Anonymous
09/14/2021 12:35
Subject: APS bus stop
Anonymous wrote:NP… I STILL haven’t gotten the bus change request done for my child at APS. Anyone else?? I get non-committal responses from Transportation like “we are working on it” and “we are processing requests in the order received.” I submitted the form August 26… How can I get this fixed? Thank you.
Can you just take your kid to the bus stop you want? Then give the school a note saying you want your kid to ride home on the bus you actually want. I would not deal with transportation at all and would only go through my school.
Anonymous
09/13/2021 21:35
Subject: APS bus stop
NP… I STILL haven’t gotten the bus change request done for my child at APS. Anyone else?? I get non-committal responses from Transportation like “we are working on it” and “we are processing requests in the order received.” I submitted the form August 26… How can I get this fixed? Thank you.
Anonymous
08/30/2021 18:57
Subject: APS bus stop
Consider aftercare, and also keep calling insisting and getting the front people on the phone. I got the right person on the phone today and managed to fix my situation. You have to be super obnoxious and persistent.
Anonymous
08/30/2021 11:16
Subject: APS bus stop
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:No. Maybe for two days, but not for two weeks. This isn't possible.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.
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.
Again, what are you going to do when your kid is quarantined? Do that.
Good point. Yeah, do that.
Anonymous
08/30/2021 11:15
Subject: APS bus stop
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.
+1 That's the risk of options schools and bus hubs. Get over yourself.
Anonymous
08/30/2021 11:04
Subject: APS bus stop
Anonymous wrote:Put your kid in aftercare at the school.
+1 Extended day is month to month. Sign up now and problem solved untill bus situation resolved. You may find this option cheaper and more convenient than your current child care situation anyway. You can put on the bus and pick up until 6pm. All elementary schools have openings expect Cardinal so unless this is your school you should be able to register.
Anonymous
08/30/2021 09:51
Subject: Re:APS bus stop
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Option school or neighborhood sxhool? Define ‘clearly to far’. Are you aware of another bus stop that would work better?
Yes, if it's an option school, the bus routes use "hubs" and no longer make multiple stops within neighborhoods.
Otherwise, I'd just take her to the same stop your neighbor kids go to. They don't always check paperwork to verify the assigned stop. If they do, I would make note on the paper and tell the bus driver you have contacted APS about the error and the official change is pending. Good luck.
Close hub stop that we want is very close to the house (0.2-0.4mi). Assigned hub stop is well over the 1 mile walk zone. Kid is a kindergartener. I can try just putting her on the wrong bus in the morning, but I don't want her driving around Arlington on the wrong bus on her way home on the first day. She'll be traumatized if they try to drop her and no one is there.
She’s not allowed off the bus. She will return to school. The school will call you and you will say transportation won’t change the stop. And principal will call transportation and poof it will be fixed
Anonymous
08/30/2021 05:40
Subject: APS bus stop
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
A mile away is not “any bus stop in Arlington.”
Anonymous
08/30/2021 05:39
Subject: APS bus stop
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:No. Maybe for two days, but not for two weeks. This isn't possible.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.
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.
Again, what are you going to do when your kid is quarantined? Do that.
Anonymous
08/30/2021 01:07
Subject: APS bus stop
Show up with your kid at the bus stop you want with papers re your official bus stop and odds are bus drivers will take your child. You shouldn’t have to suffer so for obvious APS mistake.
Anonymous
08/29/2021 17:20
Subject: APS bus stop
^ if there are bigger issues other than the typical first-day slowness.
Anonymous
08/29/2021 17:20
Subject: APS bus stop
Anonymous wrote: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.
Excellent advice. I’d say it can take weeks to sort out any route/staffing issues.