Committee on Transportation , Public Utilties, October 6, 2026

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILTIES Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, October 6, 2026 1:09 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL, CHAIR COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR., VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS

260441 - - -

I now note that the hour has come. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance, will you please indicate that you are present when your name is called.

Councilmember Brooks. (No response.)

Councilmember Jones.

Present.

Councilmember Phillips.

Present.

Councilmember Squilla.

Present.

Vice-Chair Young.

Present.

Chair Driscoll.

Present. Thank you. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities regarding Resolution No. 260441. Ms. McDonald, will you please read the title of this resolution.

Resolution 19 260441, authorizing the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities to hold hearings examining the status of transit, mobility and access for Philadelphia students and the expansion of the SEPTA Student Fare program.

Before we call the first panel, I'd like to recognize the Vice-Chair to make a few brief remarks. Vice- Chair Young.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank Councilmember Landau for bringing this important conversation to City Council. You know, when we talk about our young people and having access to different opportunities, it's important for them to be able to get to those opportunities, right. And we want to, I think, on this body ensure that our young people have the ability to travel throughout the city to get to those places, opportunities aren't necessarily in the neighborhoods where our young people live, right. And I know this just from being a young person growing up in this city. We have to go other places and travel throughout the city, right. Everything is not within a four or five block radius from where we live. We have to travel across the city for those opportunities so we can fulfill, so we can do the things that we like to do to keep us out of trouble, to keep us safe. I was talking to a bunch of folks who go to a program called Level Up, and a lot of those folks go to Level Up which is out West Philly, but live in North Philly, right. They travel to West Philly to go to a place where they feel safe, they feel is comfort, right. And so, we need to be able to provide those young people with that sense of safety, that sense of fulfillment for them, you know, as they continue to grow in our city, right. And that honestly can break down certain barriers that we face in our city between certain neighborhoods and certain communities. So providing them with this opportunity I think is only going to be a positive for our city. Expanding opportunities for kids to, you know, allow them to travel on SEPTA if they live a mile away from school, I think it's something positive for our city, right. Because walking a mile to school in certain neighborhoods where I represent, particularly in North Philadelphia, right, you're going through three different neighborhoods at one time, right. And so, that is something that creates safety issues, right. We want to talk about these safety corridors near schools and things like that, these walking corridors, well, sometimes it may not be necessary if I can just hop on this bus and just go straight down and catch the 54 to where I got to get to rather than walking through this neighborhood, that block, where folks may not know who I am. So I want to thank again the Councilmember Rue Landau for introducing this legislation to hold this hearing because this is a very important conversation. We have to keep the young people at the forefront of everything that we do because they literally are the future of our city. I remember being a young person in this city, in these chambers, right, thinking that one day I'm going to be an adult, right, and what opportunities are going to be there for me that we're creating policies now for the future generations. And we have to keep that in mind as we legislate. If we think about how it only affects us, we're doing a disservice to our city. So thank you, Councilmember, for having this conversation.

Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Councilmember Landau. It's important as we go through these hearings to really understand the challenges that are out there and why it's important to provide transportation. We know that if people are going to use public transportation, we also know it has to be safe and clean. So those challenges are also something that have to be addressed during these conversations. And the other thing is when we do provide these things, we also have to educate the people using them to make sure they tap their cards and use them so that we could get the proper data analysis, looking at that information to understand who is using the services, how we can improve those services. So it's more than just one thing that we're looking at here. And I really want to commend Councilmember Landau for bringing this to us today and looking forward to the testimony today to see how we can improve and make sure that public transit is accessible to all. Thank you.

Vice-Chair Young.

So Councilmember Squilla, we did introduce a resolution to examine the safety on SEPTA, particularly amongst our youth as well. So we're going to be having that conversation in more detail soon. So I just want to put that out there as well.

And I'd like to recognize at this time the maker of the resolution, Council -- let me recognize Councilman Jones first.

So all young people aren't created equal. And the important part of this hearing is to make sure that those who are doing the right thing get more access and opportunity. But for those who are doing the wrong thing, we need to have some checks and balances involved. And what do I mean by that? Right outside these windows on our own plaza, from time to time there are meetups and some of them turn violent and some of them are usually youth-on-youth. Last week it was two females in a fierce fight. And the young people that are doing this come from about nine schools within a mile of here. My granddaughter goes to one of them so I'm familiar with some of the nuances of why they meet up and use our plaza as their playground. So as we look at safety, and I'm glad you mentioned that there would be another hearing about juvenile safety on SEPTA for those who are going to a job at Wawa or McDonald's, and they have to work the later shift. We need to make sure that they can get to and from that job safely. But for those who abuse the privilege that wind up down here fighting, we need to have a process by which we say, your SEPTA card is on pause for a month and when you get your act together, we will reinstate it. Providing that kind of check and balance is equally important. I had the hardest time working with Adam Geer and the Public Safety Unit and the Police Commissioner, trying to avoid those fights so that it didn't wind up on CNN during the celebration, the 250th anniversary of our nation. So as we try to take care of the good young people, we need to also have a provision that says, you use this pass in a hurtful way and we may have to give you time-out for a month. So as we look at both sides of this, I think this hearing is important. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. And now I'd like to recognize the maker of the resolution, Councilwoman Landau. Thank you for your leadership on this very important topic.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair Driscoll, Vice-Chair Young and the whole committee for convening this incredibly important conversation. I just sent my son away to college, but for the last 10 years, I was a Philadelphia public 11 school parent. Like many parents 12 across the city, I did everything I 13 could to support him so he could 14 participate in extracurricular 15 activities, have a part-time job to 16 put a few bucks in his pocket and 17 always keep a healthy, social life 18 with his friends. For parents throughout Philadelphia, all of that often came down to whether or not their kid could get around the city using public transportation. And unfortunately, the City and SEPTA are missing the mark when it comes to giving kids the opportunity to get around easily, especially for students who have two working parents, a single-working parent or other scenarios where it could be challenging to provide transportation. That's why I wanted to hold today's hearing. We need to explore solutions to help our students get around so they can have access to all of the opportunities Philly has to offer. And universal student fares could be a part of that solution. Today's hearing isn't about getting kids to and from school. This is about Philadelphia being their school. This is about their education, not as teenagers, but as people. We know that afterschool programs can be a key to a child's safety, social well-being, personal interests and overall development. In fact, I want to commend Councilmember Phillips and Councilmember Thomas for their incredible work they've done in that space, especially with the Afterschool Hype, which is a great example of that kind of programming through afterschool sports, through part-time jobs, through workforce development, through arts programs. All of this creates a student who wants to participate in Philadelphia, but we as a city need to commit to giving them that opportunity. SEPTA is their key to the city. And due to restrictions to student passes, we are holding that key at arm's length. Currently, SEPTA student passes restrict the hours and days of the week a student can use the passes as well as restrictions for kids who live 1.5 miles or further from their school. If we want our children to grow up well, to become Philadelphians who are proud of their city, we need to expand their access to their hometown. When we tell our students that they need to take every advantage offered to them, we have to actually offer them that advantage. Without the time and distance restrictions attached to a $2.90 price tag one way, and for some families almost $6 every once in a while is not an issue. But for families with multiple children, families with two working parents or a single parent, kids who have to do this every single day, families already living through an affordability crisis, every penny counts. It's not just an access issue or an availability issue. It's an issue of economic justice. And for those families, even more vital than they are is that they can experience and develop their developmental advantage. They can access, which should include a way for kids to get around to the opportunities available to them seamlessly. A universal Student Fare program can be a piece of the puzzle to keep our kids safe, to keep them progressing, to keep them proud to be a Philadelphian. I look forward to today's hearing. I hope to learn more about our children, how our children view their time, money and access to opportunities under the current system. And I thank you, Councilmember Young, for reminding us that we are going to have another hearing on safety on SEPTA, and that the SEPTA passes go until 8:00 p.m. at night. And often times the issues on Dilworth Plaza are happening at 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 when the passes are active. So this is a fully different issue. And what we are really looking at is (inaudible) -- (Brief recess.) COUNCIL TECH SUPPORT: Mic check.

I think we're good. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the first panel.

Dr. Tony Watlington, Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia; and Erik Johanson, Chief Financial Officer for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Superintendent, would you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon. Tony Watlington, Sr., School Superintendent. You'd like me to proceed, Mr. Chairman?

Yes.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Driscoll, Vice-Chair Young, Councilmember Landau and members of the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities. , Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia. With me today are Colonel Oz Hill, our Deputy Superintendent for Operations, Mike Herbstman, the District's Chief Financial Officer, Teresa Fleming, Chief Operations Officer and other members of our leadership team. I want to thank you in advance also, Chair Driscoll, for the opportunity that you afforded me to step out just a bit early, depending on how long the Council hearing runs, and certainly the other members of the team will stay for the entirety of the hearing. Also, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the status of transit mobility and access for Philadelphia students and the possible expansion of the SEPTA Student Fare program. Philadelphia has one of the largest districts in the country with almost 200,000 scholars. And we know our students' lives extend well beyond the school day. The District understands the goals of this resolution, and we welcome the chance to work with our City Council, SEPTA and state partners to find a way to at least think about funding it. The School District of Philadelphia's Department of Transportation Services provides safe and reliable transportation for eligible students attending district schools, charter schools, non-public schools as well as early intervention programs. Transportation options may include yellow school buses, school vehicles, SEPTA, SEPTA Student Fare cards, and parent transportation reimbursement. SEPTA Student Fare cards in their current form have been in use since the 2001-2002 school year. Under the Pennsylvania Public School Code, school districts may provide transportation to students who live more than one mile from their assigned school or whose walking route PennDOT designates as hazardous. Students may also qualify based on individual circumstances, including their Individualized Education Plan or IEP. 5 miles or further 12 from school are generally eligible for a Student Fare card. Some students in 5th grade and 6th grade may be eligible for and use SEPTA Student Fare cards in limited circumstances. The Student Fare card is a usable chip card that students use to board SEPTA buses, trolleys, subways and the Regional Rail. Unlike the SEPTA transpass, a card has no monetary value until it is assigned to a student and activated by SEPTA. The District distributes cards at each school and students keep the same card for the entire school year. Use is measured in taps, SEPTA's term for each boarding. m. m. on school days. Each card is tied to a set school calendar so it does not work -- the card does not work on holidays, doesn't work on weekends and on non-school days. The School District pays SEPTA upfront. We report the eligible transportation costs to the Pennsylvania Department of Education and we receive state reimbursements as PDE determines is eligible. In the past, this has been 100%. This has been 100% of the district's eligible costs. This is not inclusive of some minimal exceptions to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's eligibility possibility. Notably, the changes proposed by this resolution to the Student Fare card program, which fall outside of the PDE or the Pennsylvania Department of Education's eligibility criteria will not result in reimbursement from the state. Currently, the Student Fare card program generally includes eligible 7th through 12th grade students for District students only. The current projected cost for Fiscal Year '27 Student Fare cards is $15,108,455 representing approximately 29,919 district students.

The total projected cost for FY27 of the Student Fare card program, including district-operated schools as well as charter schools, non-public schools and other qualifying school programs is 30,150,580, representing roughly 59,706 students that meet the eligibility guidelines of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The School District of Philadelphia clearly understands that adolescents thrive with increased autonomy and independence. This includes the ability to travel to and from school, through afterschool activities and jobs, and to the many great cultural offerings in Philadelphia. 5 miles from his or her school has an afterschool job, has weekend activities or joins a summer program cannot use their SEPTA Student Fare card to get there. The resolution before you correctly identifies these gaps. The School District supports the underlying goals of expanding Student Fare card eligibility and hours. The reality, however, is that these changes dramatically increase the cost of the Student Fare card program. The District and SEPTA had a preliminary discussion not yet fully vetted nor approved about a potential rate reduction to include the expansion criteria. Using that rate, the additional cost of expansion for District- operated charter and non-public schools is approximately $63,788,061. When doing this analysis, the District looked at expanding the Student Fare card as follows: One, expanding from current five days a week to seven days a week; two, expanding from grades through to grades 5 through 12; and three, expanding from the school year use to full calendar use. The full breakdown of these calculations are attached in the exhibit that was shared with Council ahead of this hearing. My conclusions -- our conclusion: Providing students safe, reliable and affordable access to transit helps them get to school, to their afterschool activities and to jobs and to the many cultural and educational opportunity our city has to offer. , would give our young people greater independence and quite frankly, greater opportunity at the same time. We want to be candid about the scale of the investment. 8 million. But that number, Chair Driscoll and Councilmembers, has not been fully vetted or approved. Further, the district's current arrangement with the Commonwealth, in which the Pennsylvania Department of Education reimburses eligible transportation costs would not extend to this expanded use. The District is unable to absorb these costs within its existing budget without, and I want to underscore, without taking resources away from other vital education services with a dependable funding source. However, we are eager and would be eager to be a partner in making this vision a reality. Thank you, Councilmember Landau and members of the Committee, for your leadership on this issue and for the opportunity to testify. My colleagues from the School District are here with me today and certainly at the appropriate time, Chair Driscoll, would be happy to answer any questions you may have. And thank you again for your generous opportunity to allow me to leave a bit early, depending on how long the hearing lasts. But I can assure you that all the members of the School District will be here for the entirety of the hearing. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Superintendent. Are you going to testify?

Yes.

Please proceed.

Erik Johanson. I'm the Treasurer and CFO at SEPTA. Good afternoon, Chair Driscoll, Vice-Chair Young, Councilmember Landau and members of Philadelphia City Council. My name is Erik Johanson and I am SEPTA Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding Resolution No. 260441 to discuss SEPTA's role in student transportation and provide an update on our recent partnership with the School District of Philadelphia related to fare compliance. I am joined by Deputy Transit Chief James Zuggie and staff from various SEPTA departments working on student transportation. SEPTA is grateful for Council's continued support of SEPTA service. The City of Philadelphia's Fiscal Year 2027 budget provides $135 million for SEPTA operations, enabling SEPTA to meet its state-mandated local match requirement. The city budget also funds the city's participation in Key Advantage and the Zero Fare program. At the same time, efficiency and accountability measures have reduced SEPTA's structural budget deficit more than $21 million without impacting service delivery. City funding also supports initiatives that are delivering safer, cleaner and more reliable service. Serious crime declined 37% from 2023 to 2025, while rider satisfaction surveys show consistent improvement. SEPTA is an important provider of student transportation and we value the trust that students and families place in us to provide safe, reliable transportation to and from school. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Education establishes guidelines for which student transportation costs, including public transportation, are eligible for reimbursement and manages the funding directly with school districts. School districts determine individual eligibility based on those guidelines, as published on the School District of Philadelphia and SEPTA website. 5 miles or more from school are generally eligible for the SEPTA Student Fare card. The School District determines eligibility at its sole discretion based on Department of Education guidelines. Eligible students can use the card for free travel on SEPTA to and from school on weekdays during the school year, with up to eight trips per day. m. , and has included now Regional Rail. As the provider of this service, SEPTA must receive appropriate payment for student transportation as any provider would. While travel is free with a valid Student Fare card, students, like all riders, present their fare at the fare box or turnstile. Tapping a fare card ensures that each trip is accurately counted and that SEPTA receives the appropriate payment when students do not tap their cards. Those trips are not captured in students in SEPTA's ridership data, resulting in a significant undercount of student trips and deficient reimbursement to SEPTA through the School District and Department of Education Agreement. SEPTA has worked closely with the School District to address student fare compliance this year. Under the new School District SEPTA Fare Reimbursement Agreement, we have expanded outreach to school administrators, staff, parents, guardians and students. And I want to thank Dr. Watlington and his team for their partnership on this proactive program announced by the School District in May. The Student Fare Compliance Initiative provides students, families and school communities with information and resources to help students better understand the responsibilities of SEPTA riders, the importance of tapping their fare cards and the consequences of fare evasion. A key component is the diversion program, in which students found to have evaded fares, receive contact reports rather than citations. These reports are shared with the student's school and a parent or guardian to help identify and address the underlying reasons for fare noncompliance. Each school also has a designated transportation liaison who serves as a point of contact for questions and assistance.

This approach addresses compliance issues before they escalate while helping students develop responsible riding habits. SEPTA is supporting these efforts by engaging with transportation liaisons and promoting student fare compliance through our social media channels. We hope you can help us by sharing these posts with your constituents and followers. When every rider, including students, pay their fare and follow the rules, it helps ensure safe and reliable transportation for everyone. SEPTA is taking a comprehensive approach to fare evasion, which includes installing new full-height fare gates at ten stations, which have reduced fare evasion by 37% to 75% at those locations. This fiscal year, SEPTA will begin installing new gates at 13 additional stations and retrofit legacy turnstiles to collect necessary revenue to support current service levels. Decisions regarding expanded school service for school-age children are beyond SEPTA's purview and outside the scope of the current Department of Education Transportation Program. SEPTA stands ready to support any level of student transportation. However, the associated costs must be fully funded. Expanding eligibility beyond the Department of Education reimbursement guidelines would create a significant recurring expense requiring an ongoing funding solution. SEPTA is proud of its longstanding role in connecting students to education and extracurricular activities. Student transportation can serve as a gateway to lifelong transit ridership and its benefits. We appreciate Council convening today's hearing and look forward to continuing our partnership on transportation initiatives that improve the lives of your constituents. I'm available to answer any questions.

So I do have one question before I recognize some of the members of the committee. The agreement with the School District and the Commonwealth, does the Department of Education need enabling legislation to financially expand or do they have the discretion if the money was available? How would that work?

So my understanding, and this is my understanding, is that the agreement is between SEPTA and the School District. And we actually did engage last year in conversations with the state on this and they confirmed that understanding. And that establishes the basis for the recognition of the usage which, as we've discussed, is based on the students having cards assigned and then tapping them on our vehicles. And then those costs are then reimbursed as eligible from the state. The extent to which the pot of money available for those programs across the state could grow, I believe, is a Commonwealth budget question.

Okay. Vice-Chair Young.

Dr. Watlington, you mentioned -- first of all, good afternoon. You mentioned that the funds for the passes, students can get passes if they're like 1.5 miles away or PennDOT defines their route as hazardous. Can you tell us what is that, what is hazardous defined as --

Yes. I'm going to ask Deputy Superintendent Hill, who oversees either the COO to speak to that. I think your question is about those anomaly kind of situations that don't fit?

Yes.

The 1.5 mile mark. I recall seeing something come across my desk. I just don't remember. So I'll ask the Colonel if he'll speak to that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Vice-Chairman, for the question. PennDOT determines that a hazardous roadway can be defined as a result of the volume of traffic based on accidents and incidents relative to that roadway. There is a process applying for the analysis for them, to perform the analysis for consideration. And we have done that in the past with several roadways where the volume of traffic, the number of accidents and incidents in terms of injuries are considered and for adjusting or including different roadways.

Okay. So they only take into account traffic incidents, not necessarily taking into the overall safety of a specific route or corridor or street that happens? I'm just thinking about my district, for example, where there's violent incidents that occur on routes to schools. So that isn't taken into consideration when they're trying to define what a hazardous route is. It's only traffic incidents?

Sir, I don't want to misspeak. I do believe that that's part of the criteria. But I as opposed to providing incorrect information in terms of the comprehensive and totality of their criteria, I would like to take that as a homework assignment.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to note the presence of Councilmember Kendra Brooks. And at this time, I'd like to recognize Councilmember Phillips.

Thank you, Chairman Driscoll. So the first question before Council -- I just want to ask you about your testimony, Dr. Watlington. Thanks for coming today. Estimates that expanding the Student Fare card program would require $63.8 million in additional funding. But that estimate assumes several expansions simultaneously, Grades 5 through 7 to access and year-round access. Have you modeled these changes separately so that Council can understand what each individual expansion would cost?

Yes. And I'll defer to the SEPTA representative to give you those data, Dr. Phillips.

So SEPTA and the School District have been working hand-in-hand on these estimates and we modeled three different scenarios. The first scenario we modeled that used the current time, date and month restrictions but expanded the program to everyone, so all 200,000 students across all of the various types of schools that Dr. Watlington testified to. So current time, date and month restrictions, but total population eligibility would cost an extra 35 million. Then you expand -- but you have it only during school year, but you remove the day and the time restrictions. You make it 24/7. But during the school year, that would cost an extra 50 million. And then the $60-plus million number would be the 5 months out of the year. So those 6 were the three scenarios that we 7 looked at, anywhere from 35 to 65 8 million. 9

10 Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. 11 Here's the more important question 12 that I have. Why I kind of started with that question is for me, we want to be able to get students to the afterschool program, internship or jobs safely, if possible without fear, right. So one of the things I was thinking about is the idea of suggesting a potential pilot of this or making it a very targeted program. So rather than immediately expanding the program to every student in the District, could we create a targeted transportation benefit for students who have verified afterschool programs, summer internships, employment, recreational enrichment programs, for example, of an approved program provider or coordinator verifies that a student is enrolled and actively participating in the afterschool program or they're working somewhere, you know. Could we temporarily expand the Student Fare card eligibility for the duration of that program? If so, what would we need for different types of technology -- or actually, probably not, you just add access to their card. But I just want to know what would be needed to make that happen in terms of costs if we want to try that out. Have you thought about that route as well?

So we did not specifically model that, but I think we'd be open to those conversations to try to figure out how to model that, what number of eligible students we'd have to add. The calculations are based on, just to be fully transparent, numbers we received from the District of total student enrollment and then estimates based on the currently eligible and currently not eligible, what percentage of those students would actually ride if the eligibility was expanded. So in some ways we don't really actually know that the utilization would be in the future state because we can only really model it.

And, Councilmember Dr. Phillips, I would just simply add we'd be happy to be partners with SEPTA to dig deeper into that. At present, we don't have a comprehensive list of every student who has an internship, a job or some activity that we are aware of, but be happy to be a partner in digging deeper.

And that data could be helpful, Dr. Watlington, thanks for sharing that, because I was trying to figure out do we currently have a list of students that are missing or declining afterschool programs or jobs because transportation is a barrier. So maybe gathering that information and part of your research team, if they can begin assessing that information, can give us a better sense of the value and need of that. Are some students like I can't go to this afterschool program. I remember I used to run a program called Youth Action and we would literally fund students' SEPTA tokens at the time. We would literally provide students with SEPTA tokens. And that was a cost out of the nonprofit. But we did want SEPTA at one point -- we did reach out to SEPTA and see if there was a program where we could say, hey, these students are coming to our program, can we get a reduced fare or exemption. But they said, no, the program was almost every Saturday. So those things do help nonprofits and incentivize young people. So maybe -- and we didn't have that many. We had about ten students that needed it. So I'm not sure if every student needs it, but it would help if we can support that barrier. But I mean, those are the questions. I mean, that's what I'm thinking. And then also, my last comment is this, I just want to note for the record I've been thinking deeply about the issue that Councilmember Jones brought up around there being a lot of activity at these SEPTA bus stations as well as subway stations in and around young people, not necessarily behaving in the best positive way. I did suggest to Scott Sauer, the CEO, that we should have a safe passage program where we have trusted mentors or organizations or adults who could be there besides law enforcement standing aside, the law enforcement just greeting the children, the young people every single day getting to know their names because a lot of these young people don't want to fight and they don't want to carry on. But if you actually have an adult present that they're used to seeing, I'm pretty sure that a lot of the recklessness that happens probably can stop at some of these larger terminals, such as Frankford, 52nd and Market, Broad and Olney and so forth. And some of the other schools, like the other day I saw Dobbins had this huge fight that was on social media. We can possibly have some trusted messengers there. So those things we can prevent. So I just want to -- if that's the concern, which I can understand, right, I want us to just start thinking about that as well. I mean, I was hoping we could work on that or if you thought of that as an alternative as well before. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chairman.

Member Jones.

So I want to go back to the map, and thank you for reiterating safety. And we know that hearing is coming. But did you say to us that the current program with the current number of students is 30 million?

Yes, the current program is based on taps of eligible students and the current contract between SEPTA and the District guarantees SEPTA a minimum of $30 million.

And with the addition of charter school students -- well, first of all, how many public school students are in that program?

Among that $30 million that he just referenced, 29,919 or 50.11% are public school students. The 16.73%, 9999 are non-public. And the charter population among that is 33,000. I mean, approximately 33% public charter.

So currently we are paying for charter school students as well?

That's correct.

All right. And so, the additional hours would add how much money?

So the three models were just adding to the current restrictions on the card. But for all the student populations would add 35 million. So currently, just to give you some of the numbers of the 200,000 students that are in this population, 60,000 of them are eligible for a card. 49,000 of those cards are assigned, and we estimate about 45,000 of them are being used every day.

So I would say this, Mr. Chairman, and I worry about the public safety aspect, the gang fights out on the plaza outside, the good outweighs the bad, that there are more kids who will -- young people who will choose to do something positive, mentorships, jobs, afterschool activities, sports than the small number of young people who choose to use this tool to get around to meet-ups. So if we add the safety factor and make sure that we put in some provision that if somebody misuses their card or commits a crime with a card, that we have a way to track and then suspend their card for a period of time. I'm on board with this because the good does outweigh the bad. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Member Brooks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really want to highlight some of my colleagues' thoughts on the SEPTA passes primarily around Out-of School Time program. I do believe the good outweighs the bad. And as a parent of -- well, my children are adults now, I can't believe I'm saying this, I remember when the transpass ended at 6:00 or 7:00 and I had to figure out how to get them from the afterschool program because it went a little later and SEPTA was a little aggressive depending on what bus route they were on, whether they can get on the bus. And to Councilmember Jones' point, the good outweighs the bad because I think the majority of our children would like to be connected to some level of Out-of-School Time program, which a lot of these programs are also funded by city, state and federal dollars. Is there a way that those programmings through however, it can come together to make up the rest of the money needed to fill that deficit for transpassers to be extended for those additional hours, to make sure we have quality positive, Out-of-School Time programs for children? And my other thought based on your testimony that 52,000 out of the 63,000 passes acquired were distributed, so there was 11,000 transpasses that are -- what happens, does the money go back into a pot or is it something we already bought and we're out of money for? I'm just trying to understand what happens with passes that aren't distributed to young folks.

So currently what SEPTA and the School District are partnering on making sure that every student that's eligible has an assigned card and that those assigned cards are being tapped regularly. There's an intensive effort going on between SEPTA, School District Central and then the District transportation liaisons at the local schools to make sure that those cards are being distributed. And we have regular meetings and monthly reports on past distribution intensive efforts to make sure lost and stolen cards are being very quickly put back into kids' hands. So we're trying to get into all of that data right now. But I just want to be clear that the 60,000 number is eligible, but I don't think every eligible card gets assigned necessarily.

So what about the allocation of the money that goes to those? Is it use it or lose it? I'm trying to get clarity as to what's happening with the other cards, the other cards that aren't being distributed.

So from SEPTA's perspective, we're only billing the District not only what's being assigned, but what's being tapped. So we're not getting paid on even what's getting assigned. So we're getting paid if the card is used on our system. So there is no payment necessarily for the assigned cards that aren't tapped. And that's why we're really working hard with the District to make sure that if the cards are in the hands of the students, they are being tapped at the turnstiles.

And my other question is the 1.5 miles, is it?

Yes.

1.5 miles doesn't always mean a safe walking distance depending on where you live. What are the provisions that can be added to expand that, for example? I don't know if you live across busy intersections, the best way to get there may be public transportation as opposed to crossing the Boulevard or the expressway or whatever situation. Are there provisions made for that? Within the 1.5 -- 1.5 is the distance. It doesn't take into consideration -- I'm thinking like street maps for canvassers.

Councilmember Brooks, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.

No, no. 2

So I would like to speak to two things. I'll speak to the first and ask Colonel Hill to the second. To your previous question that he just responded to, we are working very closely with administrators and families about the importance of using those taps and what kind of trouble and problem it cause with fare evasion. So we're working very closely with SEPTA on that issue. Relative to the 1.5 mile question, I'll ask the Colonel to speak specific to that.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Brooks. There are provisions, just as it was asked by Councilmember Young or Vice-Chair Young regarding exceptions to that 1.5 mile, distance based on hazards. We petitioned or requested that PennDOT performs the analysis to provide the distinction that a roadway presents a hazard to pedestrians. And so, with the designation, we are able to provide transportation within inside of that 1.5 mile distance. One of the homework assignments that I have right now is to provide to the Vice-Chair and the committee what those specific conditions are or the criteria is for PennDOT's decision.

Okay. Thank you so much. That's all.

Vice-Chair Young.

Thank you. So we have in this city, we have these CERC centers, which are like these afterschool programs that the city sponsors. I know Councilmember Dr. Phillips mentioned that and other folks mentioned that this is city money going to these programs like Councilmember Brooks mentioned as well. So these programs are over at 9:00, but your passes are done at 8:00, right. And so, that's another barrier that is presented. I went to watch Vaux play in their homecoming game last week. That game wasn't over until I don't know, they didn't start until 7:00, right, so it was over way past 9:00. So those students who wanted to go up all the way up to Germantown from North Philly to the super site, who wanted to travel to watch their school play, now that creates a barrier for them because now their SEPTA pass doesn't work to get them back home, back down to North Philly from our area. What types of incentives or what can we do to kind of fix that problem if we're trying to encourage our young people to participate in sports and afterschool programs and things like that? What is the District doing to look at regarding our athletes and non-athletes, right? Who wants to just go to -- we beat Overbrook, by the way, Vaux beat Overbrook, they blew them out. So I just wanted to put that on the record. But what can we do for our young people who feel like they can't participate because the transportation is a barrier, right? I got a little cousin who goes to school, she's a senior and she works. She has to work out at King of Prussia because that's where she was hired at, right. And she gets off work at 11:00 and she has to now use her money that she's working for to get back down to North Philly from home. It's like what. Out of a $4.6, $6 billion budget that we have for the School District, right, and counting, what are some of the internal barriers to just expand this, to make it so that every student has that access?

Mr. Vice-Chairman, thank you for the question. I want to first validate exactly what you said. In addition to our student perhaps having to leave a place early, I have firsthand knowledge of three student representatives on the Board of Education. And in my first year, I asked the students, I said, why do you guys leave early? And I learned very early on a few years ago that students need to leave even if the school board meeting is not over because they need to get on the transportation, the SEPTA transportation systems. I don't know the history of why the cutoff is at a particular time, but I'll defer to my colleague and Colonel Hill who may have more information about that.

Yeah. And so, I think as Councilmember Brooks testified to, it used to be 6:00 p.m. and now it's 8:00 p.m., so there has been a movement to make it later with the new yellow fare cards. I think it used to be transpasses and it was 6:00 p.m. Then we went to the yellow cards, we made it 8:00 p.m. and the Regional Rail was added to the accessibility. So we have expanded accessibility. If there's a desire to go beyond that, I think that's a conversation that we could have.

Yeah. I think that it should be at least to what the city has as a curfew time that we have for young people, right. I mean, just at the minimum, right, to allow them to have that access to get to and from where they need to be. And as Councilmember Phillips mentioned about some kind of pilot or some kind of way to know if they are registered at an employment area or an afterschool program or something to expand that a little bit more. I mean, knowing particularly in my district, particularly in the 22nd Police District where violent incidents of young people are on the rise, we don't want to create barriers for them to do something positive. And I think that's just what we need -- that's just what we're looking at, how can we expand these opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Vice-Chairman, we'll be glad to take that as a homework assignment. And with your permission, we'd like to take a look at that with our SEPTA partners and also consult with our Police Commissioner as well, any thoughts you may have about that issue.

Member Phillips.

Thank you. Thank you, Member Young, for your comments as well. I just want to be abundantly clear. We budget for non-public school students Student Fare cards as well?

Yes.

And why is that?

Let me also invite our Chief Operating Officer that can provide a little bit more background based on her tenure, Councilmember. She served in Transportation for ten years. And in 2023, she was the National School Transportation Network Executive of the Year. And so, in terms of the background, Chief Fleming, please come forward.

Thank you, Chief.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the question, Councilmember Phillips. Transportation Services for the School District of Philadelphia is the Intermediate Unit of Pennsylvania. We're Intermediate Unit 26. Therefore, we're responsible for transporting all students that reside in Philadelphia County. So we service all students attending public charter and parochial schools as well as traditional non-public. And we're also responsible for transporting all students up to a 10-mile radius outside of the School District, outside of Philadelphia attending approved private schools. So we act as an intermediate unit for the state, not just to service students attending public schools.

That's part of the School District, understood.

And, Councilmember Dr. Phillips, I can add also to Chief Fleming's point. As Superintendent, in addition to serving as the Secretary and Treasurer to the Board of Education, statutes require me to serve as both Superintendent and my title is also Executive Director of the Intermediate Unit, in this case, No. 26.

News. Thank you so much for sharing that. I do want to ask you this, and this is while Ms. Chief Fleming is here, are we potentially overbudgeting for some of these Student Fare cards? Because if the students aren't tapping, then are we overbudgeting or -- because there's no way that we're paying out these costs if they're not tapping. Many years ago, I was on a bus, it was many years ago, I saw that buses were crowded and they just let the students get on without tapping because they know it's school time. So it's like you're not accounting for that. So the problem becomes -- and the students are like, you know I'm free so why am I tapping, right. So I think that we need to underbudget or reduce the budget for these costs because the reality is they're not tapping. How do you analyze that? Every year we're losing -- we're overbudgeting and some of the funds can go somewhere else.

I'd love to ask our Chief Financial Officer Mike Herbstman if he can speak to that. And while he's coming to the table, you know, when I get on an Amtrak train at the 30th Street Station, I don't tap anything. I get on, I sit down and eventually somebody comes and check. That doesn't mean that I don't need to be on that train. I would want to as Superintendent be really careful about budgeting because we want to be sure that we don't take away any opportunity to increase our student attendance, which has been going up every year for the past four years. And it'll go up again this year, I predict. So that transportation is so important. Chief Herbstman.

Yes, sir. For the record, Mike Herbstman, Chief Financial Officer for the School District of Philadelphia. To Councilmember Phillips' question, we have seen this trend as some students have gotten onto transportation, they have not been tapping. And I think as a result of that, we were in prior years looking at essentially SEPTA undercharging us for this. So the way that it works is when a student is tapping, if they are tapping once a month, we are paying for that month's services. Still there are some students that we believe that are not tapping at all during the month so we've been working over the last year to make some changes to the way that we pay this out. And this year, based on some analysis that we've jointly done, we are guaranteeing that we will pay out for 33,200 students at a minimum to account for some of those -- the situation that Councilmember Phillips has brought up.

So that's the point. I appreciate that honesty. I think that what you could do, right, because this accounting is so important to the School District of Philadelphia's budget and to SEPTA, if a student is getting a transpass, a Student Fare card, I'm recommending that if you're noticing that they're collecting it and they're not tapping, their privilege needs to be somewhat suspended or they need to be held accountable for that for not tapping or they need to be known that this is important. Something has to be checked because you have to let them know that that card can be used for another student or it could be used for somebody else who really needs it if they're not really using it.

Thank you, Councilmember Dr. Phillips. I want to say two things. One, we absolutely agree. It's incumbent upon us in the School District to work with our students and their parents and family members about the importance of tapping, because SEPTA is trying to run a lean organization over there and we want to be a good partner, and we want to teach our young people, our civic and other responsibility to do our parts. I also think that as habits, good or bad, develop over time, we want to be thoughtful about how we do that and not go from 0 to 130 seconds and we tank our student attendance. But long story short, we hear you loud and clear and we'll continue to --

I think there should be a warning stage.

Yes, sir.

But I think it's really important. But I see what you're saying, but I think there just needs to be better accountability mechanisms.

I agree.

So hopefully we'll see that change among the transportation team.

Yes, sir. And, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you again for permitting me to exit a bit early, but all the members of the School District of Philadelphia team will stay for the entirety of the hearing. Chief Financial Officer Herbstman, Deputy Superintendent for Operations Colonel Oz Hill and our Chief Operations Officer Teresa Fleming. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Thank you so much, Chairman. I appreciate it.

And as Chair of Transportation, I just want to note, Wendy, that we do care about you getting fairly compensated. It's important for SEPTA. So thank you, Doctor, for raising those points. And I think we'll wrap our questions up for the panel with the maker of the resolution, Councilwoman Landau.

Thank you so much. Thank you all for being here. I want to make sure that we're getting some things really crystal clear on the record here. So let's start with Superintendent Watlington testified that the School District pays SEPTA upfront, reports the eligible transportation costs to the Pennsylvania Department of Education and then receives state reimbursement for the portion PDE determines is eligible. So I want to start with the question of coming back to these numbers here. I believe we heard from the Treasurer of SEPTA, that there's approximately 200,000 students. We believe 60,000 are eligible for the passes; 49,000 are assigned; and approximately 45,000 are used. Did I hear you correctly?

On average, yes, every day.

So I'm going to start by asking the School District, do you agree with those numbers?

Yes, I believe those are joint numbers we agree on.

And then how much does each student pass cost per rider?

So we charge the District $88.60 per month per tapped card. And we invoice them based on unique cards tapped in a calendar month times $88.60.

And you are charging that amount regardless of how many taps happen?

No. That $88.60 is only applied times the number of unique cards tapped. So if a card is not tapped, we're not paid at all. Even if the student is using the system.

Give me a second here. So we're going to start this again and we'll go back to Superintendent Watlington's testimony. The School District's paying for the cards upfront before the tapping happens?

No. So I think by upfront, and I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think upfront he means before the state reimburses. So it isn't an upfront payment as in like it's not an estimate before the usage happens. SEPTA bills the District after every month based on usage of the previous month. Then the District will pay our invoice, and then they will turn around and get reimbursed by the state.

And it's the state reimbursing the School District for all students, including charter and otherwise?

Yes. The state reimburses for charter, non-public and district-operated school students.

How much does the School District pay in administrative costs, running around trying to figure out who tapped, who didn't tap, how many times you tapped, did you not tap?

I would say -- I don't have the exact amounts, but would share that SEPTA does pay us to directly administer this program. Last year that was just under $2 million for administration of it. And in the current year, we're anticipating, based on our agreement about 3.6 million.

To SEPTA, how does this system differ from the Key Advantage program for employees such as City of Philadelphia employees or the Senior Pass program? How does the Key Advantage typically -- how much does that cost typically per rider?

That's a great question. So the Key Advantage program is based on utilization. So I guess in that way it's the same. We invoice the institutions monthly, in that way it's the same. So I guess there are commonalities. The one big difference would be with Key Advantage for the city, for example, we invoice them based on all of the taps times the eligible population, whereas with the School District we're only looking for each of those cards to be tapped just one time in a month to consider it an active card. So I guess it differs in that way. In both cases, interestingly the discount off of what SEPTA considers the retail price for the program is about 25%. So that $88.60 is about 25% less than the $116 a month someone could go buy a transpass. So the discount is about the same, but the calculation is a little different.

Okay. I want to make sure I don't miss this one. Please tell me I'm hearing this wrong. I'm hoping you're going to tell me I'm hearing this wrong. Are you saying that if a student taps their card once in a month, the School District of Philadelphia owes you $88.66?

Correct.

That is ludicrous. It's a $2.90 ride with a 25% discount. You can't do accounting on assumptions. I've been on plenty of buses myself where the system itself is not working. I want to tap. I'm dying to tap to tell SEPTA, the people who come to talk to us every Thursday, the City of Philadelphia that I'm actually riding the bus. Sometimes some things are broken as well. I do not think we should make assumptions that kids are not tapping. I would also take a little moment of privilege on the aside to say that we need to have positive messaging around tapping, not punishment, not terminating cards, but the positive message has to be, do this for your school, do this for the School District of Philadelphia, do this for the future of public transportation. (Applause.)

So I should assume that all of the numbers that we receive that talk about the expansion of the program, the dollar amounts, include basically $88 per card even if somebody taps once?

So just to be clear about the expansion, we had to estimate utilization for the currently non-eligible population because we have no idea how much they'll ride. So one of the limitations of the current contract method is that it is based on utilization. So we had to estimate, for example, that 15% of students in middle school that are not currently eligible that would become eligible would then ride. And then 40% of currently not-eligible high school students would then ride. But the reality is, we actually have no idea if you were to expand this district-wide how many students would actually take advantage of the benefit.

Is the rate that you charge students higher than the U pass or the Key Advantage?

It depends on the institution because the utilization rate dictates the rate.

I don't ride the bus as often as I should. Sorry, Wendy, I'm trying. Occasionally I'll tap once a month. How much does that cost the City of Philadelphia when I tapped once for the entire month?

My best estimate for that -- that'll be my homework assignment -- would be 25% off of 2.90. Because the basis of the program is it's essentially a 20% discount off of retail.

For the one tap for the one ride?

Right, so it'd be 25% --

You're charging $88 a month. And for me, it's $2.50 basically. We should be more equitable with the School District. The goal is these are our future riders. The goal is to get people riding. The goal is to help families. Hope you sit through this whole hearing to hear about the families that are struggling, the students that need to get to and from where they want to go. I know you all want this to happen. You're also looking for somebody else to fund it. I want to look for an equitable way to fund this program. It feels like a waste of money. There is no reason at all that we're spending so much money on so few taps. There could be a way in which we have a flat rate. Let's take the $3 million, the $2 million to $3.6 million you're doing in administrative fees, cut that all the way down, give a pass to every single student who is of a certain age, who lives everywhere, you know, no matter how close they are to the School District and charge a much lower amount and let the kids ride. Thank you.

Vice-Chair Young.

Thank you. Just one more question for SEPTA. I mean, when you look at the math, it says $88, right. You're charging for one tap. So simple math, divided by 2.90, it's estimated that somebody's tapping 30 times a month essentially. Do you feel like you were -- do you feel like that's a good estimate? Do you feel like you're being underpaid or being overpaid? How do you feel about that essentially?

So the challenge with fare evasion is that it is inherently the absence of data. So we've used every method we can in our conversations with the School District to try to understand what current utilization is to get at that number. So just to level set, before COVID we had a transpass-based program where weekly transpassers would be handed out in lunchrooms and schoolyards, and utilization was about 52,000 students per week, and that generated about $40 million for SEPTA. Now that we went to this yellow card and dealing with some of the administrative issues we've talked about, the current contract model is looking at 33,000 students, even with just the one-tap-per-month basis. So something has happened. Something has changed. So when we try to estimate what is current usage because, right, usage patterns have legitimately changed since COVID, the big thing we look at is district off days during the week, what is the change in our ridership that we think we can attribute to just student ridership. And that's where I came up with that 45,000 number that I testified to earlier. We think based on earlier this year, Yom Kippur, last spring, spring break, we think that there's about 45,000 students taking a roundtrip on SEPTA every day.

Okay. Hearing no further questions, I want to thank the School District of Philadelphia for your testimony and for being here today. Thank you. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the second panel we have to testify this afternoon on Resolution 260441.

Lana Harshaw, Executive Director, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Transit Forward PA, joined by Yania Strawberry, Randall Campbell and Aiden Frazier and Jay Williams, the second member of the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council, joined by Xander Castellanos and Farahna Jean. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Well, good afternoon. Could you please state your name for the record and in the order that you choose to, proceed with your testimony.

Sure. My name is Lana Harshaw. I'm the Executive Director with the Bicycle Coalition.

My name is Yania Strawberry. I am a senior at Walter B. Saul High School for Agricultural Sciences.

My name is Randall Campbell. I'm a recent graduate of Boys Latin High School.

My name is Jerome Williams, II. I am the Executive and Executive Board member of the Advisory Council.

Thank you for having us here today. During my tenure here at the Bicycle Coalition, I've overseen all of our education programming, including all of our youth-facing programs. And I'm here to speak today in support of universal student fares. I'd like to thank the committee for allowing us to share our testimony, Councilmember Landau, for your leadership on this initiative. I'm joined today with our Bicycle Coalition Policy Director Julio Rodriguez and TFP, Transit Forward Philadelphia Coalition Manager Stephen Bronskill, who have been leading our efforts to advocate for our youth. I'm joined also today by Yania and RJ, one of our current BC youth. RJ is one of our program alumni, recent scholarship recipients. You'll hear from them in their own words. But every year at the Bicycle Coalition, we've worked with over 200 youth across the city. We're currently focused in West, Southwest, Kensington and Hunting Park neighborhoods. Our youth-facing programs include Bicycle Coalition Youth Cycling, which is our flagship program for youth ages to 18. For almost years, we've put hundreds of young people on bikes every year and invested almost $400,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. Bike Explorers is our elementary initiative in Kensington. And for the last two years, we've taught 3rd and 4th graders basic bike riding and safety skills. Future Years is our career-connected learning experience where we teach practical workforce readiness skills, professional development and civic engagement. This summer, our youth wrote letters, visited City Hall. I believe they visited Councilmember Landau's office to advocate for student fares and learned to speak up for themselves and their peers. At the center of all of our work is equity and access. One of the biggest barriers that I see is transportation. We can connect young people to an internship, a summer program, a job or an extracurricular activity, but that opportunity only works if they can get there. Each of the young people with me today has a story about how transportation shapes their opportunities. I want to share one of them. Yania Strawberry is our 2026 Bike Athlete of the Year, and Yania attends Walter B. Saul High School. She works, and over the summer she interned at Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson's office and participated in Future Years. But Yania has missed out on programs because she didn't have a reliable way to get there. When track practice gets late, her mom who is also here today, has to pick her up or pay for Uber or other rideshare services. That is a transportation problem that becomes an opportunity problem. 5 miles can be a 30-minute walk each way, sometimes in rain or other poor weather, in the cold or along broken and unsafe sidewalks. And as someone who leads youth programming, I see this from an organizational standpoint. This impacts when transportation isn't available. Organizations and families have to find other solutions that cost money or youth make the unfortunate decision not to attend programming. There's also a safety case for this. According to the Federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, youth violence peaks in the hours right after school lets out at a rate almost six times higher than during the late-night curfew hours. Connecting young people to programs, jobs and positive activities in those hours is one of the most effective ways to reduce youth violence, alongside curfews. This summer, cities across the country, including ours, dealt with teen takeovers, and the teens keep asking where are we supposed to go. A universal student fare helps to answer that. The universal student fare would help us serve more young people, and if that fare worked on the weekends and throughout the summer, it would give young people something incredibly important, freedom, freedom to get a job, to participate in youth programs across the city and to explore Philadelphia.

It would also save families money instead of spending money on gas or Uber rides. That money could go towards school supplies, groceries, local businesses or other needs. This summer Yania sat in City Councilmembers' offices learning how the city works. Today Yania, RJ, they're sitting in this chamber advocating for themselves and their peers. These are Philadelphia's future leaders and some of them may one day sit where you sit. The question in front of you isn't whether they're ready. They are and we know this. It's whether we'll make sure that they can get there. We have an opportunity to usher in a brand new day for Philadelphia's young people. I'm asking you to please invest in our youth and pass universal student fares. Thank you.

Hello, Councilmember Landau and members of the committee. As previously stated, my name is Yania Strawberry. I attend W.B. Saul Agricultural High School. And like I said, I was a Youth Advisory Council and Athlete of the Year for BCYC. A lot of what I hear as a student is the violence in the misbehavior around high school students after school. And so, I'll use an agricultural analogy. When agriculturalists have a few apples that aren't growing well or that are rotting, they don't cut down the whole tree. They fertilize it. They water it. They make sure it has everything it needs to succeed. So I say this as someone who goes to as many programs and internships as I can, to get into college, you need experience, you need internships, you need to work. I know plenty of students who have the desire to be outside, to be in programs. They don't even imagine what those programs could be because they already know they do not have the resources to get there. So I have, as previously mentioned, interned here at City Hall. I have learned how it is that you work in the hard work that you do for us students. And as a student, I ask of you to invest in us. What you see in the news is the few bad apples that fall through the cracks of a system that has not previously invested and paid attention to us. I know a lot of students like myself and like RJ want to be in rooms like this. They want to be lawyers. They want to be doctors. They want to help the kids behind them, but they don't know about the programs because they don't dream that they could go to them because they already don't have the resources to think of it. So there are many programs like BCYC all over the city, and it's not that we are not interested or qualified for them. So I ask that you take under consideration the expansion of this program and to help students like myself become the best version that we can be. I've also heard a lot of talk about what it will cost this city. And I think it will cost us more to not consider this. Students make up a lot of Philadelphia's economy. We're one of the biggest populations, one of the most invested populations. When we are allowed to travel the city and we see these free programs, it makes us want to put more into the city. We aren't allowed to go into places like the Fashion District and places downtown because of the few bad apples in our community. But when we have access to see all the good that the city can do for us, it puts a lot more money in your economy than it will take out. We can offer more to this city than just destruction when we are given the chance. A lot of our students, we want to go to the movie theaters, we want to hang out. I heard a lot of people, you know, a little older than me, no offense, say how the malls are dead. We can't get to a mall without a bus pass. We can't put money into the economy if the economy will not put money into students. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Once again, my name is Randall Campbell also known as RJ. I am a recent graduate of Boys Latin High School. I am also a former Youth Advisory Council member of the Bicycle Coalition and a recent recipient of the $14,000 scholarship through the Bicycle Coalition Youth program. I want to begin with something personal. Consistency and promises matter. That is one thing that Philadelphia youth build off of most. We want to know that what is being said to us by people of authority, by people who have higher power are holding onto. That's what we believe in. That's what we stand by. And when we see that those promises are not being upheld, it causes some to act out. I want to build off of what Yania said, that just because there are a few bad apples in the bunch, that doesn't mean the entire pile is bad. Yes, that is a product of some things that weren't handled correctly maybe when they were younger, but at the same time that doesn't mean that everybody and every student is like that. As for me, I'm a working student. m. 4 miles, underneath the limit, which means I had to walk 45 minutes back and forth to school, which means whether it was a snowstorm and we had school, I had to walk in it. If it was pouring rain, I had to walk in it, you know, no matter my situation, regardless if I wanted to go to school, I had to walk. Now, given the fact that there is not a direct bus or train that can take me directly to school, having the availability to at least use the bus would have me in a better position to get to school faster rather than having to leave almost an hour earlier to get to school than I would have if I was able to take the bus. This is why expanding the current limits on SEPTA student fares is important to me. m. to 8:30 at night. It does not work on weekends, holidays or permitted non-school days. m. We have track meets, basketball games, football games. For some, we have college prep, we have outreaches and sometimes we have internships. As of last school year, I finished an internship with Temple University. I was advocating for younger students and them knowing that they have a voice and what goes on in our city and that the wrongdoings and all the crime that happens is not always our fault and that we have a voice against those things. And in some cases, I didn't have the availability to get back and forth to my internship because I had to choose whether if I wanted to get home or get to my internship because I didn't have the Student Fare card, I had to use my own money. And in terms of me going back and forth to work, I have to choose whether I want to get something to eat that day or get home because of Uber. For me to get back home is almost $30, when I could have used a Student Fare card and I got home within ten minutes, and that ten minutes turns into an hour commute because I don't have the resources. We do not stop going to school-related activities. We have to stop doing extracurricular activities. We do not stop going to jobs, internships, tutoring, college programs, community programs, athletic practices, performances, and other opportunities that help us build our futures. And students certainly do not stop needing transportation on Saturday and Sunday. As a student who stays after school for a club, a sports practice, a school event, tutoring and other educational opportunities, I should not have to ask how am I getting home. A student who has a weekend job should not have to choose between earning money and being able to afford transportation. A student who participates in the program in the evening should not have to worry about whether the student card will work when their program ends. Transportation is not just about getting to school, it's about getting to opportunity. And if we are serious about helping Philadelphia students succeed, our transportation policy needs to recognize the realities of student lives.

I also want to acknowledge something important about the City of Philadelphia. The city has demonstrated that when there is a crisis, it can step up. During the 2025 SEPTA budget crisis, the city used a portion of its existing $135 million SEPTA operating subsidy to restore priority school transportation routes that had been eliminated or reduced. The city specifically recognized that students needed to get to school safely and on time. The city has also made significant investments into the School District in the FY26 budget. The city committed additional resources in education, including $147 million in operating and capital investments over the financial plan and capital program, and Philadelphia has demonstrated that it is willing to invest significant public resources in major civic priorities for the nation's 250th anniversary. The city committed millions in its FY26 budget across its general transportation and capital funds, including funds for events, community initiatives. I mentioned these things not to criticize those investments, but to make a point. Philadelphia has shown it can step up when it decides something is important. Students should be treated as something important as well. If the city can stand up when SEPTA is in crisis, it can stand up for when students who depend on SEPTA every day. If the city can invest in celebrating Philadelphia and its history, it can invest in making sure Philadelphia's young people can actually participate in opportunities available to them. And if we stand and if we tell students that education is a pathway to their future, then we need to make sure transportation does not become a barrier standing between them and their future. For a student who has already experienced being let down, another promise only works a part of the time. That can be especially difficult. I am asking the city and SEPTA not to let us down. , on weekends, on other days when students are still learning, working, participating and contributing to their communities. Students should not have to plan their future around an expiration time on a fare card. We should be able to say yes to the opportunities. We should be able to say yes to after school. We should be able to participate on weekends. We should be able to get home safely. We should be able to go to work without wondering what we're going to pay for. Most importantly, when Philadelphia tells its students that it believes in them, then the city should make sure that the policies back those words up. I have been let down before, but I do not want Philadelphia students to be let down by transportation and a system that was supposed to be designed to help us. Thank you.

Sierra Renee said if the Philadelphia Black youth went on strike right now, y'all would be bored.

Just state your name for the record.

My name is Jaron Williams, II. I am an Executive Board member of the Youth Advisory Council. I'll repeat my testimony. Sierra Renee said if the Philadelphia Black youth went on strike right now, y'all would be bored. Good afternoon. My friends and neighbors call me Jay. As you heard, my name is Jaron Williams. I'm a lifelong Southeastern Pennsylvania resident and I'm celebrating ten years this year as a resident of Philadelphia. In short years, I 12 have represented my peers on local 13 and national stages, defending 14 their rights to live long and 15 peaceful lives, including as the 16 Chair of the Philadelphia Youth 17 Commission here in this very 18 Council. I currently serve on the 19 Executive Board of the Youth 20 Advisory Council. 21 This is a designated independent nonprofit where youth advocacy nonprofit for SEPTA. We've existed since 2009. I am one of four Black members in a 25-person organization, and the only person of color, an openly queer person, to sit on its executive board. So I hope to speak for the tens of thousands of Black students who ride to school every day. I also helped design and help write the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council's new guide to transit funding, which compares SEPTA to transit systems of Washington, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh. So I have the numbers along as our co-authors. I've ridden SEPTA my entire life. When I was very young, my mom took me on a SEPTA bus one winter and I came home with just one teeny, tiny Timberland boot. I think I still have it. I don't think my mom knew SEPTA had a lost and found at that time. So we've heard Dr. Watlington explain the eligibility criteria for our students. 5 miles away from a school. m. , and in the summer I couldn't even get around. The number that honestly City Council should be ashamed of is that the City of Philadelphia contributes absolutely $0 specifically to student passes. The state and the School District, as you just heard, pay for it all. 4 miles away from your school, which why does that even exist? , on weekends, students can't ride a bus, train or a trolley. It leaves them stranded after football practice as we heard, concert rehearsals, Out-of- School Time programs. And the Cecil B. Moore Library, as you know, closes this month. And how are those students supposed to get to a local library like Widener or like Parkway Central? So I ask my question this: Does youth advocacy actually change SEPTA? m. m. That's how we got here. m. just isn't enough. The system thrives when youth use it. People love to call SEPTA wasteful. We just heard that. I think Councilmember Landau had a concern about the $88 for that one tap a month. I think it averages out, but I'm not the person to determine that. But our report actually found the opposite that SEPTA is wasteful. 74 to carry one rider on one trip. That's cheaper than Boston. That's cheaper than Washington. That's cheaper than Pittsburgh. The only thing that's cheaper than us is Chicago. So SEPTA isn't failing. It's simply just starving. And Chicago's transit system gets around $942 million a year in local funding, while SEPTA only gets $173 million from its local funding. But of course, Pennsylvania law, because the uniformity clause won't even allow local counties to levy taxes or for dedicated transit taxes, which that just puts the onus on Council in order to fund it themselves. Obviously, all of these figures come from our Guide to Transit funding. SEPTA covers 21% of its cost from its fares. In its Fiscal Year 27, SEPTA expects about $1 billion from the state, around $250 million from federal sources, and less than $150 million in local operating support, and all of that local money is obviously discretionary. There's no 13 dedicated tax and there's no 14 formula for it, right. PA Title 16 also bars counties from levying transit-specific taxes. And as we know, we faced a crisis with Regional Rail. Our Regional Rail cars are 50 years old.

They ran in Reading Terminal when it was still Reading Terminal. I'm not even old enough to see Reading Terminal be open. So this past summer was the worst failure of the student fare program. And honestly, the onus is on City Council. For 39 days, the city threw a free FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill and it was steps from Strawberry Mansion, my community where I live. It was a once- in-a-lifetime party in our own backyard, but student passes don't work in the summer so they weren't able to access it. The flash is there, the Philadelphia Flash bus, we know of that. They would have still had to pay a full fare in order to access it because they don't have a key card. I feel like we rolled out the red carpet for tourists and handed our own kids a bill. Like, I don't understand why we did that. The city failed its youth on student fares for three years straight. The Council found money for Zero Fare after the Mayor wanted to cut it. I don't know why she wanted to do that. They found money for a 39-day soccer festival, but it's never found a single dollar specifically for student passes every year. Every year that this Council doesn't act is a choice that they're making in order to stiff students basically on this opportunity. I'd like to turn very briefly to a specific member of this committee, the Vice-Chair and Councilmember Jeffrey Young, represents my community of Strawberry Mansion. I'd like to talk about his record on young people. When he took office in 2024, there was already a plan in place to close down Cecil B. Moore Library and to start renovations using his councilmanic prerogative. If you don't know what that is, y'all should look it up. He stopped the renovations on the library and three years later, we're still exactly in the same place that we were. 5 million from somewhere else. So I just want us to be very clear about that. After three years of advocating in the same way that we had already advocated, we've got the same result even though we supposedly elected a Councilmember that had our backs and that apparently gave us an additional $5 million for our library. 5 million is being used for not even -- only 20% of it is being used. Youth are pushed towards the criminal justice system because of certain actions, simply because they can't get around. The School District of Philadelphia and SEPTA, obviously as you heard launched the diversion program. But if you read the fine print, it only protects students during school hours on school days. m. and on weekends, if they're evading the fare, they get a $300 fine. m. m. a crime. Like, I don't understand what that does for young folks either. Youth obviously thrive with a high-quality education, soul-enriching activities, safe and healthy third spaces and an easy way to get around, all these things go hand in hand. They build the best mindset for a young Black Philadelphian like myself. And this is a population that the city keeps underrepresented and simply forgetting about. If you take away the bus, you take away the school program, you take away the job, the library and the rec center right along with it. Where does this city get its bread and butter I ask myself. Who funds the eds and meds with our blood, our bodies, our minds? Transit pays the city back. Students pay the city back. Every billion dollars invested in public transit returns about $5 billion in economic activity. A family that doesn't need a car can save $8,000 a year. And just to give you a record, half of all of Pennsylvanians who don't own a car live in the SEPTA service area. Half, 50% of people in Pennsylvania who don't own a car live right in our SEPTA service area. So I know we talked about earlier the behavioral issues that the young folks are facing in Dilworth Park, for example. I don't think that these are incidents that can be directly attributed to the fact that they do or don't have student passes or that they do and don't have afterschool programs.

But we need to continue to consider the bigger picture here. What could young people do if they could roam the city that they will soon inherit? What could they explore, what could they discover? How many more stars could they count? New York gives students free rides with no time limits. C. gives students free fares. m. It just doesn't make sense. And, Councilmember Landau, you said previously that you want this to be the most teen- friendly city in the country. And I share that aspiration with you. But it's up to the Council to set a commonsense floor, which is simply a universal student fare, every student, every hour, every day, all year with no distance rule. That would be like handing the keys to the city to people who actually deserve them. There was money found for student fares. There was money found for Fan Fest. I think that we need to find this money for our students as well. And one final question for the Vice-Chair of the committee, Councilmember Young. Do you care about the Black youth of Strawberry Mansion at all? Your record says otherwise but I mean, you can change that today. I ask the entire Council and this committee to fund student fares. Thank you very much.

I want to thank each of the testifiers today for your passion that you're bringing to this important topic. And again, we thank Councilmember Landau for having this hearing and the fact that you're here and testifying. We appreciate it and we do listen despite what you think. Vice-Chair Young.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to note for the record that the Cecil B. Moore Library has a total of eight computers that serves three communities and there is no space for increased capacity for programming for our young people at that current library right now. I just want to put that on the record.

Member Phillips.

Thank you so much for your testimony regarding SEPTA. I do want to say it's important. And listen, I'm also for all alternatives, just for the record, around how do we make sure that students tap whether it's positive, consequential, and whatever we need to do, we just need to do that. But I do want to say I appreciate what you said and I admire what you said. To be honest with you, there's so many issues in the City of Philadelphia that even years when you advocated this, I think many -- when was this about, 2012 or 2016?

2011 (inaudible).

2011, wasn't here, so we're here now. And I think Councilman Landau has brought up something that I think can be a really great advocacy. I just want to be really clear. Are we saying that we want student fare passes for young people to have the opportunity to stay for afterschool programs, internships, jobs, summer programs, those type of things; is that what I'm hearing?

Yes.

Just that category, those categories?

I would say yes. But at the same time, I would say we need to primarily focus on the fact that administrators, you know, people of higher power, our parents are always saying that we need to invest our time and things that can benefit us, which is our education, you know, fitting into being athletic, you know, using our minds to something that's positive. And I feel like having the availability to have a Student Fare card that can get us to Point A to Point B without having to think about, well, I may not be able to go because I don't have the money that day, I may be able to go, but I don't know how I'm going to get home or -- I want to reference something that one of the Congressmen -- one of the Councilmen have said. They were focused on, you know, they were bringing up how there's a lot of students, there's a lot of youth, you know, that fare invade, that hop the train. I know you had brought up recently that there are times where the buses are packed and buses just let students on. That is the case in some cases. But there are also other cases where students will get on and the driver will tell them to get off. There's also other cases where I would think, not only just to think about the why, I think of why there are students that are evading, but also think of why they're evading. They don't have the resources to get on the train. They don't have the resources to get on the bus. They don't have the resources to get on the trolley. And some I know from experience, when I was doing my internship with Temple University, I was having issues getting to and from to get to my internship and to get back home. And I'm arguing and pleading with SEPTA police just because I'm trying to get home safely. I have to argue that I'm a student, but I don't have a Student Fare card, right. And now, they're asking me, well, why don't you. And I have to get in depth into something. I would assume that they would already know.

Right, so you just answered the question. I was -- basically where I want to make sure that in the advocacy for this, we're focused on helping students extend hours for afterschool programs, career internships, things that are summer programs, things that are productive, things for young people to do, right. Okay. I just want to add those.

Those are the things that come to mind first, afterschool programming, internships. But we don't want to discount the fact that the kids need to connect with their families and they need to be able to spend time with relatives. The card would give them that access to do that. I think it's important for us not to dictate, you know, the things that the kids would be able to do and really empower them. That's one of the things that we want to teach them through our programming.

So we understand that here in Philadelphia. But the challenge is that we also have to connect with the Greater Harrisburg, right. And so, the conversation has to be something that's plausible, even though there's never anything plausible for them. And a lot of times in Harrisburg, if we say that we're trying to extend more funding for this and we're going to need that supplemented by Harrisburg and convince the other owl over there, they'll say, okay, why. Here's the reason. If you're saying that we want young people to go to the mall as well as a part of this, they're saying if they're going to go to the mall, they can pay for the mall. That's what they would say, the owl would say. If they could pay for the mall, why they can't pay for the bus. So I understand what you're saying. But I think that's why we're always in this situation. If it was up to a lot of us, we would try to find ways to make either SEPTA pretty much low, low cost for everyone or free if we could, you know. So it's just one of those things that we just got to continue to negotiate. But I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

(Inaudible).

We can't hear you. Thank you, brother.

Councilmember Phillips, the SEPTA Advisory Council keeps a very robust relationship with multiple members of our state legislature, Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate. We recently spoke to someone who is in favor of creating a K through 12 solution that eliminates the exclusionary zone. And we're continuing to provide any information that we can. We're also continuing to have those conversations. I think a lot of folks in the state legislature are trying to figure out a solution for student universal student fares we're calling this. What does that look like? 24/7, 365 access to SEPTA when it's running obviously, it gives them that already immediate access to make sure that they're able to get home after those afterschool programs, to make sure that they're able to get home after those sports and those rehearsals, right. It is an angle that we can take. But I think looking at it from the 30,000-foot view, the bird's-eye view, this is universal student fare access for every young person in Philadelphia that don't currently have access to that right now, and that is a barrier and that is a disservice.

Thank you.

Vice-Chair Young.

Thank you. So I was reading through the testimony, just listening to your testimony as well. So essentially at 8:01, these cards stop working. And if I'm a student, if I don't have any money and I evade the fare, that's a $300 fine, right. I just don't see the fairness in that, right. I mean, I just want to put that -- I don't know. I wanted to ask someone from SEPTA, the Chief that was here, how often does that happen? Is that an issue that we're seeing that students are evading fares, like right after the 8:00 period when I guess the clock strikes on them that they can't use the card anymore? How often are these folks getting fined or harassed by police or anything like that? We're just trying to get some information on that. So I just want to put that on the record.

Councilmember Landau.

Thank you. I just wanted to make a statement instead of a question here. What we're looking at is expanding access to all Philadelphia has to offer. And I want to really caution us from making this too narrow, even in our advocacy. The cards don't work on the weekends. They don't work when school is closed. They don't work on vacations. What we need is we want young people to be able to go pick up their friend and go to the zoo. We want to have them hear an outdoor concert. We want them to join the Bike Coalition on a Saturday. We want them to be able to do things throughout the city whenever they need to. We want them to go see different family members on the weekends without paying for it. I want to caution us about being too narrow of putting it from school extracurriculars or sports because that could get us into a place where we don't want to be. We want to be as expansive as possible right now.

Thank you. And since we do have two more panels, I'm going to conclude this testimony. And thank you for your testimony today and taking your time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. McDonald, will you please call the next panel to testify this afternoon on Resolution 260441.

Rebecca Fabiano, Executive Director of Fab Youth Philly, joined by Sierra Drayton and Dontae Privett, Executive Director at Open Door Abuse Awareness and Prevention. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Good afternoon. And please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony in the order you choose here.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Xander Castellanos Maciel. I am a student at George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science. I am a youth leader at Juntos, and I live in the Grays Ferry neighborhood within the 2nd District of Philadelphia. And much like many students within the City of Philadelphia, I am at a distance from my school where I need to use a student fare card. And many times as a student I have had to travel somewhere for sports or school-related activities on the weekends, and many times those places are usually a good distance away from my home. But due to the cards not working on the weekends or in the summer, I have had to arrive late and risk my position in the extracurriculars or in my sport. There have also been times where after practices and late-night games I couldn't use my fare card to arrive home due to their curfew and working hours. This matters not only to me, but to multiple students across the city as well. Not only could these cards be used to help with academic opportunity, but it could help with internships, job experience and also social life. As it was mentioned today, issues may arise at any moment and I don't believe putting limits on the passes is a solution. But this isn't just because of their opportunities. This may also be for students of immigrant backgrounds such as myself. It is well-known that immigrants in the state of Pennsylvania can't acquire a driver's license, therefore, also included in the City of Philadelphia. This means that their children and students can't be driven by them even if they wanted to do so. These fare cards can very well be the only source of transportation for many students within the city to travel from home to school, or even sports and extracurricular activities. This could also bring about better standards for youth environments to reduce the need for a curfew or ban on teens in certain places due to an increase of opportunities keeping the youth in educational and active environments. So as for the change, the students of Philadelphia need the city to extend working hours on the student fare cards and better funding, as this would not only improve student opportunities and lives, but it would also improve the opportunities and lives of immigrant students and families within our city of Philadelphia. It would also improve the fare card usage and service, and as it was proposed earlier, the time should be expanded. It should be expanded to at least an hour after the curfew hours so that they can account for the commute and ensure that the students arrive home safely.

Good afternoon, Councilmembers. My name is Farahna Jean. I was born and raised in West Philadelphia, where I went to school from elementary to high school. I'm here to ask you to support universal student fares. When I was in high school, I lived 1.4 miles from my school, just 0.1 miles short of qualifying for a student Key card. That 10th of a mile made a real difference. Many of the clubs I wanted to join were located throughout the city, from Center City to Northeast Philadelphia, far from home and far from a free ride. Getting to school and activities was a constant challenge. When my father, who usually drove me, was hospitalized one winter, I had to make the trip to school and back on my own. So usually I'll be walking uphill, downhill, trying to avoid sleet and ice on sidewalks where I could have potentially just took a trolley to my school. I wasn't alone. More than 30,000 Philadelphian secondary students fall outside of the current eligibility rules. Even those who qualify can only use their cards from 5:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on school days. Students don't stop needing transit on weekends, in the summer or after dark. They have jobs, volunteer requirements, sports and community programs. I recently became eligible for Zero Fare program. It has been a godsend. I currently attend Temple University and previously was working full-time. Now, with the Zero Fare card, I can take multiple routes to campus, including Broad Street Line, Regional Rail and bus routes without worrying about what each trip costs. I can stay late for work or to study, and this has saved me a significant amount of money. I think about how much easier high school would have been with the same freedom. Students shouldn't have to give up an opportunity because they live a 10th of a mile too close or because a program runs past 8:00 p.m. I urge the Council to expand student fares to all students in Grades 7 to 12, regardless of distance and to include evenings, weekends and summers. Thank you for your time.

Okay. Any questions for this panel? (No response.)

Thank you for your testimony. Thank you for being here. So please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

My name is Sierra Drayton. I'm years old 8 and I currently attend Mercy Career 9 and Technical High School. First, 10 I think SEPTA should address buses 11 passing people who are waiting and 12 disruptive behavior while on buses. 13 Mercy Career and Technical High 14 School students are allowed a certain amount of lateness they are allowed. And when SEPTA buses drive past us, it can cause us to arrive late to school. I live in South Philadelphia. Mercy Career and Technical is all the way in North Philadelphia. I had to take two buses. I leave my house at 6:20 in the morning. I arrive at school by 7:30-ish every day and there's usually so many -- the two buses that I go on are usually so crowded, especially in the morning. And then all the disruptive behavior from the other students that get on the bus is crazy, especially when there's younger children, toddlers who pick up on that behavior. Second, I personally believe that SEPTA is unreliable. Like with the buses driving past people, it's not okay. And I feel like that needs to be changed. I also think that SEPTA should work on their cleanliness and should be improved for students to feel comfortable and safe on the buses. Being late to school can affect our shop work, our employability points and most importantly, our grades. Because being late means we can miss important lessons, hands-on shop work and information we need to learn for our future. We shouldn't have to miss valuable learning time because of bus passes while we were waiting. At the same time, there can be students on buses who are extremely loud, disruptive and use vulgar language which affects everyone around them, including elderly passengers, parents, toddlers and younger children who may pick up on the behavior. I think that SEPTA should do more to make sure buses stop for waiting passengers when possible and that disruptive behavior is addressed so everyone can have a more comfortable ride. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Kayla Garrett.

Could you bring the microphone down a bit? Thank you.

Hello. My name is Kayla Garrett and I'm a student at Mercy Technical and Career. And here's a few things I'd like to share. Teens need free fare cards because weekly fare card payments are $31. With teens, we need money for lunch, school activities and afterschool activities. To pay $31 weekly and in a month to pay 124 as a teen is what some people call absurd. Most people can't get jobs or most teens can't get jobs because the job economy is rough and teens don't have much of an income besides what we get from our parents. I've seen from the last few months that the drivers are skipping teens because they believe that one teen is all. It's sad that you guys believe that one bad apple spoils the bunch, but kids need rides also. If drug addicts or disturbed people or mentally disturbed people -- mentally unstable people can get on, why can't we? SEPTA drivers will give more leniency to a drug-addicted person before they give it to a teen. I go to a career technical school where lateness actually can impact our grades. It's called employability. And if we're late from SEPTA drivers passing us, we can get 5 to 10 points taken off. It also impacts our licenses. We have service hours all year round, and they can run any time between 3:08 to 8:00. Our passes don't work that long in that time frame. We need more time. We're paying $31 for bus drivers to pass us, for them to be disrespectful and to not feel safe. Sometimes our cards decline and we have uncleanliness and so much more. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Rebecca Fabiano. I use she/her pronouns. A special hello to Councilmember Driscoll who's our representative up in Kensington. I'm the Executive Director of Fab Youth Philly, a youth workforce development organization serving primarily young people, like all the incredible young folks you've heard from today. We provide paid training and employment for over 200 teens a year, including our paid lifeguard certification, which has enabled Parks & Rec to open all the city pools for the last four summers, and our award-winning Play Captain initiative that lifts teens up as role models and contributors on numerous PlayStreets throughout Philadelphia. At Fab Philly, we believe that young people need access to jobs, internships, community programs, volunteer opportunities, cultural experiences and the people and places that help them build social capital and become leaders. All I'm doing this afternoon is echoing so much of what you've already heard today. At Fab Youth Philly, for more than a decade we've created opportunities for young people. More than 85% of our young folks who participate in our programs have their first job or workforce experience with us. People who are employed as teens make 20% greater lifetime earnings than those who do not. A job opportunity isn't really an opportunity if a teenager can't afford to get there. Today the Philadelphia Student Fare program is limited by where students live. As you've heard, the current card generally works only on school days, as you've heard and according to the student fares that work (inaudible), that means about 31,000 young people are excluded solely because of the distance and the distance threshold. Those restrictions don't reflect how teenagers actually live. A 17-year-old doesn't stop being a student at 8:00 p.m., on the weekends or in the summer, as you've heard. They might be coming home for a number of experiences that they've all said they need and they want. Many programs operate on the weekends. The Mayor's Extended Day, Extended Year program now requires providers to provide training during the spring break and on school professional development days. If young people can't get there on those days, then the nonprofit organizations are not able to fulfill their expected goals. If we're serious about youth employment, youth leadership and preparing Philadelphia's young people for adulthood, then transportation has to be a part of that. I want to also flag the student fares. Students face issues that aren't typical. Some of our students have had interactions with the juvenile justice system and as such, not being able to apply for jobs, which has to do with their arrest or criminal record expungement is not automatic. I raise this because, Councilmember, you also mentioned the $300 fee. The consequences are a massive fee for young folks. And so, how are they expected to pay for that if they can't pay the 2.90 just to get on the bus. Furthermore, students have to show up to court depending on the number of fines they were issued. And remember, if they live less than 1.5 miles away, they're not able to get a card. We have the opportunity to help young people succeed. Too often I hear from young adults and teenagers and adults here in Philadelphia there isn't anything for them to do. That is simply untrue. The truth is that things are not equitably distributed across our city and makes it very difficult for young people to get where they need to go. Universal fares, expanded hours makes it more possible for our young people to access what they deserve. I urge City Council to support expanding student transit access so that young people can get where opportunity is, not just where school is. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Dontae Privett. And first, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I feel like my counterparts represented this issue very well. I've been a coach here in Philly for years. 11 I also serve as the Executive 12 Director of Open Door Abuse 13 Awareness Prevention, also known as 14 ODAAP. I'm here today to ask 15 Council to support universal 16 student fares, because 17 transportation shouldn't be the reason why our kids can't get to practice, get home safely or participate in the opportunities that are really helping them grow. Through ODAAP, I work directly with people all across the city who are committed to their sport. I see students come to practice every week because they want to improve, they want to compete, and they want to be a part of something that gives them purpose and belonging. I also work alongside coaches who work in every zip code throughout Philly. Right now, we're training boxing and football 11 coaches who serve over 2500 young 12 people across our city, including 13 in the School District of 14 Philadelphia and Philly parks and 15 recreation sites. So that gives me 16 a very close view of what young 17 people and their families are 18 navigating every day. And one of 19 those challenges specifically is 20 transportation. 21 There are students 22 across our city who want to come to 23 practice, but they simply don't 24 have a reliable way to get there. They may rely on a parent who's still at work and may have to find someone who's willing to give them a ride. Sometimes despite them wanting to be there for some of the biggest moments of their lives, they can't make it at all. When that happens, they aren't just missing a practice. They aren't just missing time with the coach. They're missing time with their teammates or an opportunity to build their skills and stay connected to their peers. One student I coached last year comes to mind. His name? We'll refer to him as James St. Patrick. He played flag football with us in Southwest Philly, but he lived across the Grays Ferry Bridge in South Philly. Our practices end at nearly 8:00 every night, so getting him home became something our coaching staff had to figure out together. Sometimes we drove him to the bus, sometimes we paid for it, sometimes we paid for an Uber. But there were times where we just often drove him all the way home to keep him safe. My point is we figured it out because we weren't going to let the cost of him getting home stand between his opportunity that he worked very hard for. And yes, Councilmembers, we're talking about practice. But to be honest, practice matters. It's where our young people build relationships with their coaches, with their peers. It's where they learn. They develop their confidence. They become part of a team. Our kids shouldn't have to choose between missing something that matters to them and trying to travel across the city without enough money just to pay the fare. Universal student fares would help remove that choice. We're in a city that understands the role sports can play in the lives of our young people. Our neighborhood teams really do a great job of creating community all across the city. And for some of our kids, sports can open doors to college careers, relationships and the network they may not have even imagined for themselves. Universal student fares would help our young people get the practices, get to their games, get to their jobs and other safe activities that they participate in throughout the city. It would give our families one less expense to manage and allow our coaches to focus on developing our kids, instead of figuring out whether they have enough money to get home. Our kids are already doing their part. I mean, we've heard today that our most committed citizens in the city, who are young people, often paying the price of that commitment when it comes to these fares. So they're showing up, they're working towards something that's productive.

Transportation shouldn't be what stands in the way. So I'm asking Council to help move this forward by supporting universal student fares to allow our kids to use their passes beyond the school day. Thank you very much.

Well, I just want to comment, Dante, thank you for what you're doing. And, Rebecca, I'm familiar with your work, your great work, you're connecting and you see the talent of some of these young folks that stood before us today. We're listening, and Councilmember Rue Landau and Vice-Chair. Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate your work. Keep up the good work. And, Ms. McDonald, will you please call the next panel to testify on 260441.

Autumn Fingerhood, Will Tung and Jon Geeting.