Public transportation is an integral part of NYC students’ lives, especially for those who commute to school. Since 1997, the Department of Education (DOE) and the MTA have partnered to provide students with free student MetroCards to get to school. While students were still using the original student MetroCard even when OMNY became available to the general public, that changed for the 2024-2025 school year.
In September 2024, students began receiving student OMNY cards for the first time. With the change came increased access, allowing students to use their cards on weekends, during the summer, and during late nights. This is a huge benefit for students, who now have greater freedom to access internships, jobs, extracurriculars, and explore what the city has to offer.
However, these benefits aren’t inclusive of all students. If a student lives within 0.5 miles of their school, they don’t receive a student OMNY card at all. This can leave students in a position where it is harder to participate in after-school sports, extracurriculars, and activities over the weekend and summer just because of where they live.
Even for those who do have access to a student OMNY card, many are finding that their card deactivates when they have done nothing wrong, leaving them without a card to get to school.
“If [students’] usage pattern does not indicate that they’re attending school regularly that’s when the deactivation, the algorithm in the system indicates deactivation,” said MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber. It appears, however, that many students are experiencing their cards shut off with no explanation or easy way to get it turned back on in a timely manner.
Another issue that students have faced with the new OMNY cards is their durability. The paper material of the card makes it less durable than the previous MetroCard, which was made of a more durable plastic.
“That was a little bit of a compromise in terms of the materiality of the physical OMNY Cards… I’m thrilled with how it’s turned out, but I’m not disputing the physical shortcomings of what they call the fare payment medium, the physical OMNY Card. The goal is to get it on your phones,” said Janno Lieber. “Within two years we will have it so that the OMNY system goes on phones.”
Student OMNY cards have been a huge blessing to students who are now able to more freely participate in extracurriculars, internships, and all sorts of activities. While there remain some problems with the new system, the MTA has been working to iron out some of the issues, including planning to roll out digital student OMNY cards in the 2026-2027 school year.
