Frequently Asked Questions - All Bus Riders

Half days of school work exactly as the full day of school.  The stop time will be the same amount of time after the bell release time on a normal school day.  For example, if a child normally arrives at his/her stop 20 minutes after the afternoon bell time, the half day bus stop time will be 20 minutes after the half day bell time.

Traffic, weather and other conditions beyond our control can cause the bus to run late.  As such, we incorporate a ten-minute window to allow for such circumstances.  In the event of a bus running considerably late, every effort is may by the Transportation department to notify you.   A School Messenger will be sent to the families notifying them of the late bus.  Depending on how you have your phone number set up with the Technology department, you may receive a text message, an email message a phone call, or all three.  This is the same messaging system used for notification of snow days.  These messages can take up to 5 minutes to compose and transmit.  Bus drivers are asked to notify the Transportation center as soon as they know they will be ten minutes or more behind.  This will apply to both morning and afternoon transportation. 

During the first couple weeks of school, we ask that you be especially patient.  Drivers are getting used to their routes and often, especially the first couple days of school they field many questions from parents at the various bus stops.  This will also cause a delay in those stops further down the line.

Food allergies can be life threatening.  The risk of accidental exposure to foods can be reduced if we all work together to minimize risk and take measures to provide a safe environment for food-allergic students.  Food can be a choking hazard as well.

There is NO EATING ALLOWED ON THE BUS.

As mentioned earlier, it has been the goal of the Transportation department to notify families when a bus is running 10 minutes (or more) late for a bus run.  Since it takes approximately 5 minutes for the message to be prepared and broadcast, we ask our drivers to notify the dispatch center as soon as they know they are running late.  This is especially important in cold weather when the students are waiting at the bus stop.  The goal is to not run late but sometimes circumstances are beyond the driver's control.  The most important thing is for drivers to drive safely and not speed to the next stop when running behind.  From time to time other information will be broadcast that is relative to your student's bus run.

It is the goal of the routing department to build the routes so that first on the bus in the morning is first off in the afternoon.  There may be times when this is not possible.  The routers are always concerned with the length of time a student must ride in the afternoon.  If you're experiencing a problem, please let us know by calling the Transportation office.

Information about a student's pick-up and drop-off times can be found in ParentVue.  Updated information will be added to ParentVue before the new school year begins, usually about two weeks before the start of school.  If changes to a route or bus stop are made during the school year, families will be notified via School Messenger to check ParentVue for updated information.  Inquiries can be made by calling the office at Durham School Services.

Students are expected to be out at the bus stop 10 minutes prior to their scheduled pick up time. This includes when busses are running behind, we do expect students to be out to the stop 10 minutes early. This is because factors such as traffic and weather can cause delays or put busses ahead of schedule by a few minutes. Think of it like when you're driving somewhere and how weather or traffic signals can make it so you're to your destination early because all of the lights were green, or a few minutes behind because it was snowing. 

In early 2018 Opus International Consultants, Inc. completed a comprehensive study to define the boundaries of eligibility for school bus transportation.  The full report of the results of that study has been made available to everyone.  

"The Rochester Community School District shares their documents regarding school transportation, noting that “students living beyond the following walking limits shall be entitled to bus transportation.” These limits are set at one-mile for grades K through 5, and 1.5 miles for grades 6 through 12. The RCSD also clearly outlines many of the common questions regarding bus transportation and bus stops." - PG 4 section 3.2.1 of the Opus study

From time to time there may be a question about eligibility for transportation.  The Transportation department can review an eligibility request or a request for a change of a bus stop after the appropriate form has been submitted.  Please contact the transportation office for further information.