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Students between ages 12 and 18 will be able to receive free VIA Metropolitan Transit bus passes through a new program from the City of San Antonio.
The move is designed to help prevent absenteeism in schools.
VIA has a semester pass for students that’s about $38. Currently about 3,600 middle and high school students use it. But now, a $150,000 contribution will fund 5,000 of those passes for at least the next year. The funds are coming from the office of District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito.
The absenteeism issue in schools is the primary reason for the initiative promoted by Gavito, who said that some local school districts are seeing upwards of 40% of students who experience difficulty attending class.
“Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem in San Antonio. We have a number of high school students missing school at over 10% of the days, and so we're trying to attack that problem. And one of the biggest barriers to get students to school is transportation,” she said.
VIA’s current rates include the regular fare of $1.30 per ride and a reduced fare of 65 cents. A day pass is either $2.75 or $1.35, and a monthly pass is either $38 or $19. Children under four years old ride for free.
However, the transit authority provides a discount for students. A semester pass for school and university students costs the same as a monthly pass and runs from January 1 until July 31 or August 1 through December 31. (A separate program, the U-Pass, is free for college students enrolled at UTSA, the Alamo Colleges, and Texas A&M University San Antonio program where those colleges pay for the student passes.)
The funding provided by the District 7 office would cover all students 18 and under currently enrolled in school. VIA CEO John Gary Herrera said the fare would be covered once the funds go into effect.
“The group of students that are subscribing to the semester pass, they will be immediately underwritten by the contribution that the councilwoman is bringing forward to this effort,” he said.
The free passes will start on December 20 and can be used for all of 2026. Information on how to get a semester pass for students is on VIA’s website.
