We recently surveyed JCPS parents to find out how their bus riders’ first (and only) day back to school went. Below is the feedback we received as of August 14, 2023. There is a school board meeting Tuesday, August 15, at Van Hoose Education Center, in the auditorium starting at 6 PM. To sign up to speak, click the link and follow the instructions.
| Want to tell us about your experience? Have suggestions to share? (These comments will be shared with Board Members and may be made public.) |
I have 2 kids in 2 different schools. Both buses were over 30 minutes late in the morning and i couldn’t wait any longer and had to take them both to school. Luckily they were on time but i was very late for work. Thank God my kid is in 7th grade. She still sat the compound for over an hour (which mind you is past our house). She texted me that she was overheating and the poor kid is already on anxiety medication. Finally started making her way home. I watched her phone get close then go further away. At this point I left the bus stop and tracked her down and got her off the bus 2 hours AFTER she was supposed to be home. Her bus stop was not listed on the drivers sheet. She was newly about to pee herself and was starving. |
| 7 year old made to cross busy road to board. AM bus almost hour late, requiring now my kindergarten student attending a different school to be late on first day. Their bus stops are on 2 diff places in the neighborhood. Left at school for 2 hours, provided zero food, and arrived home at 7:30. Drop off the bus passed our street to drop her at the same busy intersection, and she is the only one that is at the stop. She cried all night. We are traumatized as a family. |
Absolutely ridiculous and absurd! You KNEW this plan would never work the way you talked it up but proceeded anyway. You should all be ashamed and out of a job for this stunt. You risked OUR children and that’s unforgivable. Traumatized these children who are now afraid to get on a bus. This is on YOUR hands and you do not have the competency to be in charge of anything. |
| At 6:10pm they were still at school. Hungry and crying. Luckily my husband was able to drive to school to get them while I stayed at their bus stop. They were suppose to get dropped off at 5:20. |
Break the county into districts |
| Bring back the old bus stops. They stopped going into neighborhoods/sub divisions. And making kids walk .48 miles to stand on Terry rd by the old Walmart. Definitely not safe for the elementary kiddos. And, put GPS in the bus. |
bus finder had my child’s bus stop at upper hunters and flintlock. The driver was unaware that she and several other students were even on his route. Their bus stops were not included on his route sheet abd in turn they were the last to get dropped off as the students had to physically tell the driver where their stop is. School dismissed at 2:20. And the bus didn’t get to the correct stop until 4:15 |
| Bus never came in the morning or afternoon had to take my child to school and afternoon bus never came. My child was stuck at school til 530p.m when she was picked up. |
Bus never did show up. Finally went to pick him up at 6, but the school sent a message at 6:45 that the bus still hadn’t arrived and they were sending all remaining kids home on different busses. |
| Bus never showed up in the morning. The afternoon there were 700 kids waiting for the same bus in the gym, told my child to not get on as we knew he’d be stuck for hours |
Bus was 30 minutes late in the am. Which was ok. Coming home was an hour and half. Which is NOT ok. |
| Child has a morning stop but an afternoon one doesn’t exist. Not sure how that’s allowed. Still waiting on how child will get home! |
Driver made 9 students run across south side drive with oncoming traffic rolling because he didn’t want to turn into apartments and drop the kids off safely |
| Drivers needed more time to practice routes and to make corrections prior to the beginning of the school year. I would suggest at least a month. Parents deserved to be able to call the bus compounds or the 485 ride phone number prior to the week of school starting. And we all deserved to know what this was going to look like before Mass Hysteria ensued. This all could have been prevented. |
Fire Polio immediately!!!! If he was employed by a company he would have been terminated immediately. He didn’t listen to bus drivers who knew these new routes were impossible.,They warned him of this danger and the failure of the new routes. The reason you can’t get bus drivers is because JCPS will not allow for teachers, staff or bus drivers to discipline students. Until JCPS has a zero tolerance policy this community will continue to loose teachers and bus drivers!!!! |
| Fuckin worse |
Gave up 9:30am and took the kiddos to school. The bus was supposed to come at 8:50am and school starts at 9:10am. (I still don’t know how they would make it there in 20 minutes). Had to pick up the kiddos from school because at 5:30 their bus still hadn’t picked them up to bring them home. Luckily I had an AirTag on their backpack or I would have never known |
| Go back to regular times |
He was on the bus for an hour and a half and got to school 30 minutes late. He’s picked up off of Hess lane, and his bus went out to stoneybrook to pick up kids before taking him to Seneca. Made absolutely no sense! The afternoon bus never picked him up so I had to go get him. I couldn’t contact anyone about any of it. |
| Her afternoon bus was stuck in a compound for almost 2 hours, and it’s less than a mile from the house. |
Her morning bus never showed and her afternoon bus was so late that a staff member drove a bus to drop off 30 kids at one stop |
| Horrible |
Horrible. Cluster fuck. Needs to return to old start times. |
| I drove and picked up because no bus came at all for my 8 year old |
I drove my sophomore to his bus stop since it is too far and on too dangerous of a road for him to safely get to on his own, which is far different from past years. I am getting 4 children to school by myself each morning and now having to walk or drive each one to 4 different locations at 4 different times is nearly impossible. After years of defending and praising JCPS for their transportation, I never will again. Mornings and afternoons are exceedingly difficult for us now as I am the only parent involved and have to scramble each morning and afternoon to get kids all in their right spots vs past years of all the kids having the same stop and reliable schedules. Anyway, I drove my sophomore to his stop and as I pulled away I passed his bus going in the opposite direction, approaching his stop, where he and 3 others were waiting. I noted the number and thought, oh wow, it’s right on time, that’s great!I headed straight to a doctor appointment, thinking all of my students were officially off to school, and then got a call from my student 20 min later asking what he should do because his bus never came and everyone else had left the bus stop. His bus had driven right past the stop without even slowing down. I couldn’t pick him up until after my appointment, and he had walked home due to being too hot to stand at the stop for that much longer, so he had to walk home on the busy dangerous road that I had specifically wanted to avoid him walking along. I got home and drove him to school myself. He arrived an hour after start time and we saw multiple buses still dropping off students at the school at that time as well. In the afternoon my student walked around outside searching for his bus and could not find it, so he waited for the next round of buses. At 4:30, over an hour after dismissal, my student asked if I could come pick him up because he thought maybe he had missed his bus. I was able to get to him by 5:00 and get home by 5:20. |
I had to contact the school to find out where my child was and was informed she was still at the school an hour after school had ended still waiting for a bus to arrive to transport them home 🤬 if I hadn’t called and just continued to wait there is no telling what time she may have arrived home because at 9pm last night there was still 100 kids waiting for their busses at semple elementary this is beyond ridiculous JCPS I’ve heard stories that children wasn’t allowed to use the restroom for hours causing them to use the restroom on themselves I would be suing JCPS if that was my child! |
| I picked my child up from school before bus got there. It was 1.5 hours after dismissal at that time |
I tracked the bus with an app she and I share. The bus went from Shively back down to Valley Station. From Valley it went to Prairie Village through Windsor Forrest and then to Minors Lane. Turned around went back to Glengary and finally Fairdale The route is ridiculous but not the worst part. There were kids with different stops than the their morning route. There were stops that weren’t listed. One little kid didn’t know where he was supposed to get off. They double backed a couple times and circled neighborhoods because the stops were incorrect. Speaking of bus stops, why are there so many stops now on busy intersections? My daughter’s stop is one of those. It’s at a horrible intersection. Why are high-school students on the same busses as elementary school students?? Why aren’t the driver’s allowed to use GPS? It’s not the bus driver’s fault. They were set up for failure. |
| I work for a daycare. Our bus was supposed to arrive at 5:35pm. Parents were notified via text that the bus would be 15-20min late. That puts them getting here right before 6pm. Our daycare closes at 6pm. The bus did not arrive until 6:45pm. I made sure the parents were already waiting outside. The kids are safe. But so worried about this happening again that they don’t want to go back. I wouldn’t either.. |
Im not sure what race has to do with your survey but sure I played along. All of these students no matter race were failed yesterday.My son’s morning bus arrived 10 mins late, no big deal. Afternoon bus 1833 as far as I know never came to pick up the kids at school. I checked location on his phone and he was still at school an hour after dismissal, then two hours, after three hours we came to pick him up. I tried to call the school several times to check the status on his bus only to get a recording saying that the school was closed and to leave a message. When there are children still left in the school in NO WAY should a phone to the school be turned off! If my son did not have a phone, I would had no clue where he was at for the three hours I waited until I finally picked him up! So, no clue if that bus ever showed up at Newburg as late as it was, I doubt that it did. His bus was supposed to have dropped him off at the beginning of our neighborhood at 5:10 PM. He was out of school at 3:20. We got him home at 6:30. His morning bus is supposed to run at 7:33 AM and picked him up about 7:40 AM so that was almost an 11 hour day. Most adults don’t even work that long! |
| It’s not the weathers fault the children aren’t in school it’s yalls fought. The children should not have to make up for yalls mistake. I don’t feel comfortable with my child going to school. Some of them bus drivers are rude and did not treat the children correctly. I feel you all should give them computers and so what yall did during covid. This is ridiculous. Kids were dropped off at wrong stops and one never made it home. If we as parents would have done any of the things that happened the first day of school, we would not have ours kids. My child didn’t even get breakfast and a neighbor drove the kids to school because the bus never showed up. If we don’t send our kids it’s neglect so what do u call the first day of school. Children are scared to come back to school because of yalls decisions. Even kids that love school. |
Morning bus didn’t show. I was late for work and missed out on money. Not offered a afternoon bus at all. |
| Morning bus pretended to stop then stepped on the gas evening driver took kids all over the place instead of where anyone actually lived . Also two different buses and drivers for the day.its a mess why use two different people and two different buses for these babies |
My 2nd grader was a car rider in the AM so the rating I gave in this survey for the AM ride was only given because it was a required question. My student was dismissed at 2:20pm and was expected at her bus stop at 2:42. This stop is too far from home for her to walk herself, so I was waiting at the stop in my vehicle at 2:40. It was about 3:25 before her bus showed up. When the driver stopped he had his directional papers in his hand and began yelling at the kids once stopped, yelling the name of the stop and asking who got off there. My child saw me and got off the bus. The driver kept yelling things at the kids about how this was the only stop for the neighborhood and anyone who lived around here better get off NOW, after some kids expressed this wasn’t their stop. A group of small children got off looking confused and nervous and began walking down the sidewalk, no adult in sight. The driver sat down in a bus passenger seat across the aisle from another small child, loudly and rudely saying, “how can you not know where your stop is??”.On the drive home I asked my student, “how was your new bus today?” And she burst into tears and said, “I don’t want to be a bus rider anymore! He yelled at me when I said I wasn’t sure the name of my stop. I was scared. He was scary.” I called the school when I got home and reported this to office staff and switched my child to be a car rider instead because thankfully, even though it is inconvenient, it is doable for me right now as a parent. Not all parents of those scared children have that luxury. |
My 6 year olds school had one bus for at least an hour. His bus didn’t show up to their school until after 7. We were able to pick him up at 5:40, but if we were to have waited on the bus, it would have been after 8pm when he finally got home. He has developmental delays, speech disorders and gets very panicky when things aren’t going like they should. This was absolutely insane. |
| My 8th grade student waited about 15 minutes past the scheduled time for her morning bus to come pick her up, which was somewhat expected for the first day, although not typical of past years. It is far different this year that she has to catch a bus an hour and 22 min before her school’s start time, so her day is extremely long even when everything is running on time. Last year her bus picked her up about 55 minutes before her school start time. She transfers at a depot this year. In the afternoon, she waited for 25 minutes after her school dismissed to get on her first bus. Once at the depot, the students were all made to wait on the hot buses for about 45 minutes. Many parents began showing up (I couldn’t because I had to pick up my other child from school unexpectedly after he was unable to find his bus after school and ended up without a ride) and asking to take their kids from the buses. This is against policy so the kids had to remain and wait. Some parents and children had planned carpool situations for the afternoon bus depot and were not allowed to do so once the children were released from the buses. My student finally got home at 5:40pm and all I have heard since is how she does not want to go back, the bus was so awful. |
My child bus stop is crossing a busy street to another subdivision. Not happening so I had to find transportation |
| My daughter goes to school from a daycare with a bus stop 14 minutes away. Her first year of school and back on a school bus and she seen high school kids that she would have to ride with smoking, her bus was over and hour late so she had to taken back to the daycare then picked up and taken to school. In the afternoon I had to pick her up from school after waiting for an hour, her bus hadn’t even showed up to the school. But in the process there was no one to call. Lines was not clear, communication was limited. Horrible. My daughter was a walker in elementary and I’m so scared to have to utilize the bus and these big kids with no manors or respect for peers has me even more worried. |
My daughter got on the bus at Manual at 2:20. She said the bus left at around 230. The bus literally was two blocks from our house and instead of her being able to be dropped off from that bus she went to the compound. She then sat at the more compound until 428 when the bus finally showed up to take her home, she was thirsty. She had to use the bathroom and had to hold it. She did it she is always been instructed to since she was a smart ass which was to use the bathroom before you leave school, but she said it was so hot on the bus that she had to start drinking her water to stay hydrated. |
| My daughter was getting home at 5:01 per bus finder but she was 1:09 late. |
My daughter was never picked up In the morning and i had to go pick her up at 5:30 because her bus still wasn’t there she’s in kindergarten |
| My daughter was put on a different bus from school because her bus never came, than she gets to the depot and a lady tells them to get off and take another bus. When she asked if that other bus was going to take them home they said yes, than she was everywhere all the way to Bullitt county, when we only live 15 min from her depot. Than she ask the bus driver if she was taking her to her street Haney Way and the bus drive told her no she is not stopping at her stop that she don’t even know where that is. And drop her off on a random street 20 min away from home. My daughter calls me to come get her because bus driver told her she won’t take her to her bus stop. I drove 20 min to pick up my daughter by Jeffersonhill rd when we live in Valley Station. I understand it’s not the bus drivers fault, but the least thing the bus driver could do is let my daughter stayed on the bus and call her parents. I was having a nerve break down because my daughter was not home yet. I picked her up at 7 pm from Jeffersonhill rd and got home around 7:20 pm. It’s ridiculous my daughter has a medical condition anything could have happened. And than we keep calling this depot numbers security office number and no one seems to know anything. Just keep saying bus drivers are in a two hr delay. When My daughter was already on more than 3 hrs delay. Pollio do better for our kids. You had all summer to solve this and you failed our children and parents. What makes you think in four days you can solve this mess. DO BETTER FOR OUR KIDS |
My daughter’s AM bus stop on bus finder reported her bus to arrive at 9:39am, 1 minute before school starts at Audubon. We had to drive her so she wouldn’t miss any instruction. School dismissed at 4:20. At 5:20, she was able to text and say she and many other students’ busses hadn’t arrived. At 5:30, she asked us to pick her up. We were lucky we could drive and get her. We arrived at Audubon at 6:00pm, at which time numerous students were still at school. Her assigned bus drove through our neighborhood past her stop around 8:00pm. |
| My freshman spent 2hrs sitting in the gym waiting for his bus. He got home 6pm. Last one even tho we live .13miles away. I wanted to pick him up myself but the traffic was crazy in front of Doss due to Trunnel elementary. My niece picked up her son from Trunnel and it took her 2hrs. It was a disaster and not fair to drivers, students, staff and parents |
My kids go to different schools but both arrived very late. My daughters were left at school 2hrs after it ended before a bus came for them. My youngest daughter has extracurricular activities after school & being that late makes it hard for her to get to her activity on time. |
| My six year old was brought back to the school after being on the bus two whole hours his stop was literally five minutes from the school |
My son is in the third grade. The drop off time to the daycare was at 5:17 p.m. the bus did not arrived to 6:49 p.m. my son stated they only went to one other school before the daycare drop off. That was in our area as well. I think it would have been best handled if the school contacted the parents who were there past their normal ride home. To see if anyone would be available to pick up their child. My son was the only student on the bus at 6:49 p.m. I could have went to the school and picked him up. The school nor the bus compound were answering. |
| My son waited at the school for 20 minutes for his bus to arrive. When he reached the compound, they sat there for an hour. Then it took another hour or two to get home. He was on a hot bus for 3, almost 4 hours. He got off the bus and busted into tears, which he has never done before. It broke my heart and now he doesn’t want to go back to school. |
My son was 2.5 hours late, had A LOT of trouble getting a hold of anyone at the school or compound. When we did get a hold of the school and compound they had no idea where my child was and gave concerning and conflicting information. I nearly called the police. |
| My son’s bus didn’t pick him up from school. He was waiting at Noe until he called us & we picked him up at 5:00pm |
Never in my life have I had this experience but not showing up in the morning and didn’t have them home til after 5 . |
| No AM bus stop at daycares on Cane Run which is a main road. |
No one answered at the school, the bus compound couldn’t confirm where the bus was or if my daughter was on it. She has ASD and struggles in social settings and I was overwhelmingly concerned! |
| Nothing nice to say |
Our am bus was scheduled to pick up at 8:35. School starts at 8:40. I took my 3 kids because we had an incoming freshman that i did not want being so late on her first day. Friends of my kids said the bus was 30 minutes late. Not too terrible for the first day except for the fact they were going to be late in the first place.Pm was another story. Picked my kids up 2 hours after dismissal when it was determined there might not even be a bus coming at all. This was after waiting patiently for an hour for them to get home and then trying for another hour to get through to transportation and the school and either being put into voicemail or given a message to call back later. Also conflicting messages to the kids from administrators at school because they were unable to get Information. |
| Phones were down. Received update on half of the buses leaving around 6 PM. Drove to the Waggener bus depot shortly afterward, and it was empty. Sat at the bus stop for about 2 hours. Her scheduled drop off is 5:53 PM which is an hour later than last year and further away. We pay for tutoring for math to prepare for 3rd grade since scores were so low yet still considered passing (while testing at a 1st grade level), and we will now be late for the last available appointment at 6 PM twice weekly if the bus is on time. This bus was nearly 2 hours late and accused my daughter of missing her stop at 8 years old, which was unfamiliar to start. Did the board expect parents to train their kids on how to recognize their bus stop so that they could ensure that the bus driver knew her route? Finding it very hard to support public schools. Also, since her stop is now a block from Greathouse Shyrock, I could see about 6 buses pull into their lot around 6:30 PM, which prompted me to drive to the depot because I realized things were worse than the limited info we were able to receive. Also, I dropped her off at school in the morning to walk her to her first day of class. When we walked into class at 9:45 AM, I didn’t realize that more than half of the classroom seats were empty because none of the buses had arrived. And when I drove home, young kids were still standing at stops around 10:30 AM with a parent still waiting for the bus to go to school. I may run for school board just so you all have someone with a strong tech background at the table so that ill-informed decisions don’t happen like this again. Educators are not sophisticated enough to run transformative initiatives with emerging tech at this scale. |
Prior to school start- Online bus portal for my child shows two separate AM times and bus number options but no PM. Fill out bus request form on July 25th and receive confirmation of receipt. Letter sent from school shows an AM stop/bus number and PM stop/number. I assume all is well until our open house the next day shows a different time/bus number for both AM and PM. Call today to see which one is correct only to find that they have no record of her or our address in their system for that school and she has no bus stop. Their advice was to wait 24 hours and call back tomorrow to see if anything has changed. I fill out another bus stop request form and I call back later that afternoon and receive confirmation that the first a.m. choice listed as the one we should choose but there is still no p.m. I call back the next day (the day before school starts) and I am given the a.m. route information and p.m. route information that matches with the school gave me. The first day of school- the first bus that we were told was definitely the one to put our child on never shows, but the second option does. There are several other children at my child’s bus stop who have the same dilemma of 2 AM options and no p.m. Since the bus at arrived was an option on almost everyone’s list regardless of school choice, it looked like a scene from Titanic with everyone shoving their children on board and hoping for the best. Still not as bad as one block down, where a literal horde of 50 to 60 people walked up to a bus and tried to put their kids on. I’m not sure if our original bus ever showed because we had been at the bus stop for over an hour at that point and my toddler wasn’t sticking around to find out. The school let me know. She arrived after 11. Flash forward to the evening, my middle Schooler was an hour and a half late from the second main clusters of schools to let out so I expected some delay. My kindergartner’s supposed plan was to ride bus ABCD to the depot and transfer to bus EFGH (not listing actual numbers) so imagine the horror on my face when bus ABCD rolled up and said she NEVER WENT TO MY CHILD’S SCHOOL. The bus driver herself was so kind and stayed at the bus stop for precious minutes looking through her binder and trying to find a number that will be accessible since the bus lines were so flooded they were refusing calls me I couldn’t reach a point of contact at the school by that late hour. I continuously rolled through calling the list of numbers I had accumulated to try and reach someone and was almost to the point of calling 911 when another bus rolled up. I ran up to ask if she had any information or a new number and there was my child, on a bus that had never been referenced at any point in our long journey of trying to find out correct bus numbers. The p.m. numbers listed on her backpack tag do not match anything we have been given at any point. I am so grateful to all the employees who went above and beyond to get these kids home, but I am furious at the district and Polio and the scam of a company that they hired. |
Put times back how they were! This new schedule is making it hard on everyone, parents, teachers, students, drivers. Just put it back how it was. It wasn’t THIS bad last year. |
| She got to her depot fine around 4:30 but then they had the kids sitting in a hot bus for over a few hours waiting on other buses to arrive. They did hand out water she said but otherwise they had to just deal with the heat. Her phone died shortly after getting to the depot so I wasn’t sure where she was or I’d have gone to get her. |
She was still at school waiting on a bus for an hour and a half. Her bus route goes all the way to national turnpike and then way out Dixie and then back to her house. It was insane. She said kids were standing in the isle and pushing and shoving one another to try and hold on while the bus was moving. |
| state take over please |
Student rode the bus from middle school to elementary for YMCA daycare. They did not arrive at YMCA. Parent had to contact principal to find her daughter wasn’t dropped off. She was told to follow the bus and have them pull over to get her child. |
| Students special needs bus didn’t arrive to pick them up until 2 hours after school let out. He was on that bus for 2 hours before getting home. |
The assigned bus was going to take her to the wrong school was told night before so had to try to get transportation to and from school. Child comes home with a bus number but it’s not a special needs bus way to keep it professional jcps you had 5 months to accommodate this new schedule but not even ready complete embarrassment. You ask employers to work with parents but kids getting home at 10 pm is ridiculous |
| The bus drive is rude. Just zoomed off after letting the kids off the bus and cars almost hitting them. |
The bus driver didn’t know where my kids bus stop was my 7 year old daughter had to show the bus driver where her bus stop was |
| The bus in the morning never arrived, wait a close to an hour. We never had an afternoon bus available! |
The bus ride home I had to tell my daughter to get off at any stop by a restaurant and go to it and her father would get her. My daughter missed a day of work because the driver was lost.My suggestion is JCPS invest in their bus drivers with navigation systems and redo these stops. The bus stops for some of these kids are at busy intersections! Tell Polio to put his raise towards these bus drivers! |
The bus routes should include schools closer together per bus it’s ridiculous for a bus to drive all 4 corners of louisville for 1 bus route |
| The morning bus flew right past the stop about 5 minutes early and did not give the children a chance to get closer to the stop even tho the bus was early. Evening bud left at 4:58 pm per the school, my daughter told me they drove past her stop and all around before the driver stopped and checked the kids bus stops to see where they belong. |
The morning bus was late about 20 minutes and the afternoon was late 1 11/2 hrs and the bus took her on the other side of the tower and pass the school. When the pass 2 yrs her bus been great and stay in our area and bus ride will just been 30 minutes the most when the school is about 15 minutes from our house |
| The system is broken this was not just a bus issue. |
This bus was scheduled to be the first bus picked up from greathouse and somehow needed up being the last. The first bus from this school wasn’t picked up until 40 minutes after dismissal with the last bus being picked up 2 hours after dismissal. Students didn’t get completely dropped off from this route until near 10 pm. Divide the district into smaller clusters, allow students to go to neighborhood schools, and allocate tax money based on student need. |
| This is a real travesty and all board members should step down. A crime is some way or another was made |
Waited with my 2nd grader for more than an hour in the am before giving up and driving him. In the afternoon it took him 3 hour to get home on the bus and the school is not far from the house but I couldn’t chance leaving the bus stop to go to the school in cade tge bus came while I was gone. |
| Was supposed to get on the bus at 3:47 p.m. didn’t actually get on the bus till 4:30 p.m. bus driver missed the stop my son was supposed to be the first one to get off the bus he ended up being the last cuz she had to circle around |
We had to go pick her up because the buses weren’t there yet. |
| You guys should do how Marion County does it they share the same bus route with all grades and it cuts done on time,money, and we would be able to have bus monitors |
AM bus came on time, 2 whole hours before school started. Though the new stop is farther away, with no sidewalks or street lights on an unsafe curve/blind spot bend in the road. Afternoon bus was ‘late’ to school. My child called me at 4:30 pm to report the bus hadn’t yet come, and while on the phone, the bus arrived at the school. Two hours later, my child finally arrived home at 6:35 pm |
| Bus arrived to school an hour after school was dismissed |
Child’s bus stop is listed as a CEP location and we were told they are not allowed at the stop. Ended up driving to school and picking up as car rider. Going forward that WILL NOT work for us. Have requested a new stop to no avail. |
| Linda Duncan is the only board member that did not vote for this plan as there were no details. This was not fair to families, bus drivers, and school staff who had to deal with this debacle. I assisted at a bus compound and bus drivers couldn’t even get in to drop students off because of school car rider traffic. |
My child is the only student on her block that rides this bus same as last year so why do we have to walk to blocks over on dangerous Shelbyville rd instead t the end of her strewn |
| My daughter, with a 504 plan, has to catch her bus a half an hr earlier than usual at 5:45 am and gets home an hr later. This has given her extreme anxiety, especially in the mornings. These kids should not have to lengthen their day more than it already is. |
My seventh grade son attends the Westport Montessori program which is only 4 miles from our home. He unfortunately did not take the morning bus. Despite multiple attempts to understand why his stop was set one minute prior to the new start of school, our questions were never answered. The one response we received from the depot was, “don’t worry he won’t be counted tardy daily.” Wasn’t this the exact reason all of these massive changes were made? Regardless, many families in the neighborhood rallied together and we’ve created a morning carpool. As for the afternoon ride, he arrived home 2 hours and 20 minutes past the end of school. While most of that was spent sitting in the school building, the ride home is baffling. We tracked his phone and he passed the entrance of our neighborhood, not once but twice, before entering. The route was illogical at best. It is beyond unfortunate that this plan was not vetted. Where was the QA of the plan? Where is the data? And no, i don’t mean the data regarding the number of kids affected and instructional hours missed last year. In the short term, the district needs to dramatically increase pay for drivers and invest significant resources into reevaluating routes and training old & new drivers. We need transparency. We need competent individuals in roles who are held accountable. Long-term, the entire district needs a complete overhaul. |
| Please revert to the old start times and old bus routes. They have less problems than now. Polio needs to resign. |
Son’s school gets out at 2:20pm. We live right down the road. He was supposed to be one of the first stops. Didn’t get home until almost 2 hours after school let out. Bus route said he was supposed to get home around 2:30. |
| We did not know this child’s PM bus stop until 15 min from dismissal. I called the school several times to determine whether she had a stop or not. They tried to help but they were inundated with calls from other parents needing transportation info. Rather than being able to inform me, the parent, they let me talk to my child who told me what she had been told was the bus number. She came home on the bus and was held in the depot for an hour or so before transferring to the other bus. She ended up being almost 2 hours late arriving home. I was never able to get through to 485-RIDE. I was hung up on after being on hold for over 15 minutes, and all other attempts resulted in me being told that the line was flooded and they could not take the call – then disconnection. I had no way of knowing if my daughter got in the right bus. Another parent in my neighborhood told me the bus number they were given (should’ve been the same as my child), and if not for that info I would have known nothing. My child’s school administrators of transportation tried. They were not able to get answers from the transportation folks. My daughter was not distraught when she arrived home, but it was unnerving to not know where she was after she left school. |
Yesterday was an absolute embarrassment for JCPS, and now we ALL are paying the price for this epic fail – I do NOT expect my children to have to make up these days due to a failure on JCPS’s part. My heart goes out to the kids, families, and drivers impacted by this debacle…I cannot imagine how stressful the day was for all involved. Thankfully my child was not hours late getting home, but I think this is because her school is in the first start/end-time group. However, based on the bus’s arrival time indicated on JCPS Bus Finder, it would appear that her stop would be the first or second on the route (her school is 10-15 minutes away and her arrival time at the bus stop is 10-15 minutes after school lets out). Instead of her arriving at her stop at the indicated 2:36 time, she was about 3 miles away in Schnitzelburg. NOW, when you look at the S. Shelby St @ Delor Ave stop for PM bus 1748, the bus finder shows that bus arriving at 2:35 and then at the Alta Ave @ Bardstown Rd stop at 2:36!!! HOW CAN THIS BUS ARRIVE AT THESE TWO STOPS (THREE MILES APART) WITHIN ONE MINUTE OF EACH OTHER???? Either this is clearly a mistake in the times reported on the bus finder…or the “planner” for these routes is completely clueless and failed at the job of routing these busses. There is absolutely no way possible for this bus to arrive at these stops at the times conveyed. At a minimum, there should be an EASY way to add a search option by bus number and see the entire bus route to understand where my child’s stop falls in the line of stops. Parents put their trust in JCPS when they put their child on the bus. In return, JCPS should prioritize parents’ accessibility to their children’s whereabouts. With all of the money at its “disposal,” JCPS needs to prioritize an investment in real-time tracking technology (like tracking a flight en route). If I can watch the progress and real-time delivery of a pizza, I should be able to watch my child’s route home (or better prepare for the bus arrival in the morning). For privacy, this could be available on the parent portal with only the bus number(s) applicable to their child(ren). Parents are understanding to reasonable delays (i.e., traffic) and could better plan for their child’s arrival if they had visibility into where the bus is in transit. But to expect parents to be available to wait for an indefinite amount of time without any knowledge of where their child is en route…not acceptable. And to not give parents this visibility, leave them panicking for HOURS on end because their child has not arrived, and they have no idea where their child is…FOR HOURS…beyond unacceptable. Completely deplorable. |
Good |
| Her morning bus to Ramsey never showed up. She was quite late to her first day at middle school. She is a. Afternoon car rider |
I expected the bus to be late since it was the first day, but I felt bad for the driver because she didn’t not have written directions nor access to GPS. |
| My child was not picked up in the morning and it took him 2 hours to get home |
My child’s bus ride is over an hour long and runs from taylorsville road to Preston highway and back to Newburg rd making lots of circles and back tracking. We live less than 7 miles. From school. |
| My middle schoolers have had a 6:30am pick up time last 2 years. This year???? 5:45 AM!!!! And the driver kept missing stops on the way home |
My son said that the driver did not seem to know the routes and that the driver would try to get kids to get off at stops that weren’t correct for the students. That said, my son was only 30 min late, unlike his sister who was almost 2 hours late. |
| Older bus carrying high schoolers so it was very squished. |
Our bus passed up the stop and then let the kids off on a busy street (Hikes Ln) where there is ongoing construction. We tracked our kid’s location with a smart watch/tag and saw how round about the route taken was. A parent at the stop asked the driver why she took that route she simply replied “I don’t know.” Luckily our child was ONLY 40min late on pick up and drop off times |
| Students should not have to cross 4 lanes |
The bus never arrived in the am. And the my child was supposed to be at school at 8:40 but the bus didn’t leave the compound until 9am. Also how do you expect a child to remember 4 buses a day |
| The bus passes our stop, just to go into the main road and turn down the next street and come back down to the stop it had just passed. |
The morning bus was fine it came on time actually. The afternoon bus my son told me he was the only one on the bus and the driver got lost so he helped her find our house. You got out of school at two twenty was the only one on the bus and got home at three forty five. |
| This was the first time my child didn’t have to go to the compound. Am bus was on time and had her to school at 7. The bus ride home was later than if she had gone to the bus compound. Her pm bus went out of its normal route to bring her home. I’m so thankful she wasn’t the kid dropped off at 9:58 pm. |
We waited 40 min at our AM bus stop before deciding to drive the kids to school. Unsure if the bus ever came after we left. Bus finder did not provide a bus stop for our address. Instead, we were relying solely on information provided by the school of stop location and time. Kids are car riders in PM. |
| While my student had a long wait after school thsi first day, it was expected and he LOVES the new start time. Last year he had to get up at 5:30 to catch 2 buses blocks away and two hours after school to get home. No one was fighting for him last year so we are thrilled with this new start time!! Praying they get the new bus routes worked out & all get home quicker as well as safe. |
Bus flew past our house which is the stop. |
| I had to leave work to get my son to school as it when he called me it was 40 mins late. I got him to school 15 minutes late because of this. In my 12 years with my son at JCPS I never had this issue. They have been late the first day but heard that some were over an hour late. Then he got out of school at 3:20 and didn’t get him until after 4. Had to wait in a warm gym that was crowded. He has never had to do that. |
Kids should have the same bus and driver on both rides. ESPECIALLY SNT!! |
| My 6th grade daughter walks 1/2 mile to stop either way. She was about 20 minutes late in the am and pm. Overall, not too bad. She is only going about 2 miles down the road. She attends Westport Montessori program and it is actually closer than her resides school at Kammerer. |
My kid is an ECE student, we received no information for his am bus. I tried calling 485-Ride from the day it first opened, was told the driver would contact me. Called back every day after that. Calls either wouldn’t be answered or was told to wait until driver contacted us. I double checked the ECE transportation page it said to contact school. Called school told they didn’t have that info and to wait. First day am no bud came before I had to get my other kids to school so I dropped him off myself. Called 485-ride again, was told to call school bc they now had the info for ECE kids. At 3:15pm my sons teacher finally called me and told me what bus number and time he would be picked up. These children are transported BY LAW and they couldn’t give me the info we needed. My child was only 45 mins later than the anticipated time arriving home so I felt lucky. My child was dismissed at 3:20. His teacher stated he wouldn’t even be put on a bus each day until 3:55. Why are the most medically fragile kids having to wait at school 35 mins after dismissal to be picked up? We consider ourselves lucky given the horror stories other parents experienced. |
| My son’s morning bus was over 15 minutes late in the morning, so I drove him instead so he could make it on time. The afternoon bus wasn’t bad; only late by 30 minutes. |
The bus ride to school went from JTown to Hikes Lane to Buchel to JCTMS. 3 different buses service our neighborhood and the neighborhoods next to us for JCTMS. |
| The morning bus driver slammed on her brakes .she almost passed up the stop but she was on time .The bus drivers are greatly appreciated but the stop itself is not the safest |
The morning bus was over 30 min late. Decided to just take her to school, no idea what time it really got there. Afternoon bus took an hour to arrive to the school. The ride home was about 30 mintes, which is acceptable, but the driver was frantic and pulling out her hair. Over crowded with 3 to 4 children per seat! |
| There were delays which is understandable on the first day. But, my daughter had to stand on the way to school and sit on the floor on the way home. |
We were lucky. Had small bus delays (pickup & drop-off) by 10 minutes, but we are first-run. Very unhappy regarding destination of bus stop for entire neighborhood of Echo Trail kids. One student is 1 mile into the subdivision. That is ridiculous, especially when the bus turns around deep, in the middle of the neighborhood & passes students’ houses while doing it. RIDICULOUS! |
| AM bus never showed. There were 6+ teenagers at the bus stop. My child called me at 7:20 and said the bus never showed, school starts in 20min. So I drove my child, plus 2 neighborhood friends to school. Called the school, they didn’t know what to do. Called the main transportation# and the depot# multiple times, they disconnected every call. Bus ride home was fine. |
Both bus drivers were amazing and got my child home promptly and safely. The bus stop is great, last year was to far. And the time works perfectly with our schedules. |
| Bus didn’t show up in the morning. Drove kid to school. Picked up after school. |
Grandson was to be picked up at Taylor and Lynnhurst. Bus stopped on east side, students standing on west side. Bus makes a turn comes back down west side. My daughter flags down bus. Bus driver tells her bus stop is on east side and will not let the kids board the bus. Grandson driven to school. He’s late and receives no breakfast. He’s hungry until late lunch |
| I made the decision to take my son to school since his elementary age sister is also a car rider at a school not far from Fairdale High. He rode the bus home. Fairdale High ends the day at 3:20pm and the scheduled drop off time was 4:24pm according to the Bus Finder website. There was ZERO communication from the school or JCPS. He doesn’t have a phone so no way to contact or hear from him. His bus finally arrived at 6 pm, 90 minutes late. |
I teach students with moderate to severe disabilities. Some of these students are not able to functionally communicate with others. The driver had clearly not been trained to work with these individuals as she was wanting parents to get on the bus and identify their child when she got to their stops. This is a huge safety risk. We had several students that were on our transportation list for a specific bus, but the driver’s list was different. The lack of communication between driver and compound was scary and quite dangerous for these students. A solution to some of these issues would be to have drivers do the same routes AM and PM like in the past. Not only would this benefit drivers, but also students who need routine. |
| It’s amazing same as last year just pushed back a hour! |
My child had a good experience the first day on the bus but I feel for those who did not. GPS systems should be on each bus with their route pre loaded. That’s what the money that was spent on alpha site should have gone too. |
| My sons school’s schedule is 7:40-2:20. His bus pickup time is 6:23 and his bus only ran 8 minutes late. His drop off time is 2:37 and he was dropped off 13 minutes late. We were VERY VERY satisfied with the short delays and he had a great first day of middle school! I feel REALLY REALLY bad for the other families that had a bad experience with the transportation on the first day of school. Cancelling school today and tomorrow was the right call! |
My student is a freshman at Butler. This is the first time riding a bus to and from school. The bus arrived on time: 604 (6:08) and for a first day was on time in the afternoon. 3:07 (3:24).We didn’t get a bus assignment despite me filling out the yellow card at the end of last year, filling out the paperwork when he got accepted last may, and any other paperwork that I was asked to fill out. I did the request for stop on the 25th after trying to contact the depot per the bus finder’s information. I called the “ride” hotline as soon as it opened…and the person answering the phone said that there was no stops for over two miles he’d have to get back to us. Butler was amazing through this process! And for the most part so was JCPS/Bus operations! We received a stop 4:30ish on Tuesday evening…cutting it a little close but I had back up plans just in case! Wish everyone’s experience was like ours. Thank you! Oh and for what it’s worth….from a teacher view…all my elementary students were in my class by 8:50! We start at 8:10. I know some missed their bus and were brought to school by parents, but for a first day I wasn’t too upset! There are some positives among the storms thank you for working to make it better! We do appreciate all our bus drivers💜 |
My youngest son had a great ride. There and back. Thank you |
| Pretty normal transportation |
School staff were organized and prepared for a smooth dismissal. Bus drivers double checked student bus stops before my child boarded the bus. My child came home happy. One parent of a kindergartner was not present at drop-off and the driver had to wait for the parent to arrive. Another parent was glued to their phone and didn’t realize the bus had arrived. |
| Special needs students/parents used to ALWAYS know the bus they would be riding well before the first day of school. My child still doesn’t have a morning bus and the school was unsure whether the same bus would bring him home everyday. |
STOP bussing kids across town! Use all that money to better failing schools. All schools should be equal in quality of education |
| There was no AM bus provided for our address forcing me to take my child to school. There was a PM drop off bus but it is located in an unsafe location for an 11 year old child. I will not have my child walking on a busy road with no sidewalks. Because of this we had to use a family member’s address as their house had a bus that came into the neighborhood and it was a safe walk for her to get home. I am a JCPS teacher and we have 3 different start times in our home, so I have no choice but to rely on the bus for afternoon transportation. |
This was by far the best year on a bus for my child, and also the first year they are attending their reside school. Their bus was 8 min late for pickup in the morning which is the best I have seen in this particular child of mines entire JCPS school career of 6, now 7 years. |
| We had a great experience. We have a better bus stop than before and only dropped off 10 min later than estimated time. We do not ride in morning so I have no complaints on that. |
We personally had an okay experience. But my heart absolutely hurts for the children who didn’t, and my worry is that it COULD have been my child. |
| When we have a bus shortage and kids sitting 3 to the seat AND on the floor, why do we have a bus that has 2 students on it? It was being followed to Burkes depot by another bus. It was EMPTY. Community based schools for all who require buying and if they want to go to a magnet or different schools, no transportation. And I say this as a parent that would HAVE to drive. |
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