Transportation

Students must live more than 1 mile from the school they are zoned to attend to be eligible for transportation. There are many ways to measure distance.  For the purpose of determining eligibility, the distance measurement will be made along the shortest path using public roads from the edge of the driveway of the prospective rider to the closest driveway or pedestrian walkway entrance of the school. Please note that commercial mapping systems such as Google maps and MapQuest may not be able to accurately measure distances less than 1 mile. The transportation department uses a routing system to measure these distances. Also worth noting, the measurement is not the same as the safest walking distance to the school which may be greater than or less than the route used to determine rider eligibility.

The Transportation Centers are open from 5:00am until 6:00pm on school days.

Only certain students, whose needs are addressed through an IEP plan, are eligible for “curbside service.” “Curbside” service is normally restricted to situations where a less restrictive environment is not possible or where medical issues require this type of service. For other students, service is provided in accordance with district guidelines.

The school registrar should be contacted as soon as possible with all address and telephone number information changes. The registrar will put the information into the system allowing visibility to the Transportation Department.

If the change in time is less than five minutes, the driver will notify the students of the change. If there is a change in stop location or bus assignment, the Transportation Department will send written notification home with the students. The information can also be found on the Transportation website at “What Bus Do I Ride?”

Calling the Transportation Center is usually the best option under these circumstances. The Transportation staff can assist you in locating your child. If it is after 6:00pm, call the CISD Police Department at 936-709-8911.

Please contact the Transportation Center. The staff is trained to answer most Transportation service questions. If the person does not know the answer, they will ask for the best number at which you can be reached and someone will call you back.

In May, 2011 the Board of Trustees approved a change in the student walk-to-stop distance for students who are eligible for transportation. The walk-to-stop distances are:

Pre-K – 4:     600ft
5th – 6th:      600ft
7th – 8th:    1200ft
9th – 12th:  2400ft

The distances listed here are the maximum walk-to-stop distances for each grade group. Distances are measured along public roads. Distances within apartment complexes or on private roads are not included in this calculation. If you reside on a road that is not accessible in a school bus, your stop will be placed at the nearest accessible safe location.

The one-mile measurement is made from the point at which the residence’s driveway meets the public/community road to the nearest point where any campus driveway meets the public roadway or where any pedestrian walkway (greenbelt) provides access onto campus property (through a gate or driveway).  The distances are measured using the District’s dedicated school bus routing software and the Montgomery County Appraisal District (MCAD) maps to determine distances and, if necessary, a walking measurement is used for distances within 100 feet of the one mile distance.

Because this policy is based on distance, and the geography of each community is different, there may be homes within a community that are eligible for transportation next to or very near homes that are not.  While it may appear to be a simple matter of extending services to non-eligible families that are close to existing stops, we are simply not able to do this without greatly impacting the ridership across the District.

Until this year, we did not have the ability for parents to confirm they were not eligible for transportation through the District’s “What Bus Do I Ride” link.  Beginning this year, we are able to provide that information to parents when they look up transportation information online using our new system.

No, Pre-K and Kindergarten student must be released to a parent or guardian. The parent must meet the student at the stop, and we ask that parents come to the bus loading door to receive their child. Parents or guardians are asked not to wait in a vehicle or in a doorway due to the delay that it causes to the bus route. A pre-k or kindergarten student may be released to someone besides the parent or guardian if the Transportation Department has a Supervision Waiver Formpdf on file. A pre-k or kindergarten student may be released from the bus with an older sibling if the parent or guardian has signed the Supervision Waiver Formpdf with the older siblings name on the form. If someone besides the parent or guardian is to receive the student(s) then proper identification will be needed.

Your child should be at their bus stop five (5) minutes before the scheduled arrive time. Ten (10) minutes after your scheduled route time, you should call the appropriate Transportation Center office if needed. Please have your child’s bus number as well as the school, child’s name and stop location.

Situations such as traffic, road closures, weather, vehicle breakdowns or a late prior route can cause school buses to run late. Since we operate approximately 450 buses, it is impossible to contact parents when the bus is slightly late. Transportation office staff also have no visibility as to which child rode the bus that day. However, we are in radio contact with all of our buses and when we determine the bus will be 30 or more minutes late, we attempt to contact the school.

School bus sizes are stated in terms of passenger capacity. It is assumed that elementary school-aged children will ride three (3) per seat. Every attempt will be made to limit middle and high school students to ride two (2) per seat. Even if the bus has three (3) elementary students or two (2) middle or high school students in each seat, it will seem crowded, but it will not be over capacity. It is our goal to fully utilize all the space on all of the buses in our fleet.

The bus stops are located at centralized locations that can be safely accessed by a significant number of students to minimize the time and mileage of a run. If you have a concern about your child’s safety, you are encouraged to accompany your child to the bus stop. As a safety consideration, it is safer to have several students wait at a stop versus an individual student.

The purpose of spacing school bus seats so close is to contain the child in a cushioned compartment with only a minimum amount of space between energy-absorbing surfaces.

In the 1970’s the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Safety Administration determined that the safest and best arrangement for school bus seating would be a “compartmentalization” concept. Under this concept, seat backs are made higher, wider and thicker than before. All metal surfaces are covered with foam padding. They must also have a steel inner structure that springs and bends forward to help absorb energy when a child is thrown against it. The seat is required to be anchored to the floor so strongly that it will not pull loose during this bending action. The floor must be so strong that it will not be bent or torn by the pulling action of the seat anchors.

Finally, if the seats are too far apart, the child could be thrown too far before being cushioned and/or could be thrown outside of the bus compartment altogether. The rule today states that the seat back be no farther than 24″ away from a defined point.

The drivers must check their bus after each run. Items left on the bus by students will be held by the driver and may be claimed by the child. Fragile, expensive items are taken off the bus in the evening for their protection, but the driver will bring them back on the bus the next morning to be claimed. If an item does not get claimed, the driver will turn it into the school’s lost and found or the transportation center if they are not sure which school the item belongs to.

Only under extreme last minute emergencies. It is impossible to efficiently utilize our buses when taking into account each and every child’s outside school activity needs. Transportation is a privilege provided for each child from home to school and school to home or daycare. If you will be out of town and know in advance or if your child needs to go to another child’s home after school for any reason, parents should work out transportation issues together ahead of time. A parent will be required to pick up these students. If permission is granted for your child to ride another bus and all of the students assigned to that bus ride and there is no room left for extra passengers, only those students assigned to that bus will be given transportation service. Even with permission for your child to ride another bus, you still may receive a call from the school requesting a parent to come and pick up a child due to the lack of seat availability. Permission will be granted only to the parent requesting a change in their child’s transportation service. We cannot grant permission to the receiving parent for a change in another child’s transportation service. Students must have a signed Transportation Emergency Request form signed by a campus administrator before the child will be allowed to ride the alternate bus to another student’s home.

You need to contact your student’s campus administrator to fill out a Transportation Emergency Request form. If the request is approved then your child will be given a copy of the form to give to the bus driver. This will ensure that the driver gets last minute emergency changes and that the child gets to the correct stop. Please note the prior question, however.