How to Complete and Submit the Parent Flat Rate Program Monthly Form

The Parent Flat Rate Program monthly form is the online claim you file with the School District of Philadelphia each month to receive that month’s $300 payment for driving your child to school. It is a Google Form on the district’s transportation page, separate from the one-time enrollment application, and you complete it once for every month from September through June that you want to be paid for.¹

One thing to get straight before anything else: the monthly form is not how you sign up for the program. If you did not submit the enrollment application during the sign-up window and were not placed in the program by a school official, filing monthly forms will not get you paid, no matter how many you send in.¹

What to Have Ready Before You Open the Form

The form itself is short, but a few pieces of information cause most of the payment failures the district sees. Pull these together first.

Your child’s Transportation ID. This is not always the same as the general student ID number. If you do not have it, ask your child’s school directly or email the district’s transportation office at Parentrans@Philasd.org to request it.¹

The VIN of the vehicle you use to drive your child. A Vehicle Identification Number is the 17-character alphanumeric code on your vehicle registration card, on your insurance documents, or on the metal plate visible through the driver’s side of the windshield at the base of the dashboard. The district verifies it, and if the VIN cannot be verified, payment will not be issued. The district also will not accept one VIN across multiple households.¹ Copy it character by character. One wrong digit is enough to fail verification.

Your current address on file with the school. Payments are mailed to whatever address the school has in its system. If you moved, that update has to happen through a school official before payments can be processed.¹

Filling Out the Form

Open the Monthly Payment Form from the transportation page at philasd.org/transportation. You will be asked for your child’s name, the Transportation ID, the school your child attends, the month you are claiming, and the VIN of the vehicle you are using to transport your child.¹

Claim the month you actually drove. The form is filed for services performed during that same month, not retroactively for months you missed.

If two of your children are enrolled in the program, you still file for the household, not per child. The $300 monthly rate is a per-household amount, so two children at the same address do not produce two payments.¹

The 70 Percent Attendance Rule

Your child has to attend at least 70 percent of the school’s in-person learning days during the month you are claiming. A principal or other authorized school official verifies attendance through the Monthly Payment Form system independently of what you enter, so the district is cross-checking.¹

If your child falls below 70 percent for a given month, that month’s $300 is forfeited entirely. There is no partial payment and no prorating.

When to Submit

Complete and submit the form toward the end of each month, for that same month’s transportation. The district’s instructions are to file by the end of the month for services performed during that month.¹ Waiting until the following month delays everything, because the district will not issue payment until the form is in, the VIN is verified, and the school has confirmed attendance.

The program runs September through June only. Do not file for July or August. No payments are issued for summer school or Extended School Year (ESY) services.¹

When the Check Arrives

Payment is mailed to the address the school has on file. Allow roughly 30 days from the end of the month to receive it. The district will not release payment until the month is over, your form has been verified, and attendance has been confirmed by the school.¹

The AM-Only option, which previously paid $150 per month for families who only drove their child in the morning, has been discontinued and is not being offered for the 2026–27 school year or beyond.¹

Why Monthly Payments Get Delayed or Denied

Almost every payment problem traces back to one of these:

A wrong or missing VIN. A typo, a blank field, or a VIN the district cannot verify stops payment.
An address the school has not updated. Checks are mailed to whatever is in the system; an old address means a lost check or none at all.
Attendance under 70 percent for the month. That month’s $300 is gone with no partial credit.
Filing the monthly form without ever having enrolled. The monthly form does not enroll you in the program.
Filing late. Forms submitted well after the month ends push back verification and payment.

For status questions or a stuck payment, contact the district’s transportation office at Parentrans@Philasd.org.¹

1
School District of Philadelphia. Transportation Services