How will the changes in transportation affect students who participate in extracurricular/afterschool activities?

Historically, HCPSS has not provided transportation for students who stay after school for extracurricular activities. Students who participate in these activities do so voluntarily with the understanding that transportation is not provided from school to home. This is not a shift from prior years.

If the transportation zone measurement changed from campus to home for elementary school students, would that have an impact on the new start times?

The measurement from campus to home changed only for elementary schools resulting in approximately 1,200 students from pre-k through grade 5 who now live in non-transportation areas. Making a change for just elementary students would result in the need for approximately 24 additional bus routes. An increase of any routes above 478 would not be able to be implemented successfully.

With the change in start times impacting family schedules, is HCPSS creating more availability for before and after school child care?

As the school system does not provide before and after care, HCPSS supports the providers that utilize our schools for this service and work with them to accept as many children as their staffing and the location can safely allow. These programs will serve as many children and families as they can manage. 

What are school protocols to ensure student arrival and departure are happening in a safe and efficient manner?

For 2023-2024, drop-off and pickup procedures have been updated for many of our schools and have been shared with families. Please be sure to read these communications from your school and familiarize yourself with any changes in procedures to help make arrivals and departures on the first day of school as safe and efficient as possible. Changes in procedures were based on community surveys and feedback.

Principals will continue to evaluate processes for improvement at each school as students return at the start of the school year. 

Were hazard buses canceled for the 2023-2024 school year?

Hazard buses remain.

Hazard buses are used inside non-transportation areas when there are hazards that prevent students from getting to school safely. When implementing the use of new routing software for the 2023-2024 school year, there were a few instances of identified hazards that did not transfer to the new routing software. However, those instances have since been evaluated with the County and planned for accordingly. Where hazards were confirmed, transportation service has been reinstated to those families. 

Who makes up the Student Walking Route and Bus Stop Review Committee? How are members chosen to serve? How do you ensure that concerns are addressed without bias?

The Student Walking Route and Bus Stop Review Committee has been in place for years and consists of three members: the Howard County Bureau of Highways Traffic Engineering Division, the Howard County Office of Transportation, and a community citizen, who is a volunteer that demonstrates a wealth of knowledge in this area and is familiar with the entire county transportation infrastructure. Staff from HCPSS are not part of this committee, which is intentional to maintain impartiality. 

How can families who have received a safety assessment determine the one route identified by the Office of Student Transportation to be safe enough for walking to school and meeting the distance requirements in the new non-transportation areas?

Staff in the Office of Student Transportation will provide this information to families that request it. 

In many cases, there are several ways to travel between home and school and HCPSS believes parents/guardians are able to make the best choice for their child, whether that is car transportation, public transportation options, or walking one of several routes.

Why does the Board of Education utilize an out of state school bus contractor, rather than local companies?

Despite Howard County’s history of locally held contracts over past years, HCPSS has experienced a significant shortage of bus drivers necessary to cover all of the required routes over the past several years. The driver shortage fluctuated between approximately 85-95 drivers, short of what was required. 

In addition, language in the existing contracts and RFPs greatly limited the school system’s ability to adjust or cancel contracts that were not being fulfilled. This alone required a new RFP to be created and issued.  

Would additional funding help with solutions to provide transportation to more families?

Additional funding would only be beneficial if HCPSS believed that additional buses and drivers would be available to run more routes. The Office of Student Transportation has no indication from its contractors at this point that they would be able to exceed the 478 routes anticipated to provide transportation to students who live in transportation areas and registered for the service.

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