Chalkbeat | It took years of advocacy to secure guaranteed school bus service for New York City students in foster care.

But now, advocates say it can take weeks or more to get that bus service up and running, leaving kids who are already among the most vulnerable in the city with few good options to get to school while they wait.

That’s why they’re calling on city officials to invest $3 million in this year’s budget to come up with a better system to transport kids in foster care while they await bus service.

“At this challenging time in their lives, students should be able to rely on continuous, consistent access to school as a critical source of stability,” the nonprofit Advocates for Children, along with 24 other groups who work with foster youth, wrote in a Tuesday letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani.