Nowadays outsourcing is everywhere—from construction work to data communication services. Outsourcing provides not only financial advantages but also a way to shift liability. It is therefore not surprising that school districts commonly contract out student transportation to independent contractors. As with other forms of outsourcing, schools’ practice of hiring independent contractors to bus their students has generated litigation concerning the duty of care that applies in those cases—by whom, to whom, and when the duty is owed. A recent decision by New York’s highest court delineates the parameters of the duty that is owed by third-party carriers to their student passengers.
Generally, school districts owe a duty of reasonable care to pupils in their physical custody or orbit of authority.1 School grounds, of course, constitute the school’s “orbit of authority.” School buses are considered an arm of the school itself so that student passengers are deemed to be in the “physical custody” of the school when they ride school buses.
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