The changes made to Policy 5200 in May 2022 that increased non-transportation areas, distances to bus stops, and transportation registration were made to support the change in school start times for the 2023-2024 school year. If the Policy were reverted, it would mean start times would revert back to the 2022-2023 school year schedule and it is likely that thousands of students would not receive transportation due to the significant increase in drivers and buses required to transport those students.
The Office of Student Transportation estimates it would require approximately 528-548 bus routes to be able to implement changes to school start times under the previous version of Policy 5200. This is 50-70 more than the 478 routes currently being anticipated in the current form of Policy 5200. It would also likely require approximately three months to make the changes.
As we have experienced a driver shortage of between 85-95 drivers for several years, it would not be possible to make a change successfully that would require any more routes than the 478 being planned.
There is not a viable solution that allows changes to school start times to be implemented and changes to Policy 5200 to be reverted to its previous form.