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Awards/PROJECT GRANT (B)

$39,499,635

Environmental Protection Agency·Environmental Protection Agency

to FIRST STUDENT, INC.

WORK BEGAN2024-04-01·LATEST ACTION·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDASST_NON_00E03675_068
Award description

DESCRIPTION:THIS AGREEMENT PROVIDES FUNDING UNDER THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT TO FIRST STUDENT, LLC. THIS AGREEMENT IS TO REPLACE EXISTING SCHOOL BUSES WITH ZERO EMISSION SCHOOL BUSES. ACTIVITIES:THE ACTIVITIES INCLUDE REPLACING 100 DIESEL SCHOOL BUSES WITH 100 ZERO EMISSION SCHOOL BUSES AND DIRECT CURRENT FAST CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE. THE NEW SCHOOL BUSES WILL SERVE THE FOLLOWING SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE STATE: CHICAGO SCHOOL DISTRICT 299 (IL), CAHOKIA UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT 187 (IL), INDIAN SPRINGS SCHOOL DISTRICT 109 (IL), BURBANK SCHOOL DISTRICT 111 (IL), RIDGELAND SCHOOL DISTRICT 122 (IL), GRANITE CITY COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT 9 (IL), INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS (IN), ST. PAUL PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT (MN), FLINT SCHOOL DISTRICT (MI), CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS (OH), EUCLID CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT (OH), AND MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT (WI). SUBRECIPIENT:NO SUBAWARDS ARE INCLUDED IN THIS ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT.OUTCOMES:ADDITIONALLY, THE RECIPIENT WILL PARTICIPATE IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, AND ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS TRAININGS WITH BUS DRIVERS, MECHANICS, FIRST RESPONDERS, AND OTHER STAFF MEMBERS. THE EXPECTED OUTCOMES INCLUDE REDUCING GHG EMISSIONS AND FUEL CONSUMPTION WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY IMPROVE AIR QUALITY, INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF THE IMPLEMENTED TECHNOLOGY, INCREASED PUBLIC AWARENESS, AND AN INCREASED DEMAND AND CONVERSION OF FLEETS TO ZERO EMISSION VEHICLES. DIRECT BENEFICIARIES OF THIS ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT INCLUDE RESIDENTS OF MINNESOTA, WISCONSIN, MICHIGAN, OHIO, INDIANA, AND ILLINOIS, AS WELL AS SCHOOL CHILDREN AND OTHERS THAT RIDE AND WORK ON THE SCHOOL BUSES.

Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.

The Buildout's read

What the model surfaced from this award

Confidence: high
In plain English

Replace 100 diesel school buses with electric buses and charging infrastructure across 12 Midwest school districts.

Sub-sectors
clean-school-busesfleet-electrificationemissions-reduction
Why this matters

Advances EPA climate goals by electrifying buses in high-pollution communities; demonstrates scalability of large-scale fleet conversion.

Supply-chain signal

Drives demand for domestic electric school bus manufacturing and DC fast-charging infrastructure.

U.S.–China competition angle

Addresses competition with China in electric bus manufacturing and battery production; builds U.S. domestic supply chain.

Generated by award_classification v2.1.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-06-13. Cost: $0.018903.

Period of performance
Start
2024-04-01
End
2027-03-31
Status
activein 274 days
Sources

The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.

$39.5M Environmental Protection Agency — The Buildout — The Buildout