree. AACPS operates over 79 elementary schools, 19 middle schools, 13 high schools, 9 special schools, and 2 vocational centers. The transportation system also services additional non-public school locations for certain students receiving special need services. C. General Services & Field Trip Eligibility: Required services include, but are not limited to, regular to and from school-to-home services, vocational, special education, noon-time prekindergarten, after school support services (activity buses), and other supporting programs. Any combination of these required services may be used at any time, regardless of whether the minimums are met or not. For example, a bus could run a total of 5.20 hours during the morning and afternoon runs, yet after adding an activity run of 0.75 hours, the actual hours of 5.95 on activity days remains under the minimum of 6.00 hours. In this example, the bus will be paid for a 6.00-hour minimum on both activity and non-activity days. An award to a Contractor under this solicitation makes the Contractor eligible to competitively participate in additional student transportation areas sponsored by AACPS, such as athletic field trips, individual school sponsored field trips, the Environmental Literacy and Outdoor Education transportation program, music program field trips, summer school services, non-public school special services and others. These additional areas may be bid by individual unit, school, or the Purchasing Division.
