Standing room only on the school bus

[Anonymous]

I was surprised to hear that many of the kids had to stand on my DC's school bus yesterday (this bus goes on the beltway). Does anybody know if MCPS reworks the route etc., or will this be the situation all year?

[Anonymous]

I would be pissed!
There should be seat for all kids. If some kids are acting like they would rather stand than sit next to someone then the driver should be making them sit down.

[Anonymous]

Call the school -- we had this last year and they changed the routes to better accommodate kids.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I will call the school.

[Anonymous]

Happened on my daughter’s bus yesterday morning, but she came home with a letter saying a new bus is being added as of today. The frustrating part is they added that extra bus in early last year - guess they decided to test out whether or not it was needed this year.

[Anonymous]

The first day and week of school are different. The first day everyone who might ever ride the bus want to be there to make sure they know where it is and that there will be enough seats.

Since your bus was overcrowded, ours was too (same situation), you want to make sure that you don't start driving your DC this week because MCPS needs to know that the problem is going to persist.

They will change routes over the first couple of weeks. A similar problem will also happen the first day of the 2nd semester when kid's schedules change.

[Anonymous]

School busses are not supposed to drive unless every kid is sitting.

The bus driver should have pulled over and radioed for another bus.

[Anonymous]

Our bus driver got lost! I thought they did trial runs.

Took my ES kid an hour to reach the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School busses are not supposed to drive unless every kid is sitting.

The bus driver should have pulled over and radioed for another bus.

My child's driver called the office yesterday and was instructed to have kids sit on the floor..for a trip that involves the beltway! This was an on going issue on delayed openings last year too. Sometimes they let kids sit on the floor and sometimes they left kids behind (for a hypothetical second bus that even the office admitted would likely be extremely delayed). We use an earlier stop on delayed openings now to ensure a seat. I do agree it is likely the numbers will go down after the first day...haven't gotten a report from DC yet.

[Anonymous]

What a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

We stay at the bus stop until it leaves to be sure our child has a seat. I will not let him sit on the floor. I know not everyone has that choice.

[Anonymous]

Op here, it was on the way hoe from school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here, it was on the way hoe from school.

That should definitely improve as activities start...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised to hear that many of the kids had to stand on my DC's school bus yesterday (this bus goes on the beltway). Does anybody know if MCPS reworks the route etc., or will this be the situation all year?

Yes, MCPS makes adjustments. Yesterday was the first day. Give them a chance to fix things.

[Anonymous]

I thought standing was not allowed in school buses.