Parent/guardian should be familiar with school dismissal times for regular and one session days.
Parent/guardian must be available at home at school dismissal time, not the time the bus usually arrives at the stop.
The district’s responsibility is to select a bus stop and provide safe transportation to and from the bus stop and the school. Parents/guardians are responsible for their child or children from the house to the bus stop and from the bus stop to the house.
To ensure the safety and well-being of all students parents/guardians are restricted from boarding the school bus.
All students are picked up and dropped off only at their assigned bus stop, unless because of an emergency, parents/guardians request a bus and/or bus stop change. Parents/guardians must send a written request to school personnel on or before the morning of the requested change. This note must be signed by school personnel authorizing the change in stop or bus route and given to the driver. Play dates do not qualify as an emergency.
Drivers must see a parent/guardian before allowing kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students to get off the bus. If a parent/guardian is not visible to the driver, or the parent/guardian cannot be reached on the home telephone, the student will be returned to school. Also included in this group are other students with disabilities assigned to self-contained classes and requiring van transportation with an attendant.
When an unsubstantiated source telephones or otherwise contacts the transportation department or school bus driver requesting a bus stop change for a student after the bus departs the school but before the time the bus arrives at the student’s designated stop, the unsubstantiated source will be informed that because there is no written authorization for a bus stop change from the school the student will be returned to school.
In instances where students are returned to school, parent/guardians must arrange their own transportation from school to home.
If a parent/guardian has an emergency that requires a student to board the bus at a different stop along the route or ride a different bus to school, the parent/guardian must write a note and have his or her child give it the driver explaining the situation and giving permission for the student to ride to school from a different location. This practice is used only to take a student to school. It cannot be expanded to having the student going home from school to a location different than the designated stop.
If a student is not riding the bus home from school, the parent/guardian must sign out the student in the school office or designated location. Once a student boards the bus he or she will not be released to a parent/guardian without that parent/guardian going into the school office and signing the student out.
Parents/guardians should plan ahead for emergency closings. If inclement weather is forecasted, parents/guardians must make sure that someone will be available at home in the event of an early dismissal, especially in the case of younger children. Just as car pools are arranged in advance for various commitments, so should plans for student care be prearranged for emergency school closings. Parents/guardians should note that in certain situations not all schools may be affected. Some parents/guardians depend on a high school or middle school student to care for younger siblings. In some circumstances these older students may still be in school when students from the elementary schools are dismissed.