Every run on a student transportation contract invoice checked against GPS, the run sheet and IEP ride terms before the contractor is paid
Contractors paid only for runs the GPS proves, every deduction cited to its clause.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Student Transportation Contract Audit checks every run on a school bus contractor's invoice against what the district already holds: the bus GPS, the run sheet, the contract's rate table and each rider's IEP transportation terms. Six agents give every run a verdict, Paid, Deduct or Ask, cited to its source and its clause under the student transportation contract. The analyst proposes, the Director of Transportation approves every deduction, and accounts payable pays only the verified amount.
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A student transportation contract pays the contractor by the run: a rate for a regular run, a higher rate for a lift-equipped bus, aide hours and extra miles, with liquidated damages for a late run, a run billed but not run, or a missing aide. Each month the school bus contractor sends one invoice of thousands of runs. The proof is already in the district's hands: the GPS on every bus records when it left and where it stopped, the routing system holds the run sheet, and the special education system holds each student's IEP transportation terms, such as the longest ride allowed, an aide or a lift.
Today a contract analyst spot-checks about a dozen runs, accounts payable pays the rest, and the damages clause goes unused because no run can be proved by hand. A ride over a student's IEP limit is a related service the student did not receive, and nobody measures the ride that happened. The family's late-bus message, often in Spanish or Vietnamese, sits in the messaging platform and never reaches the invoice. Student Transportation Contract Audit puts six agents in front of that checking, so the analyst and the Director of Transportation spend their time deciding.
Estimated split of one contractor's monthly invoice, in business days, by hand and with the agents. The 'after' column totals about four business days, the design goal; the agents' share is their run time on the sample invoice, rounded up. Our arithmetic, kept modest.
Six agents check every run against GPS, contract and IEP; the director approves each deduction.
Marlow Bay Unified School District pays Harrow Student Transport under contract MBUSD-TR-2024-07. Harrow's invoice 4471 for October arrived on Monday, November 2: 6,240 runs, $1,941,860.00. Here is what happens to it, screen by screen, in the working solution.
The matching agent matches 1.41 million GPS pings and 296 run sheets. The rate agent finds 18 lift-rate errors and 13 mileage overbills, the rider-rules agent checks 1,150 IEP riders, and the message agent ties 138 of 412 family messages to runs. Each step shows its source and confidence, and the run hands off to Marcus Ibarra and Denise Holloway.
3 hours 12 minutes: 6,118 paid, 87 deduct, 35 ask.
The invoice sits on top with the verdict meter: Paid 6,118, Deduct 87, Ask 35, and $1,903,985.55 verified to pay. Below it, Run 118 PM on Friday, October 9 is drawn as a transit line from Harborlight Elementary. Each stop shows its scheduled time above and its GPS time below: 3:15 pm against 3:56 pm at the school, 41 minutes late.
The agent names the cause: bus 2214 was still finishing run 64 PM at Cordelia Park Middle until 3:49 pm. Clicking "§9.4(a) · $250" opens the clause itself, from amendment 2 of the contract, and the view goes on the audit trail. The run happened, so its $356.20 is paid; only the damage comes off.
"For each run that departs its first stop thirty (30) minutes or more after the scheduled time, the District may deduct two hundred fifty dollars ($250) from the monthly invoice, unless the delay is excused under Section 9.5."
Andrés M. has "Max ride 60 min · Aide required · Lift" and rode 74 minutes. The aide, M. Okafor, signed in from 3:10 to 5:35 pm, so the aide was there and the lift was on the bus; the ride time is the breach. The run sheet planned 52 minutes, so this is a service breach by the contractor, not a routing error, and it goes to his IEP case manager, Luis Ferrante.
Lucía M. wrote in Spanish: "Mi hijo llegó a casa a las 5:10. Salió de la escuela a las 4 y nadie nos avisó." The English sits beside it, and the GPS confirms it: bus 2214 stopped at Hollis St at 5:10:42 pm. A reply in Spanish is drafted for a person to approve.
Run 41 PM on Tuesday, October 6 was billed at $298.40, but the GPS places bus 2190 at the Harrow yard for the whole run. The line is drawn with scheduled times only, and the verdict is Deduct $1,098.40: the run rate back under §7.3 plus $800 under §9.4(b). Three family messages from Pier Rd that afternoon match the GPS.
No movement on this run.
Run 95 AM on Thursday, October 22 had no GPS login on bus 2231, though the driver signed the run sheet. The verdict is Ask: only $298.40 is held, and the evidence request went to Harrow on November 3 with the director's approval, due November 10. The rest of the invoice is paid on time.
Marcus proposes the $250 deduction. In Denise's view the verdict shows "Proposed by Marcus Ibarra" with Approve and Return, above findings that cite the GPS departure at 3:56:08 pm, run 64 PM ending at 3:49 pm, the aide sign-in and the §4.2 lift rate. No agent approves, and the person who proposes cannot approve.
The notice to Dale Whitaker at Harrow, under §9.4 and §9.6, lists each clause, what the evidence shows, the runs and the amount: 87 runs and $27,430.45, with 35 held runs ($10,444.00). It names runs, buses, stops and student IDs, never a disability. Harrow may dispute until November 20, 2026.
Billed $1,941,860.00, less $27,430.45 in approved deductions and $10,444.00 held for evidence: $1,903,985.55 verified to pay. Every release condition is checked, including that the person releasing is not the person who approved, and the amount goes to the ERP as voucher AP-2026-118842, ahead of the December 2 pay-by date.
The same invoice, seen by the four people who carry it: what their month looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six agents check every run against GPS, contract and IEP; the director approves each deduction.
Ties every invoiced run to its GPS pings, its run sheet and the fleet roster: departure, stops reached, dwell and miles, and what held a late bus.
Checks each line against the contract rate table: regular or lift rate, aide hours and excess miles, quoting the clause.
Checks each run against the IEP transportation terms of every rider on board, with the aide sign-in as proof, and the school-of-origin rides of students in transition; says whether a breach is the run sheet's or the run's.
Matches family messages to a run and a GPS timestamp, shows the original beside the English, says whether the GPS supports the message and drafts a reply in the family's language.
Drafts each verdict and amount under its clause, the notice to the contractor and the evidence request for each hold, and reads the contractor's evidence in a dispute.
Assembles the evidence pack for an invoice, a run or a student and records the agent, model and contract version behind each statement.
Propose, approve, release. The agents propose; a named person decides.
The assistant answers from the same sources the agents cite, and opens the run, the rider or the message it is talking about.
Why is run 118 PM a deduction?
Bus 2214 left Harborlight Elementary at 3:56 pm, 41 minutes after the 3:15 pm on the run sheet. It was still finishing run 64 PM at Cordelia Park Middle until 3:49 pm. §9.4(a) sets $250 for a run that leaves 30 minutes or more late, and nothing in §9.5 excuses that day. The run happened, so the $356.20 is paid; only the damage comes off.
Which IEP ride limits were broken in October?
23 runs, 17 students. 22 are service breaches, where the contractor ran late, and go to the IEP case manager. One is a routing breach: run 173 AM plans 66 minutes for a 60-minute limit, so it goes to the routing office. The longest was Andrés M.: 74 minutes against 60 on October 9.
Why hold a run instead of denying it?
Because no GPS is not proof that no bus came. Run 95 AM on October 22 had no driver login, but the driver signed the run sheet. §7.3 lets the district accept other evidence, so the agent holds only $298.40 and asks. Harrow has since sent 31 ridership scans, and the agent now recommends paying it.
What would the board's auditor see for invoice 4471?
One pack: every run's verdict with its GPS extract, run-sheet line and clause; every proposal, approval and return with the name, time and reason; Harrow's evidence and the agent's reading of it; and the agent, model and contract version behind each statement. IEP findings appear as student ID and transportation terms only, and other students are redacted.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The contract the agents read by, the thresholds they apply, the clocks they keep and who decides are settings, versioned, with every change on the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | MBUSD-TR-2024-07, amendment 2 (effective July 1, 2026) | Pupil transportation services, 2024–2027; rates (§4.2, §4.4), damages (§9.4), excused delays (§9.5), notice and dispute (§9.6) |
| Late run | 30 minutes after the scheduled departure, §9.4(a) | Stepped up or down |
| Stop served | 150 ft · 20 s | The bus within this distance of the stop, stopped for at least this long |
| IEP ride-time tolerance | 0 minutes over the IEP limit | Stepped up or down |
| Confidence threshold | 85% | Below it, a verdict goes to the analyst to check the source |
| Approvals and escalation | Analyst 2 + director 2 business days | Escalation to the CFO 5 days before the pay-by date; a deduction over $5,000 on one run also needs the CFO |
| Contractor evidence window | 5 business days | Before a hold becomes a §9.4(d) deduction proposal |
| Family replies | In the home language on record | Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, Simplified Chinese; a person approves every reply |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
Sources: a large city comptroller's published audit of contracted school bus services (December 2025), and its press coverage ($42.6 million uncollected; damages assessed in 5.5% of no-GPS-login cases) · a 2019 public-radio review of three months of a district's bus billing (more than $860,000 in adjustments owed, nearly $2.5 million in damages under $200 late-route and $800 blown-route clauses) · 34 CFR 300.34(c)(16), transportation as a related service under IDEA · "target" = design goal, measured in the live solution · "demo" = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · "typical" = published figures · "estimated" = our arithmetic, kept modest. Marlow Bay Unified School District, Harrow Student Transport and the people named on this page are fictional: characters and sample data in the working solution.
Student Transportation Contract Audit checks every run on a school bus contractor's invoice against what the district already holds: the bus GPS, the run sheet, the contract's rate table and each rider's IEP transportation terms. Six agents give every run a verdict, Paid, Deduct or Ask, cited to its source and its clause under the student transportation contract. The analyst proposes, the Director of Transportation approves every deduction, and accounts payable pays only the verified amount.
Every invoiced run is matched to the GPS pings, the run sheet and the fleet roster, then checked against the contract: the regular or lift rate, aide hours, miles, and the damages clause for a late run, a run billed but not run, or a missing aide. In the working solution, all 6,240 runs on one monthly invoice get a verdict, not a dozen sampled by hand, and each deduction opens its clause.
Yes. Under IDEA, transportation is a related service (34 CFR 300.34(c)(16)), so a ride over the IEP's limit, a missing aide or a bus without a lift is a service the student did not receive, not only a billing matter. The rider-rules agent measures each IEP rider's ride from the GPS, uses the aide sign-in as proof, and sends a service breach to the case manager and a routing breach to the routing office. It never changes an IEP or decides make-up time.
The matching agent counts a stop as served when the bus is within 150 feet of it and stops for at least 20 seconds, and measures the departure against the scheduled time. A run is marked billed but not run only when the GPS places the bus somewhere else, such as the yard.
The run is held, never denied. Only that run's amount waits, the contractor is asked for evidence within 5 business days, and the rest of the invoice is paid on time. When the contractor answers, the agent reads the trip sheet or ridership scans against the GPS and recommends; a person decides.
Yes. The message agent matches each family message to a run and a GPS timestamp, keeps the original beside the English, and says plainly when the GPS does not support the complaint. It drafts a reply in the family's language, and a person approves every reply before it is sent.
Yes. The agents draft; they never approve, send a notice or pay. The contract analyst proposes, the Director of Transportation approves or returns with a reason, a deduction over $5,000 on one run also needs the CFO, and accounts payable releases the payment and cannot approve. Every change carries a reason code on the audit trail.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents, such as your school bus contract agreement, rate table, run sheets and a sample of past invoices, and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own invoices first.
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1-min demoSingle Audit PreparationRepeat findings caught two months before fieldwork, each with a signed plan.
1-min demoSection 117 Foreign Gift ReportingNo foreign source missed or understated, every reported line traced to its record.
1-min demoWe'll run Student Transportation Contract Audit on a sample of your own invoices, GPS and run sheets.