This year, New York City students said goodbye to the classic student MetroCards and received the city’s new OMNY cards.
Back when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and former New York City Public Schools Chancellor David A. Banks announced the new cards in the summer of 2024, they said that they’d be:
Valid 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, with up to four free rides a day
Valid on the MTA’s subway lines; on local, limited and Select buses; on the Staten Island Railway; the Roosevelt Island Tram; and on Hudson Rail Link– with free transfers from one mode to another
While the student OMNY cards offer more rides than the old student MetroCard and can be used year-round, families are finding issues with the durability of the cards, the replacement process, and even the guidelines.
They’re flimsy
We’re not quite sure why they designed the new cards to feel more like paper compared to the plastic-feel of the old MetroCards. Many students and parents have reported that the new OMNY cards are pretty flimsy, making them easily damaged with everyday use. Some have even reported that they stopped working after getting wet or being bent. Thinking about laminating them to make them sturdier? Think again; officials have advised against this as it may affect the functionality of the cards.
Getting a replacement
If a student loses their OMNY card, they are supposed to notify the school’s administration to deactivate the old card and issue a replacement. There is usually a designated person at the school that helps with this. Unfortunately, some students have reported experiencing waits of over a month for a new card– not to mention that some schools have policies limiting the number of replacements a student can receive.
Deactivated cards
On top of the flimsy material and headache of replacing them, some families have also dealt with their student’s OMNY card being deactivated entirely. The reason? They’re being flagged for fraud. Despite the city announcing that the cards can be used to, “get to school, sports, extracurriculars, internships, jobs, and more,” some are being deactivated because the cards are being used far from the student’s school.
So what are the guidelines then? It’s hard to say. According to Gothamist, an internal email sent to a parent stated that the system expects the cards’ first tap to be at a station “near the home address, the second stop to be near the school, and the final stop of the day to be near the home address.”
However, it doesn’t quite align with the mayor’s sentiment back when the card was announced, saying that it will be a gamechanger to help families afford the city, such as for older siblings who, “pick up their younger brothers and sisters from school or where kids have after-school and summer jobs to help make ends meet.” If a student is taking his or her younger sibling to school first, the card might not necessarily be tapped near their school.
Confusion with the rules
When we reached out to the MTA for some clarity on this, they shared this from MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara:
“We are thrilled that students are using mass transit in record numbers to get to school and taking advantage of the convenience of tapping with OMNY student passes to get on board. In the relatively few situations where student passes are being used improperly, as we’ve said repeatedly those cards will be deactivated, and we defer to NYC Public Schools to resolve those matters with any students involved.”
They even told us that some of the points in the Gothamist article were incorrect, and shared these facts:
The MTA and schools each only have half [of the student’s] information. MTA knows which school the card is assigned to and the school has who the card is assigned to.
The MTA does not know who the student is. The school does not know where the card is being used.
If a card is being used 20 times a week — the MTA checks if that card is being used AT ALL near the school it is assigned to. The MTA does not know the student it is assigned to so we wouldn’t know their home address to check.
If we tell a school a card is not being used AT ALL near the school — it’s up to the school how they want to handle that situation. If they choose to do so, they can deactivate the card themselves.
Despite the feedback from the MTA, it doesn’t take away from the parents who have shared their student’s experience across parenting groups. If your student has experienced issues with their card being deactivated, speak with the parent coordinator at your child’s school for guidance.
First-year takeaways
After losing her card on the bus, my seventh grader was told she only had one replacement left. It was a good reminder to reinforce responsible habits- like making sure she puts her card back in her backpack right away and keeping it in a safe place. She’s learning to commute home from school independently, and it’s important she learns to be organized and aware of her surroundings.
To protect the card itself, parents have shared that phone cases with the card holders are a great solution or classic MetroCard sleeves. To avoid losing the card, a lanyard is also a great idea. Has your student experienced issues with the OMNY card this school year? Let us know.
