Chicago Public Schools students who have not received bus transportation — even though their education plans require the service — will be routed by Sept. 6, CEO Pedro Martinez said Wednesday. Classes started Monday across the district.
Martinez said about 640 students will be routed this week, while another 600-plus students will be routed by the day after Labor Day. Martinez also promised to review the routes that take longer than 90 minutes that have been given to 365 families. The average route time is 39 minutes, he said.
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“I don’t want to be unrealistic. I don’t see us getting 100% of our routes under an hour. I just don’t see that as a possibility, but we’re going to try‚” Martinez said at Wednesday’s monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting. “We’re going to try. But I’m going to first tackle the routes over 90 minutes, and then we will see routes get better overall.”
Martinez said the district, overall, is in a better place than it was a year ago when a national bus driver shortage meant some students didn’t have transportation for months. Vans and taxis have been added to the district’s fleet since then, and a financial stipend system has been devised for families who secure alternate transportation. Still, struggles remain.
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Kalaveeta Mitchell, a Bronzeville parent of a CPS student with autism and post-traumatic stress disorder, said she was told a coding error to her child’s Individualized Education Program was the reason why service wasn’t available this week. The student has been unable to get to her North Side high school to start her senior year, but she has met her teachers virtually, Mitchell told the Tribune on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a South Loop parent, Jiawen Yan, described to the Tribune her son’s inconsistent bus service this week. The bus showed up at the pick-up spot an hour late on Monday morning, about 20 minutes late on Tuesday morning and a few minutes late on Wednesday morning. Yan’s son arrived at his far Southwest Side magnet school 20 minutes before the start of school Tuesday, after an 80-minute ride.
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“Anything over an hour is just too much, obviously,” board president Miguel del Valle said about bus routes at Wednesday’s meeting. “So we’ve got to do everything possible to change that, and change that soon. And I’m glad we’re in a better place this year than we were last year. But I’m still looking for that light at the end of the tunnel that gets us to where we need to be in terms of bus service. And we have a ways to go.”
Stacia Scott — executive vice president of SEIU Local 73, which represents CPS bus aides — gave examples of transportation woes this week, from students traveling on long routes to an aide working a 15-hour day but being paid for only eight hours.
“In speaking with a bus aide, she told me that one of the kindergarteners on her bus who has an IEP waited two hours to be dropped off. He kept asking, ‘Am I next? Am I next? Am I next?’ This is unacceptable,” Scott said at the board meeting. “Bus aides are low-wage workers who don’t know year to year how many hours they will receive, making it difficult to plan their lives. Not only that, but the routes this year have kept some of our bus aides on buses for longer than what they are paid.”
Martinez said five people have been added to CPS’ team that answers calls to the district’s transportation hotline, 773-553-2860. Diverse learners, whose education plans call for transportation, and homeless students are eligible to receive $500 a month if they find alternate transportation. Those who opted not to take the stipend and who didn’t receive transportation are entitled to receive $25 a day until they are routed.
General education students are eligible to receive a free Ventra card for themselves and an accompanying adult instead of bus transportation. CPS said more than 100 people have signed up for these cards, but that number has been changing as some of these students receive routes.
The district said it had created routes for the 15,700 students who had requested service by the end of July. As of last week, there were 400 school bus driver vacancies. Martinez said the hourly starting pay has been increased to at least $20 to keep drivers from going to the suburbs.
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