Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 22:34     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to understand why your son didn’t call the depot and state that they are in bus xxxx and it’s past 15 minutes late?

The depot would have contacted the driver or advised the called if a new bus would be dispatched.

Every kid should know their bus and which depot it comes from. The numbers are readily available. And most high school kids have a phone.

Give your kid the tools to solve problems.


You really do know it all don’t you!

I’m trying to understand why you didn’t just recommend this as an option for the future instead of laying into me and lecturing me.

Why didn’t he? This has never come up before. Presumably it also hasn’t come up for any of the other dozen or so kids waiting for 45 mins plus. As a parent who has only had to deal with school buses once my kid reached high school (so two years only) I’ve also never had to consider this issue before. I’ve never received any notifications from the high school about bus issues even though my other kids Middle school sends them all the time. I also am not from this country and have no history of getting a school bus myself or “calling the bus depot” to micromanage my kids journey to school. But now that you’ve shown me how vastly superior you are, I’ll be sure to do better next time. How wonderful that you are so perfect.


I’m from this country, grew up in the county, know a lot about the transportation system and it never occurred to me until just now to program the depot number into my kid’s phone.

To the person who asked why they didn’t do it, maybe you won’t sound like an jerk next time if you say “you know, what worked for me was making sure my kid had the number and knew to call if the bus was more than 15 minutes late.”
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 20:39     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:I’m trying to understand why your son didn’t call the depot and state that they are in bus xxxx and it’s past 15 minutes late?

The depot would have contacted the driver or advised the called if a new bus would be dispatched.

Every kid should know their bus and which depot it comes from. The numbers are readily available. And most high school kids have a phone.

Give your kid the tools to solve problems.


You really do know it all don’t you!

I’m trying to understand why you didn’t just recommend this as an option for the future instead of laying into me and lecturing me.

Why didn’t he? This has never come up before. Presumably it also hasn’t come up for any of the other dozen or so kids waiting for 45 mins plus. As a parent who has only had to deal with school buses once my kid reached high school (so two years only) I’ve also never had to consider this issue before. I’ve never received any notifications from the high school about bus issues even though my other kids Middle school sends them all the time. I also am not from this country and have no history of getting a school bus myself or “calling the bus depot” to micromanage my kids journey to school. But now that you’ve shown me how vastly superior you are, I’ll be sure to do better next time. How wonderful that you are so perfect.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 18:57     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
I meant "sometimes the bus won't be dispatched for a while" like after it finishes a different run.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 18:56     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
I don't know why that would have made a difference and how do you know OP's kid didn't do that. My child's bus has been really late multiple times this year - probably more than 6 by my count and my child does call the depot. Sometimes the bus won't be dispatched and he has a test or a presentation so I have to drive. A few times since he didn't have anything urgent he just took the replacement bus but the replacement bus made him more than an hour late which is not great for a HS student.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 17:09     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
I’m trying to understand why your son didn’t call the depot and state that they are in bus xxxx and it’s past 15 minutes late?

The depot would have contacted the driver or advised the called if a new bus would be dispatched.

Every kid should know their bus and which depot it comes from. The numbers are readily available. And most high school kids have a phone.

Give your kid the tools to solve problems.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 17:04     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You drove her to school, but just couldn't bother to walk to the main office with her to get a late pass.


Stop it. High schoolers don't want their parents in the building, and at our high school in particular, parents are not very welcome, unless there's an appointment in the books. They just can't deal with more people.

OP, it should be excused, but maybe your kid will have to let them know or something. During all our years in MCPS, I've noticed that absences are not well documented by schools: sometimes my kids are marked absent when they're not, sometimes they're not marked absent when they are, and there's been frequent confusion over what's excused and what's not. I ended up not caring AT ALL, because guess what? It doesn't affect their grades. So now, when my youngest, who is my only kid left in MCPS, has a doctor's appointment or is sick or something, I sometimes forget to jump through all the hoops required by her high school. It's just too much bother for no consequences.


Unfortunately I’ve found that it can affect their grades. My kid was penalized for an absence that was not marked as excused and got a zero for an attendance based grade that could not be made up. Since then I always make sure to provide paperwork.


PP you replied to. I stand corrected. My two kids, who attend/attended MCPS in different school clusters, were never penalized for absences, even by really tough teachers. But maybe they were just lucky.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 17:02     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It is absolutely an excused absence for your child. It is also absolutely inexcusable for MCPS.

$hit happens.


Of course it does, but not showing up for 45 minutes without an automated system kicking in to notify that fact is inexcusable today. That would fly 30 years ago. We have the technology to see that a bus driver didn’t make it in and that no substitute took the route


What if!!!!!! Instead of another shot at the million dollar "where be the bus" app, we hired more bus drivers?
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 10:39     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t you just email the attendance secretary instead of posting on an anonymous forum??


Because the attendance secretary isn’t very responsive. Why would you take the time to make a snarky comment like that without saying anything actually useful?


My son’s attendance secretary doesn’t email back, but excused absences are reflected within a day in ParentVUE. They mark it and that’s what counts.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 10:34     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You drove her to school, but just couldn't bother to walk to the main office with her to get a late pass.


Stop it. High schoolers don't want their parents in the building, and at our high school in particular, parents are not very welcome, unless there's an appointment in the books. They just can't deal with more people.

OP, it should be excused, but maybe your kid will have to let them know or something. During all our years in MCPS, I've noticed that absences are not well documented by schools: sometimes my kids are marked absent when they're not, sometimes they're not marked absent when they are, and there's been frequent confusion over what's excused and what's not. I ended up not caring AT ALL, because guess what? It doesn't affect their grades. So now, when my youngest, who is my only kid left in MCPS, has a doctor's appointment or is sick or something, I sometimes forget to jump through all the hoops required by her high school. It's just too much bother for no consequences.


Unfortunately I’ve found that it can affect their grades. My kid was penalized for an absence that was not marked as excused and got a zero for an attendance based grade that could not be made up. Since then I always make sure to provide paperwork.


absences are also used against students in violation of policy for extracurricular activities. For example, some schools have a policy where kids earn or lose points based on absences. Depending on their points totals at the end of the period, they can be rewarded. If they have a certain number of points, they get the top-tier reward, but if they have fewer, they get a lower tier. A student with EXCUSED absences and tardies can fail to achieve the goal and not get rewarded with points, thus missing a reward tier. For reward tiers that have limited capacity, a student may not get the reward even after achieving the required points because others got MORE points due to not being absent or tardy at all.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 10:32     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It is absolutely an excused absence for your child. It is also absolutely inexcusable for MCPS.

$hit happens.


Of course it does, but not showing up for 45 minutes without an automated system kicking in to notify that fact is inexcusable today. That would fly 30 years ago. We have the technology to see that a bus driver didn’t make it in and that no substitute took the route


Yes, it is dangerous. Fortunately OP was home and able to take her kid, but most parents are not able to do this. They should have at least emailed/texted parents.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 07:52     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You drove her to school, but just couldn't bother to walk to the main office with her to get a late pass.


Stop it. High schoolers don't want their parents in the building, and at our high school in particular, parents are not very welcome, unless there's an appointment in the books. They just can't deal with more people.

OP, it should be excused, but maybe your kid will have to let them know or something. During all our years in MCPS, I've noticed that absences are not well documented by schools: sometimes my kids are marked absent when they're not, sometimes they're not marked absent when they are, and there's been frequent confusion over what's excused and what's not. I ended up not caring AT ALL, because guess what? It doesn't affect their grades. So now, when my youngest, who is my only kid left in MCPS, has a doctor's appointment or is sick or something, I sometimes forget to jump through all the hoops required by her high school. It's just too much bother for no consequences.


Unfortunately I’ve found that it can affect their grades. My kid was penalized for an absence that was not marked as excused and got a zero for an attendance based grade that could not be made up. Since then I always make sure to provide paperwork.


+1 Some teachers are really strict and will 0s for unexcused absences and they will mark a kid totally absent the whole period if they are more than a certain number of minutes late. Happened to DD. It took many hours and an appeal to the admin to get it sorted out. (It was an excused absence just marked wrong.) I don't recommend chancing it.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2025 22:55     Subject: Bus didn’t show up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You drove her to school, but just couldn't bother to walk to the main office with her to get a late pass.


Stop it. High schoolers don't want their parents in the building, and at our high school in particular, parents are not very welcome, unless there's an appointment in the books. They just can't deal with more people.

OP, it should be excused, but maybe your kid will have to let them know or something. During all our years in MCPS, I've noticed that absences are not well documented by schools: sometimes my kids are marked absent when they're not, sometimes they're not marked absent when they are, and there's been frequent confusion over what's excused and what's not. I ended up not caring AT ALL, because guess what? It doesn't affect their grades. So now, when my youngest, who is my only kid left in MCPS, has a doctor's appointment or is sick or something, I sometimes forget to jump through all the hoops required by her high school. It's just too much bother for no consequences.


Unfortunately I’ve found that it can affect their grades. My kid was penalized for an absence that was not marked as excused and got a zero for an attendance based grade that could not be made up. Since then I always make sure to provide paperwork.