Company History

School Bus Fleet Magazine February 2008

"Special-Needs Parental Experience Drives Provider March 3, 2008" by Jenna Curry, Assistant Editor.  Katie Scholes of Provider Enterprises, which has transported special-needs children for more than 25 years, proves that sometimes it takes one to know one.

That is, it takes the parent of a special-needs child to understand how to run a business that caters specifically to special-needs children. Scholes founded Provider in 1981 to make up for the lack of pupil transportation for special-needs children in her area. With 160 buses in its fleet, the company strives to be the "provider" of a safe beginning and end to each child's school day. "We've tried to bring the experience and knowledge of being a parent of a special-ed child to what we do here," Scholes says.

In the family "When her daughter Jenny, now in her 30s, was diagnosed with severe congenital heart disorder at 18 months old, Scholes and her husband, Bill, realized their daughter would need special speech and language education. In the early '80s, there was a lot of new legislation in the federal government for disabled adults and children. "The federal government mandated that institutions housing disabled adults should be closed down, and the adults were being brought back into the community," Scholes recalls.

The government had also mandated that special-needs children be educated. Jenny was 3 years old when the government started to fund education for children with disabilities. She was enrolled in a speech program located about 45 minutes away from the family's New Hampshire home. Each day, Scholes would drive Jenny and a few other special-needs children to the school. After two years of volunteering for the program, Scholes was asked to work for the school district, but she instead decided to form a contract agreement.

Without an official business plan and while her husband was working overseas, Scholes started the pupil transportation company in what she refers to as a "very humble beginning." Provider has maintained a family mentality even through growth. Scholes serves as the president, and she hired CEO Jim Tyrie in 1999 to help with growth by setting the budget and overseeing fleet replacement and other projection tasks. Scholes' son Garrett, one of five children, also works for the company as its operations manager. "It's nice to see the next generation committed to continuing this tradition," Scholes says.