[boulos]

NYC issues student metro cards from the school if you need to go more than half a mile:

https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/transportation/bus-e...

[staticassertion]

Yeah, our schools would hand out green/gold metrocards, which were very coveted items (if you found an extra one on a bus that was a huge get). They'd only cover 3-6 trips, plus transfers, so it wasn't quite free, but it was often good enough.