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The swap to OMNY playing cards for the New York Metropolis public college system has been a boon to college students throughout the boroughs.
And because the Schooling Division and Metropolitan Transportation Authority gear up for the approaching college yr, some main modifications might be afoot — together with the fabric they’re fabricated from, the power to make use of them on cellphones, and who’s eligible, Schooling Division officers stated Thursday at a Chancellor’s Mother or father Advisory Committee assembly.
Greater than half one million college students acquired OMNY playing cards by this yr’s new initiative, offering as much as 4 free rides all day, 12 months a yr. (Beforehand, Metrocards solely provided three every day rides throughout restricted hours on college days.) New York Metropolis paid the MTA roughly $50.5 million for 1.5 million playing cards, and has thus far delivered about 60% of these playing cards to colleges, Schooling Division officers not too long ago instructed Chalkbeat.
However complaints from mother and father and faculties have been rising louder about broken, misplaced, and deactivated playing cards as the college yr enters the spring time period. Some faculties have reported lengthy waits to get alternative playing cards, prompting issues particularly for migrant college students who might face extreme penalties, together with attainable deportation, for leaping a turnstile to get to high school. Schooling Division officers, nevertheless, have stated faculties ought to get alternative playing cards a few week after requesting them.
Right here’s what might change subsequent yr:
The flimsy paper materials used for the coed OMNY playing cards might quickly be a factor of the previous.
The Schooling Division is in discussions with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the seller who makes the playing cards to discover modifications to the playing cards’ materials and sturdiness, La-Nikka Parker-Moore, from the Schooling Division’s Workplace of Pupil Transportation, instructed members of the Chancellor’s Mother or father Advisory Committee on Thursday.
“Mother places it within the wash by mistake, it’s within the pocket, or youngsters’ juice is spilling,” Parker-Moore stated. “They’re getting broken extra.”
MTA officers confirmed they’re trying into extra sturdy supplies for pupil OMNY passes.
One other approach Parker-Moore hoped to deal with the problem was to maneuver to having digital pupil OMNY playing cards, she stated.
Anticipating some wear-and-tear and misplaced playing cards, the Schooling Division this yr offered additional playing cards to colleges so that they have alternative playing cards readily available, Parker-Moore stated.
“In case your pupil OMNY card is broken, please return the broken card to your college,” Parker-Moore stated. “The college will change it straight away. We ship many playing cards to the college with a buffer to make sure that faculties all the time have playing cards readily available.”
A program piloting digital pupil OMNY playing cards will launch within the fall.
College students will quickly have the choice to hyperlink their OMNY playing cards to a tool so they’ll now not want to hold a bodily card, Parker-Moore stated. However earlier than rolling this system out citywide, the Schooling Division plans to pilot it. Officers declined to offer extra particulars on the scope of the pilot.
College students who don’t have units will nonetheless be capable to get bodily playing cards. These with units should select whether or not they need an precise card or one linked to their machine.
“Everyone knows not each pupil may have a bodily machine. Possibly mother and father don’t need them to have a smartphone or issues like that, so they’ll nonetheless have the choice of the bodily card,” Parker-Moore stated. “But it surely wouldn’t be each.”
The variety of college students eligible for OMNY playing cards may increase.
Scholar OMNY playing cards are solely out there to youngsters who dwell at the least half a mile away from their college, a lot to the frustration of households whose youngsters dwell nearer however can’t get the opposite advantages of the playing cards such because the weekend and summer season hours or rides to and from sports activities, extracurriculars, or internships.
Equally, college students with disabilities and others who journey yellow college buses don’t get the playing cards, since they’re solely allowed one mode of transportation, Parker-Moore stated.
That would doubtlessly change.
“We do acknowledge the prolonged advantages of with the ability to journey outdoors of college hours,” Parker-Moore stated. “So these are, these are ongoing discussions.”
For college kids with out OMNY playing cards who want transit for school-approved packages, their college can request “particular program OMNY playing cards,” which provide two journeys and two transfers per day, officers stated.
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.