Question: “My student won't be riding the bus immediately but they still want to keep the bus assignment?”
If a student does not ride the bus for 10 consecutive school days and the family has not communicated the absence to BPS Transportation through the Zum app, the following steps will be taken:
BPS Transportation will communicate through Parent Square to notify a student’s family that their student has not ridden the bus for 10+ consecutive school days, to provide instructions on how to communicate with BPS Transportation if they plan for their student to return to riding the bus to keep their current assignment, and to notify them that their student’s bus assignment will be paused otherwise.
Families will have 3 business days to communicate to BPS Transportation if they plan for their student to return to riding the bus and/or if they are having any bus challenges with which the family needs support
If families do not communicate with BPS Transportation within 3 business days to keep their student’s current bus assignment (and subsequently have the student return to riding the bus), the student will be opted out of transportation and the student’s bus assignment will be paused.
Question: “Why are we doing this?”
The goal of this procedure is to improve the reliability, safety, and efficiency of yellow bus service for the students who need and use it.
We aim to increase the communications process for students and families to communicate in advance about bus ridership and procedure for pausing student bus assignments based on non-ridership and for ensuring families can reinstate bus transportation when it’s needed. This procedure does not change student eligibility for yellow bus transportation.
Question: “We're not allowed to do this (particularly if it's a student with transportation in their IEP)
This does not change your student’s IEP or any specialized transportation accommodations within their IEP. Those will continue to be evaluated during your child’s annual IEP meeting each year.
Rather, this pauses your student’s bus assignment, as our records indicate they have not been using the bus.
You can reinstate transportation at any time by submitting a Reinstatement Form on our Support Portal, and we will reassign and resume your student’s bus assignment.