AI-Enabled Stop-Arm Camera School Bus Safety Progr

Boston Public Schools is requesting proposals for an AI-enabled stop-arm camera school bus safety program to reduce illegal passing violations and enhance student safety, with proposals due October 30, 2026 at 1:00 PM EDT and a pre-proposal Q&A conference call on October 19, 2026 at 11:00 AM EST. The procurement encourages participation from small, local, minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned businesses, with proposers required to detail plans for including certified M/WBE firms in the majority of work.

The scope encompasses technology procurement, deployment, maintenance, and management of a stop-arm enforcement solution across BPS's fleet of 750 yellow buses operating from three yard locations. The program phases into an initial three-month, no-citation pilot covering 25 buses to collect baseline data and issue warning letters, followed by progressive fleet expansion and transition to active violation enforcement. The solution must be phased, violator-funded, and cost-neutral.

The contract term is three years from execution. Pricing must be detailed separately for hardware per equipped bus, hardware installation and maintenance per equipped bus, and violation processing per instance. Proposals require separation of technical and price submissions, with price proposals sealed until technical evaluation completes.

Evaluation criteria include project team experience, scope of work response, technical clarity, diversity and equity planning, school district experience, technology capabilities, citation management processes, reporting analytics, and customer support. Minimum insurance requirements include workers' compensation, commercial general liability of $1 million per occurrence, automobile liability, umbrella coverage, cyber liability, third-party crime coverage, and professional liability of $2 million per claim.

Vendors must comply with CORI standards (criminal background check policies), wage theft prevention certification, and Boston's living wage ordinance (minimum $19.36 per hour for covered vendors with 25+ company-wide FTE employees). Delivery is scheduled for November 4, 2026 to BPS Administrative Offices at the Bolling Municipal Building in Boston. Written questions are due October 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST. An on-site technology demonstration is scheduled for the week of November 9, 2026. Contact Shirley Nguyen at snguyen2@bostonpublicschools.org. Funding is subject to appropriation availability.