Problems with the software that generates school bus routes in Stafford County, Virginia, and a shortage of drivers has some families waiting up to two hours for their kids to be picked up.
Stafford County Public Schools acknowledged the problem last week — the first week of school — and made improvements over the weekend.
But Tameka Franklin, who told News4 her son Daniel’s school bus is routinely an hour late, said it’s gotten worse.
"Today was the worst,” she said. “I waited almost two hours out here this morning before I finally just gave up and just drove him to school."
She said Daniel was super excited for his first day of first grade last week.
“We're waiting at the bus stop, singing songs and taking pictures and holding hands," she said.
But the eagerness on their neighborhood corner turned to concern.
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“Twenty minutes passed. Thirty minutes passed. An hour passed. There's no bus," Franklin said.
She took Daniel to school, and they brushed it off.
“We thought it was just one of the first-day-of-school hiccups," she said.
But the hiccups lingered to the next day and the next at the stop where about 30 kids catch the bus.
“I think an hour, basically, passed, and then they all just started walking back to their homes," Franklin said.
SCPS switched to a new transportation management system this year that generated new bus routes and has an app for parents to track their kid's bus.
Franklin says the app is about as reliable as the bus.
“And it says completed,” she demonstrated. “No, it wasn't completed."
“Having us standing out there for almost two hours for a bus that may or may not come is totally unacceptable," Franklin said.
The school district agrees and apologized to families. In a statement to News4, a spokesperson said, in part, "We acknowledge that this situation has broken the trust the community has placed in us and want to assure the community that we are fully committed to repairing that trust."
SCPS said additional changes to the morning bus routes are coming Monday. They believe those changes will improve efficiency and free up drivers to reach those families who have waited for hours or don't have a bus driver at all.
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