نيويورك1 | Next week, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy is set to vote on a three-year extension of school bus contracts — after bus companies agreed to a short-term extension last month to avert disruptions.

They ride along routes served by 52 different companies, but despite the city spending $2 billion a year on service, critics and advocates say the system remains plagued with problems.

“Each year we receive hundreds of calls from families with concerns about school bus service: students arriving after their first or even second class has already ended. Students on buses for so long that they’re getting sick or missing their afternoon therapies, students missing days or even weeks or months of school,” Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, said.

Advocates argue the current contracts do not allow the city to make big enough changes to meet the needs of students. That includes providing service for summer programs like Summer Rising, or after-school programs — and without bus service, those programs are often inaccessible to students with disabilities.

“The way contracting is supposed to work with city agencies is, the city is supposed to design the type of service that it needs and then bid those contracts and allow vendors to apply and tell the city why it is best equipped to provide that service,” Levine said. “Unfortunately, in this case, we’re talking about a contract that dates back to 1979.”