Chicago Public Faculties shortens bus routes for college kids with disabilities

Simply 47 Chicago Public Faculties college students with disabilities are on bus routes longer than an hour, an enchancment over final 12 months when that determine was roughly 3,000 and 365 youngsters had journeys lasting longer than 90 minutes, district officers stated Thursday.

“We’re working to get that quantity right down to zero,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez throughout Thursday’s Board of Schooling assembly.

The progress comes after greater than 8,000 college students who could have been eligible for bus service previously, together with these in selective and magnet colleges, had been informed in late July they might not obtain busing, however can as a substitute obtain free Ventra playing cards, together with for one companion, akin to a guardian. 

Martinez stated once more Thursday that the district was targeted on offering busing to college students who’re legally entitled to it, akin to college students with disabilities and people in non permanent housing. 

CPS officers didn’t instantly share what number of college students are ready to be routed as of Wednesday. As of the primary day of faculty, 7,100 college students had been on bus routes, and one other 3,100 selected the stipend, in accordance with a Monday press launch from CPS. 

The district has blamed an ongoing nationwide bus driver scarcity. In late July, officers stated they’d simply half of the roughly 1,300 drivers they wanted. 

At Thursday’s assembly, some dad and mom whose youngsters couldn’t get busing, together with Patricia Rae Easley, blasted the district. Easley lives within the Austin neighborhood on the West Aspect and has a daughter enrolled at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park on the South Aspect — a route acquainted to Mayor Brandon Johnson, who additionally lives in Austin and has a son enrolled at Kenwood.

“I’m attempting to achieve out to him,” Easley stated. ”Possibly we are able to get in on their carpool.” 

Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief working officer, advised CPS will not be removed from shortening lengthy rides for college kids with disabilities. Three-quarters of these remaining 47 college students who’re on rides longer than an hour are on routes which are 61-66 minutes lengthy, he stated. 

The district’s latest transportation struggles stretch again not less than two years. With a purpose to spur extra hiring of bus drivers, Mayfield stated the district has hosted a number of hiring festivals and is planning to work with bus firms they contract with to lift driver pay by $2.25. Presently driver pay ranges between $20-25 an hour.

The district was in a position to accommodate all college students with disabilities or these residing in non permanent housing who requested transportation by the tip of July, after extending the sign-up deadline twice, officers stated on the time. However they may not assure fast service for households who signed up after that. 

Households can go for stipends of as much as $500 a month till they get routed. On Thursday, responding to criticism from some households, Mayfield described the transportation modifications this 12 months as a “robust determination that all of us wanted to make.” 

Easley, the guardian whose little one attends Kenwood, stated she pulled her daughter out of a non-public college in order that she might attend the sought-after South Aspect college as a seventh grader this 12 months. 

She was caught off guard with CPS’s announcement three weeks in the past that she wouldn’t get bus transportation. Easley stated she has no use for the free Ventra card as a result of she doesn’t really feel public transit is protected sufficient for her daughter. That commute would contain two buses and a practice, she stated. 

So she drives her daughter 40 minutes to Kenwood. 

“It’s undoubtedly not solely an inconvenience however an expense,” Easley stated. “An surprising expense once we’re paying for fuel that’s $4.57 a gallon.”

Reema Amin is a reporter overlaying Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.