PSA: APS bus service is always late the first day of school, usually the first week. Don't plan on buses arriving on time. If your work or anything else important requires the bus to be on time, change your plans now.

NP: I agree with PP to be polite and persistent every single day until they do something.

Ignore the posters who say "this is your problem, you chose an option school." You are reasonably asking for a solution that is already in existence- this is just red tape.

If it were me, until it's resolved, I might put my child on the "wrong bus" in the morning (with a note), but I'd be too concerned about a K student getting on the "wrong bus" going home from school with me not there and there being a mix up with the buses leaving school. So if anything I'd go with that plan in the morning and arrange for you or spouse to do pick-ups until it's resolved.

What about explaining this situation to the teacher and seeing if they would be willing to make sure your child gets on the "wrong bus" (actually your preferred one) in the meantime?

Sorry this is happening to you- what a pain, and especially as you're just starting K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh. You chose an option school, you get what you get for transportation. My kid is at an option school. Transportation would be infinitely more convenient if she attended her neighborhood school. So long as APS assigned you a bus route that gets your kid to school, I do not see how this is their problem.

Yes, there is a bus route, but it doesn't have anything to do with where we live. You really think it's appropriate to assign kids to any bus stop in Arlington and then shrug when kids can't get to school?

I did research on the location of hub bus stops and was told they'd assign us to the one near our house. No one ever said that you can randomly be assigned to any hub stop in Arlington. That's ridiculous. The APS transportation site even says you can request to change hub bus stops and they will make the change. Then APS transportation came up with a new policy this week that they'd no longer make changes for the first two weeks. Totally arbitrary. The notion that you get what you get doesn't appear anywhere. It's not like I'm asking for my kid to be picked up at my house. I'm 100% okay going to the hub stop, just the one within walking distance. APS admits that they made a mistake. They're just refusing to fix because they made up a policy that says they don't have to do so

I sympathize with your situation, but the so-called new policy is probably not entirely arbitrary and probably has legitimate reasons that are not just to inconvenience you. They have a lot more to consider than just your single situation. Logistics isn’t easy.

That said, yeah, it sucks, and they may be able to make reasonable accommodations if you get to the right people. Be polite, but persistent.

Be annoying. Email transportation detailing your interactions (when, who you spoke to, what was discussed) and copy the principal and anyone higher up you can find.

Anonymous wrote:Eh. You chose an option school, you get what you get for transportation. My kid is at an option school. Transportation would be infinitely more convenient if she attended her neighborhood school. So long as APS assigned you a bus route that gets your kid to school, I do not see how this is their problem.

Yes, there is a bus route, but it doesn't have anything to do with where we live. You really think it's appropriate to assign kids to any bus stop in Arlington and then shrug when kids can't get to school?

I did research on the location of hub bus stops and was told they'd assign us to the one near our house. No one ever said that you can randomly be assigned to any hub stop in Arlington. That's ridiculous. The APS transportation site even says you can request to change hub bus stops and they will make the change. Then APS transportation came up with a new policy this week that they'd no longer make changes for the first two weeks. Totally arbitrary. The notion that you get what you get doesn't appear anywhere. It's not like I'm asking for my kid to be picked up at my house. I'm 100% okay going to the hub stop, just the one within walking distance. APS admits that they made a mistake. They're just refusing to fix because they made up a policy that says they don't have to do so

Eh. You chose an option school, you get what you get for transportation. My kid is at an option school. Transportation would be infinitely more convenient if she attended her neighborhood school. So long as APS assigned you a bus route that gets your kid to school, I do not see how this is their problem.

Find a new babysitter for first two weeks who has a car and can drive. If you offer enough money on sitter city, someone will do this.

Can you just talk to the school and the bus driver? Maybe County bureaucracy won’t fix it but I imagine they can at tbe school level.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the next two weeks, you go into work late so that you can bring your daughter to school. Your spouse goes home early each day so they can pick your daughter up.

No. Maybe for two days, but not for two weeks. This isn't possible.

You can’t leave early? You can pickup at right bus I think that will work just drop off. What are you going to do when you need to quarantine two weeks for exposure/illness?

I understand not everyone has a cushy white collar job, but there must be some way in one of your jobs to make this work; things with schools are going to be messy for months or years.

We've hired childcare who can watch our kids. We work far away and are required to be in the office.

This really shouldn't be that hard. There is a hub bus stop right near our house. We're happy to use it and set up childcare consistent with that plan. It never occurred to me that they'd assign us to a hub bus stop no where near our house and be unwilling to fix their mistake for an arbitrary period of time.

Welcome to APS transportation. You’re in for a long 12 years.

Put your kid in aftercare at the school.

Anonymous wrote:Yet another reason for why every adult needs to know how to drive.

There's lots of reasons who adults can't drive. Some of them have medical issues that keep them from driving. Some of them don't have access to a vehicle to learn how to drive. etc etc etc. This is ridiculous.

I agree with the advice about getting the principal involved in resolving the situation with transportation.
But also- and I hate to say this- if transportation is a big issue for you, you need to reconsider your choice to go to an option school. We ended up pulling our kids out of an option school, and into our neighborhood schools, in significant part, b/c of problems dealing with transportation. Among other issues- transportation insisted that our son was eligible for transportation, but our daughter was not- this was not special ed transportation- and I was running into the same absolute roadblock you describe. I ended up having to get Cintia Johnson (when she was asst superintendent, not interim superintendent) involved to reverse transportation's bizarre edict.
The point is- APS transportation has deeply imbedded problems. I can't even count the number of new directors they have gone through in the last few years- many people have come into that position with good intentions and tried to fix it.
Dealing with transportation to a neighborhood school is just so much easier- you have all your neighbors fighting the same battles with you. It is closer, so usually walking is an option, even if it is not a daily option. When transportation does bizarre things like order all buses to stop doing their routes b/c the weather is deterioting while denying that they have in fact issued that order- you have neighbors who can help transport kids to school. Setting up playdates is easier. Retrieving forgotten items from school or picking up sick kids is easier.
I remember one of the many school board work sessions on 'fixing' aps transportation. Transportation came in and told the school board that the reason why they couldn't make the buses work was special ed transportation - and their solution was they were going to say that all changes to special ed transportation had to be in by april of the year before. This was actually stated- and they had to be told in public that that would violate the law- that in fact they had to transport students with disabilities who needed accomodations no matter when it happened. I mention this b/c it is the culture of transportation- its a culture of no, can't do it, and reasons to not make things work.

Yet another reason for why every adult needs to know how to drive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the next two weeks, you go into work late so that you can bring your daughter to school. Your spouse goes home early each day so they can pick your daughter up.

No. Maybe for two days, but not for two weeks. This isn't possible.

You can’t leave early? You can pickup at right bus I think that will work just drop off. What are you going to do when you need to quarantine two weeks for exposure/illness?

I understand not everyone has a cushy white collar job, but there must be some way in one of your jobs to make this work; things with schools are going to be messy for months or years.