Bus Route and Schedule F.A.Q.'s

• Why is my child’s bus late?

Weather, traffic, driver absenteeism, maintenance difficulties, and unforeseen incidents are responsible for delays in the arrival of school buses in the morning and afternoon.

▪ Drivers check buses before their routes and sometimes find mechanical problems that can cause delays and require driving another bus for that day. This can cause the bus to be late.

▪ Please know that we are doing everything humanly possible to have all buses running on schedule everyday. In the event that your bus does not arrive as scheduled, please allow ten to fifteen minutes before calling the transportation office or the school.

• How are bus stops determined?

Fraser Public Schools Transportation Department works very hard to provide safe, efficient bus routes to all eligible students in our district. There are many factors that go into the placement of a bus stop. Fraser Public Schools will be implementing a routing program called Transfinder starting in the 2012-2013 school year. This software will optimize route planning. If you would like a stop added please fill out the “bus stop evaluation” form found on the transportation website.

• The bus drives right by my house; why can’t I have a house stop?

Bus stops are established at easily identified locations accessible to students throughout a geographic area.  This assures student safety, bus safety, and service reliability.  Every time a school bus stops to pick up and/or drop off students, rider time on the route is increased for the deceleration, stop sequence, loading, seating, safety checks, and acceleration back into traffic flow.  Stopping at every residence along a road can be unsafe as well as an unacceptably inefficient use of resources, as well as providing safety issues for motorists beginning to “take chances” to get past the bus.

• Why can’t you come further into my subdivision?

School buses come in various sizes ranging from 25 to 36 feet long, 20,000-26,000 pounds, 12-13 feet high and 6-9 feet wide.  The length is what limits the school bus to be driven in some areas.  Although our drivers are trained to be able to maneuver their buses efficiently, some subdivisions are not designed with school bus transportation in mind. Please know that we will design school bus routes to be safe and convenient to the majority of students within the limits of time and physics.

• Are bus stops reviewed periodically by transportation?

Our transportation supervisor travels throughout the district regularly to assess environmental and traffic changes.  Bus drivers report any concerns they may have relating to safe operations at bus stops.

• My Street has no sidewalks. Why can’t the bus pick my child up in front of my house?

Such streets are reviewed by the Department of Transportation and are accepted as low traffic volume pedestrian-safe shared traffic facilities.  Parents are expected to teach their children the safe and legal way to walk along the streets in their developments. If the street is used as a “through” street or arterial, we will review traffic to determine if a bus must be assigned to pick students up along the street due to high traffic volumes causing an unsafe pedestrian situation. Most of those streets have already be identified by past traffic studies.  If you believe that the traffic using your street has increased due to changed in travel patterns, please contact us by email and we will conduct a traffic study to assess school transportation needs.

• My child wants their friend to come home with them on the bus. Is this allowed?

Due to capacity restrictions additional students are not permitted to ride alternate buses. This policy is also in effect to avoid confusion and the chance of students getting lost.  If the request is an emergency situation please contact the transportation department.

▪ Transportation will return the child to school. The parent will be responsible for picking the child up at school. Infractions to this policy can result in terminating transportation services.