Seriously? You think that “schools are responsible for getting kids to and fro” to whichever destination a parent chooses on a given day? I think schools are responsible for providing an education, personally. I an only imagine what it might actually look like if students could come and go at any stop they chose. Think about it, Johnny wants to go hang out Sarah’s house or Auntie doesn’t know that Jeffrey was coming that day so he gets dropped off to an empty house. Maybe we should just offer a ride service so that kids can get to their Dentist appts too. Or they could stop for a loaf of bread on their way as well.

Bottom line is, until voters support schools financially, we will likely see a decrease in transportation options to begin with, and I, as a parent want school money to go to teaching. I sure as heck don’t want my kid to be allowed to get off at any stop they want.

My guess is once or twice a letter gets forged by students…just a guess. Talk about a logistical nightmare. If you worked in a school you would know the amount of calls that come in to the office with messages like “Tell Cindy that her mother is not done getting her hair done so she will need to go home with Sam until his babysitter gets there…” At what point to people step up and recognize that children are parents’ responsibilities, even if it is inconvenient to have to pick them up each day. This would be the same forum everyone will jump on to condemn a school for dropping a kid off at the wrong stop—we don’t get it both ways.

Considering that my home district is ::this:: close to stopping all bussing save for special education students (this may be required by law for whatever reason?), in order to save money, what was the complaint again? We don’t live in an area with “neighborhood schools”, my son would have to walk across the freeway to get to his (eventual) school. They’re thinking savings…I’m thinking that we’ll be paying less in income taxes as one of us won’t be working in a professional job if this happens, eventually that has to wind up hurting the district in some form.
A permanent custody order, I’ll buy. That should be a given. I’m not buying the cobbled together care unless its a permanent pattern (just due to logistics, you’d have to have a new letter practically every day).

Thank God, I thought I was the only one with my head spinning after reading this. Seriously, the school district’s job is to take care of your kids??? Sorry, it’s their job to educate. That’s it. I worked in a private school where about half our kids were bussed because they lived within the city. We were constantly getting calls about, “can you send so and so on the bus today” or “tell so and so not to get on the bus.” My favorite was when a 1st grader would come up to me 2 minutes before the bell and say, “I don’t know how I’m getting home today.” People who don’t deal with these issues on a daily basis don’t have a clue of the logistics and the seriousness and the pressure of keeping all these children safe.

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I’ve never heard of such a problem. In our area, our district’s transportation department uses Transfinder software. It allows the district to attach my children to my sister’s address where my kids often get on the bus when I have to go to work early. Usually this is just on Friday, but this software seems to let the dispatcher make a quick change if something comes up for me. It has literally never been a problem. Do your bus garages not have computers? I remember seeing a school mailing years ago that showed that using the software saved the district money. I get a letter every August with a bus pass for my kids. It shows their pick up locations (both my house and my sister’s) along with my children’s estimated stop times. Seriously I’m sort of shocked that this is even a problem for some people. It’s actually the least of my headaches.

“There was no room for liability with my parents’ signatures on file.” That was a different time. You would be surprised what people will sue for.

I’m with those who think this is not really something to complain about. She can’t drive 5 miles to pick up her kid? This part of Florida is very spread out. Five miles really is nothing.

I always rode the same bus home from school every day, but the bus driver didn’t care or notice where we got off, so any stop was fine.