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For years, Indianapolis has been recognized nationally for cultivating a unique environment of high-performing, autonomous schools. Families today have more options than ever before. Yet access and quality are still uneven—in many communities, reliable transportation and high-quality facilities remain barriers that limit opportunity.
Transportation across the city is fragmented: While some students have consistent, tax-supported service, others face limited or no options. Facility use is also uneven: Some schools are stretched beyond capacity while others have underused space. Taken together, the system lacks a coordinated strategy, leaving schools to tackle complex operational challenges on their own.
That is why more than 50 schools—serving nearly 22,000 students across charter, innovation and non-public schools in Marion County—have come together to participate in Indiana’s new Transportation and Facility Pilot Program. In late September, the Indiana Department of Education approved this coalition’s application, with TogetherEd serving as the organizing entity.
The program was created through House Enrolled Act 1515, which also established the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, or ILEA, to bring stakeholders together around long-term collaboration. While ILEA will focus on developing recommendations, the pilot offers schools a chance to test real-world solutions over a three-year period beginning next fall. The year ahead will be about building momentum, refining priorities and ensuring the effort starts strong.
What will make this effort distinctive is the way it will be shaped. This will be an operator-driven coalition: The people leading schools every day will surface the challenges they face and help design solutions that can be tested at scale. The pilot is intentionally flexible, giving schools the ability to participate in ways that align with their unique needs and contexts while still contributing to collective learning.
We are not entering the pilot with predetermined strategies. Instead, schools will identify their most pressing needs and test approaches that hold promise for broader impact. Early concepts already surfaced include shared transportation models to expand access to after-school programs and work-based learning, coordinated efforts to address staffing shortages across critical operational roles, joint procurement to help autonomous schools gain scale, and stronger data sharing to give leaders clearer insights for decision-making.
The pilot will also look at how schools can use facilities more efficiently and share space, while creating room to explore longer-term possibilities—such as whether an independent transportation or facilities authority could help stabilize costs and maximize resources. Insights from the pilot could guide policymakers in determining whether this approach would strengthen outcomes for students and families.
The success of these strategies depends not only on schools, but also on community organizations working alongside them. The coalition already includes partners such as Edna Martin Christian Center, Shepherd Community Center and the Boys & Girls Club of Indianapolis. Each has committed to participating in the work, lending their expertise to ensure that solutions connect directly to the needs of students and families. Just as important, the coalition is eager to engage additional partners whose perspectives can strengthen the effort in the months and years ahead.
Transportation and facilities might not always capture headlines, but they are foundational to how schools function and how families experience education. When buses don’t run, students miss out. When schools must divert scarce dollars to cover facilities costs, resources are pulled from classrooms. By addressing these challenges together, schools can do more than achieve efficiencies. They can expand access, reduce barriers and ultimately improve outcomes for students. That’s the real promise of this work.
It also matters beyond individual schools. The next step is showing how autonomy and collaboration can work hand in hand: schools maintaining the freedom to innovate while also building shared systems that give them the scale to thrive.
The pilot is still in its pre-launch phase, and the work will take time. Yet the commitment of more than 50 schools, alongside engaged community partners, is a powerful signal of what’s possible: practical insights, policy recommendations and a new step toward collaboration across school types. The work ahead is challenging, but the opportunity is real—to build durable solutions in service of students and families across our city.•
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Andy Seibert is CEO of TogetherEd, a nonprofit that partners with schools and community organizations to strengthen operations, finance and systems.
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