Maintaining a 99.7% safety record while doubling its partner network to 2,000+ clients, HopSkipDrive advances industry standards with new trauma-informed and neurodiversity-focused care

HopSkipDrive, the leader in safe, fast, and simple supplemental student transportation, today released its seventh annual Safety Report. The data reveals that in 2025, 99.7% of rides were completed without a safety concern of any kind—a consistent benchmark maintained even as the company doubled its partner network to serve over 2,000 school districts, government agencies, and nonprofits nationwide.

To date, HopSkipDrive remains the first and only company in the student transportation industry to proactively publish comprehensive safety data annually, reporting on not just collisions or accidents but on all safety incidents, including interpersonal and behavioral concerns. The 2025 report reveals a 99.99% accident-free record and a 0.000% critical safety incident rate—benchmarks supported by a track record of over 130 million safe miles driven since the company’s founding.

This vast experience includes a deep commitment to specialized populations, having safely facilitated nearly 3 million rides for youth in foster care and 1.7 million rides for students with IEPs. These results, driven by more than 50 proactive safety products, features and initiatives—underscore a safety-first approach that extends to millions more rides for students in Career and Technical Education, General Education, after-school activities, and extracurriculars. This record is made possible by HopSkipDrive’s industry-leading technology, rigorous regulatory oversight, and direct relationships with CareDrivers, which together enable the sector’s most responsive turnaround times and a sophisticated, data-driven standard of care.

“Safety has never been a secondary checklist item for us. The need for safe transportation is a core reason HopSkipDrive exists,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and Co-founder. “Since day one, we’ve led the industry by staying ahead of the curve, constantly innovating the specialized care we provide to the children and families who depend on us. In 2025, we demonstrated our ability to significantly scale our impact while maintaining a near-perfect safety record. This data reflects the tireless work of our team and CareDrivers, who lead with a simple, personal standard: ‘What would it take to put our own children in this car?’ This results-driven culture ensures that as we get bigger, we also get better, safer, and more inclusive. But we’re never done when it comes to safety. Every mile driven is an opportunity to improve and innovate and ensure every child arrives at school safe and ready to learn.”

Key product developments from 2025

To maintain this record while scaling, HopSkipDrive introduced several key product developments in 2025:

• Achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance, making HopSkipDrive the first and only supplemental student transportation platform to achieve this high-level security attestation for data and privacy.
• Nationwide specialty transportation expansion, which scales wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) and Rider Assistant support to districts across the country.
• Specialized driver education, featuring a neurodiversity-focused curriculum developed with child development experts to support students with diverse sensory and behavioral needs.
• Qualitative video screening, a new addition to the 15-point CareDriver certification process designed to evaluate situational judgment and empathy.
• Enhanced “Must Be Met” protocols, which provide a vital safety net by requiring specific verification for safe student handoffs to authorized adults.
• Caregiver Great Start Program, a proactive outreach initiative designed to ensure 100% of eligible families are equipped with safety protocols and ride-tracking features before their first trip.
• Dedicated rider support line, providing students with direct text or call access to the Safe Ride Support team for autonomy and peace of mind.
• Advanced CareDriver qualifications, a verified in-app system ensuring rides requiring specialized training or equipment are only matched with expert CareDrivers.

Key roadmaps and launches in 2026

As we move into 2026, HopSkipDrive continues to evolve its platform with marquee offerings focused on inclusive technology and enhanced oversight through advanced recording.

• Track My Ride is a new feature that allows riders to monitor their own journeys via secure, masked SMS links. By providing real-time visibility without requiring a smartphone app, we’ve ensured inclusive access for students using wearables, smartwatches, or school- or government-issued devices.
• Ride Recording: In-App enhances our safety offering by providing a secure, integrated audio and visual recording system within the CareDriver app to complement our existing hardware-powered dashcams. This approach allows for encrypted oversight that is automatically wiped from driver devices after the ride to ensure student privacy. It also enables network-wide across all HopSkipDrive markets, which will include 100% of rides this Fall.

Safety is more than just data points; it’s about understanding the unique needs of the children in HopSkipDrive rides. Our Safety Advisory Council provides us with an externally led expert framework that informs our end-to-end safety protocols. By integrating child development and mental health expertise, we ensure our operational standards are grounded in a human-centric understanding of student well-being, providing a level of care that technology alone cannot achieve.

The complete 2025 Safety Report demonstrates HopSkipDrive’s ongoing commitment to transparency and continuous improvement. In the coming weeks, the company will introduce additional 2026 initiatives, further raising the bar for safety standards across the industry.

About HopSkipDrive

HopSkipDrive is the leader in safe, fast, and simple supplemental student transportation. Modernizing the $30 billion school transportation industry through its care-centered transportation marketplace which supplements school buses by connecting kids to highly-vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters, and nurses in local communities. HopSkipDrive also offers its industry-leading transportation intelligence platform, RouteWise AI™, to address critical challenges, including budget cuts, bus driver shortages, and reaching climate goals. With this technology, HopSkipDrive has supported over 14,500 schools and over 2,000 school districts, government agencies, and nonprofit partners. Since its founding in 2014 by three working mothers, HopSkipDrive has surpassed more than 100 million safe miles driven. This record includes nearly 3 million foster and McKinney-Vento rides and 1.7 million Individualized Education Program (IEP) rides, alongside millions of additional trips for General Education, Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, and extracurricular activities.

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