Non-Allowable Pupil Decimal (NAPD) Instructions

Section 156.7 of the Commissioner's Regulations requires that school districts provide documentation of a new non-allowable pupil decimal (NAPD), at least once every three years, on a worksheet prescribed by the Education Department. Districts will submit data from this worksheet in an electronic format as part of the State Aid forms to be distributed each year in July.

School districts must provide documentation for a NAPD calculation if any of the following have occurred:

  • It has been three years since the previous calculation was reported;

  • The district has revised its mileage or other policy regarding pupils eligible for transportation services;

  • The school district reorganization with one or more other districts;

  • There has been an opening of a school building or closing of a building currently used as a school building;

  • There was an error made by the school district in the calculation of a non-allowable pupil decimal for a prior year;

  • The district has started transportation of children in established Child Safety Zones; or; or

  • There was a change in school district transportation policy to provide transportation of eligible children to or from a universal prekindergarten program pursuant to Section 3602-e of the Education Law.

All data reported on the "NAPD Data Worksheet" should represent information regarding school bus routes and trips as of one, and only one, day of regularly scheduled school session during any of the following months: March, April, or May. Be sure to indicate the date used, at the top of Worksheet 1.

The worksheet should contain the following data:

Column A: Buses listed in consecutive order. All trips for a particular bus (a.m., p.m., or noon kindergarten) should be recorded on successive, separate lines, even though a bus may cover the same route and carry the same pupils on both morning and afternoon trips. Do not include route data for a bus if it did not provide pupil transportation on the day used for data collection.

Column B: Indicate the kind of trip as a.m., noon kindergarten (nk), or p.m. When there is more than one a.m. or p.m. trip for a particular bus, indicate each on a separate line.

Column C: Total daily mileage should include the mileage, to the nearest tenth, actually covered on the route by the bus on each trip. It should not include mileage traveled by the bus to and from the route on the first and last a.m. and p.m. trips, as this mileage is not considered part of the school bus route. The route is the path the bus travels from the school to either pick up or drop off students, not to include deadhead mileage. Deadhead mileage, which cannot be included in the definition of route mileage, includes:

  • Mileage from a garage outside the district to or from the route within the district;

  • Mileage from a garage (not on a school campus) to the route that the bus must take from the school to pickup or drop off students.

Column D: Report the number of allowable pupils, as defined in Section 3621 (2) (a) of Education Law, transported on this trip. Allowable pupils include:

  • Pupils with disabilities that are transported pursuant to a determination by your district's committee on special education that such transportation is required as a related service;

  • Pupils transported during the day, to and from, BOCES programs, occupational education programs operated within the district, or shared programs at other school districts that may lead to a diploma;

  • Pupils attending public and non-public schools who live more than 1.5 miles from the school attended;

  • Pupils living more than 1.5 miles from school who are transported between home or school and BOCES occupational education programs, for a.m. and p.m. trips;

  • Nonresident pupils with disabilities that are transported pursuant to a determination by a committee on special education that such transportation is required as a related service, but not such pupils for whom transportation is provided pursuant to a contract with another school district or a BOCES;

  • Nonresident, regular pupils living more than 1.5 miles from the school attended, but not such pupils for whom transportation is provided pursuant to a contract with another school district or a BOCES;

  • Pupils living more than 1.5 miles from the school attended, who reside in school districts which do not maintain grade levels K-12 and who are transported to public schools outside the district;

  • Non-public school pupils transported between the non-public school attended and a public school for gifted, occupational, vocational, and special education programs where the distance between the schools exceeds one-fourth of a mile (dual enrolled pupils);

  • Pupils living less than 1.5 miles from school, in an approved Child Safety Zone, who are transported between home and school for a.m. and p.m. trips.

Column E: Report the number of non-allowable pupils transported on this trip. Non-allowable pupils include:

  • Pupils, (other than pupils with disabilities for whom transportation is required as a related service) attending public and non-public schools, who live 1.5 miles or less from the school attended or 1 mile or less from a bus route, if a feeder trip;

  • Pupils, living 1.5 miles or less from school, who are transported between home or school and BOCES vocational education programs, for a.m. and p.m. trips;

  • Pupils, attending a Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) program at a public or non-public school, who are not transported on an already established route on a space available basis;

    (UPK program transportation and NAPD reporting questions can be answered by reviewing the Guidance on Funding and Reporting for Transportation of UPK Students document.)

  • Nonresident pupils (other than pupils with disabilities for whom transportation is required as a related service) who live less than 1.5 miles from the school attended, but not such pupils for whom transportation is provided pursuant to a contract with another school district or a BOCES.

If it happens that a trip includes both non-allowable and allowable pupils (for definitions, see above), the pupils should be entered into the appropriate columns on the worksheet (D for allowable, E for nonallowable), to properly calculate the decimal. To accommodate this type of trip, the worksheet will automatically multiply the non-allowable pupils by 1.5, instead of by the mileage entered in Column C.

For districts that transport only allowable pupils, data can be reported on one line of the worksheet. In column A (Bus Number), indicate "NA." In column B (Kind of Trip), indicate "all." Column C should be the total miles for all routes, as indicated above. Column D should include all pupils transported on the selected day. Column E should be zero.




Webpage Reviewed by SLS, March, 2024

Last Updated: March 14, 2024