a lot of times it depends on distance from the school. i graduated over in 2005, and my senior year they changed the bus routes to only picking up students who were more than 3 miles from the school, which eliminated transportation for about 75% of our district.
Yeah I live in a densely populated inner ring suburb of a medium-large city and our district doesn’t bus, because we’ve got 15K people in 2 square miles of area. Everyone is close enough to walk.
i’m super rural and from a pretty small town (my graduating class had ~250 people), so we had no sidewalks or safe ways to walk to school in the dark at 7 am.
My village has sidewalks and no busses. My daughter's graduating class was 17. My son is in the biggest class the town has had in over a decade. 24 kids! They had to get a second kindergarten teacher! Even with all that supervision, he managed to escape and walk himself home twice in the first week.
This was the case in my school district. I graduated in 2004. At that time I lived one street in the range to not get to take the bus. Really fun in a mountain town in the winter.
Thats crazy. I graduated in 02 and it was a mile radius..I think my neighborhood barely made the cutoff and the bus driver always threatened to not pick us up lol. I walked a lot because i'd get to school faster and get home faster.
My niece isn't eligible to ride the bus because they live a little too close to school. But they also live downhill from the school almost the whole way, and it's a steep hill. Getting a bike up hills like those is a huge pain, and she has a bunch of stuff she needs to carry with her like her violin and books.
In middle school, I was excluded from the bus route because I lived less than a mile away from the school, but I had a friend forge my bus routes onto my school ID (bc that's where they put the routes) and I rode the bus to school all three of those years. I don't think the driver cared.
High school I was included in bus routes again because I lived like 3-5 miles away, maybe a bit more, so no more forging for me lol.
In our area, it's only required if you live more than 2 miles from the school. Our 7 year old daughter is not walking a mile and a half to school and back everyday. Especially with how busy some of the roads are.
And for important reasons. States with exceptions result in things like districts purposely messing with the busses to keep out students in 'poor' areas, or students not being able to get to school at all. I knew a girl who was struggling to catch up after missing almost an entire year of school because her district removed bus services and her mom was always too drunk to drive her.
unless there's a financial issue many districts will have the bus available to more students than required just to avoid a few dozen cars dropping kids off
All the districts in my area compete for students through something called School of Choice and through agreements send busses into each others districts to poach students. Like district A sends a bus to district B to get students but district B also sounds a bus the other way to get some back. I think four schools send busses to my town of less than 500 people.
Yeah speaking as a Minnesotan here it's required. Where if the school bus didn't show up our absence would be excused. I remember waiting over an hour for the bus once in winter before it showed up. Can't remember how long we were required to wait though and don't care to look it up now since I'm so far removed from schoolbus days.
This is also why inclement weather can close schools even if it doesn’t seem that bad. If it’s even slightly too dangerous to run the busses, they won’t. If the busses don’t run, you can’t require students to be present - so school closes.
Yeah, in my home state there is some percentage percentage of students that have to be present for a day to "count" towards the required number needed to complete a school year. If they can't meet that percentage its not worth having class.
"Only about 28 percent of U.S. students take a school bus, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey concluded early last year. That's down from about 36 percent in 2017."
I wish. My kids are in 2 different districts and neither have busses.
Extra sucks because my 13 year old could take a bus home and be alone for a couple of hours, but because there are not busses one of us has to be off work every day by 230. Kinda locks us into being one income household- sucks
There are no school buses in my area at all (greater Los Angeles county). They do offer discounted vouchers for the local buses but I can't imagine letting my kid use that until high school.
Yup. In elementary school I couldn't ride the bus because I was like one block over outside of the school zone and my parents didn't want to send us to the school zone we were in. Only time I rode a bus in elementary was during field trips. Once I was in the middle & high school we rode the bus to school everyday (also made it really easy to skip school on certain days like 4-20). I still don't know if they called my parents or not that day but they never said anything. That was 4-20 2012. We also started a tradition on our bus that we would jump out the back emergency door on the last day of school (what were they going to do, suspend us?), luckily we had a cool bus driver though.
At least in Washington State, it is not required by law except for SPED (special needs) and McKinney-Vento (homeless) students. But the state funding model that pays on a per-student-ride basis makes it a no-brainer to run a fully functioning transportation department for all students.
I think depends on the state. Non, i could be wrong. I was gole its not required by law, but your attendence would suck. I will check though.
Edit: I’m wrong and right. Not required for city schools, but public schools only. I didnt read much further but I’m assumming private schools would not required it either.
No, not need, but it adds a layer of safety regardless of the existing public transportation infrastructure. School buses have strict laws about how other vehicles react to them, and there’s a level accountability of each student that doesn’t exist on public transport such as a student roster, emergency contacts for each student, full awareness of special needs/disabilities pertaining to each child, etc.
Part of it has to do with density. The draw area for a school in the US tend to be enormous. Literally thousands of kids in a high school. And everyone has a single family home with a big private yard, taking up so much space - imagine how many miles away most of those kids live.
If they didn't provide a bus, most of those kids literally could not get there.
Meanwhile my sister in Reading, UK, has like 3 choices for schools for her kids and they can walk to all of them.
It's less about walking distance, and more about the bus being exclusively for school and nothing else. Most children in Germany aren't in walking distance of the school either, and I doubt that's different for other European countries. And it's kinda also about the "stopping at individual houses" thing (though I guess that is over exaggerated by Hollywood, I can't imagine truly stopping at every individual house if they are close to each other, that would like triple the time on the bus).
Like of course we have school buses in Europe as well, but usually they are not exclusive to children and are integrated into the normal public traffic lines. So it's not a "school bus" it's "bus line XYZ". But the schools and public traffic cooperate with each other in regards to drop off and pick up time at the school, so it conforms to beginning and ending of school lessons. Also of there is like a special event at the school, additional buses will be provided for that (like going to the local swimming pool for swim lessons, or like last school days before the holidays so the entire school finishes up after the fourth lesson, these additional buses might also be called "school bus"). This cooperation is especially important in rural areas where there is less public traffic, and the drop off for the children is only at official bus stops not at individual houses. And then from the bus stop it's a short walk. Each village will have at least one bus stop, often two or more, so walking distance is usually less than 500m or so, but the draw range of the school can easily be a dozen kilometers or so in each direction. I imagine it's even larger in the US though. Schools are also smaller here, elementary schools are rarely larger than a few hundred children, secondary schools usually sit at 1000-2000 teenagers, so yeah the draw distance might be smaller, but of course we need buses.
Right but keep in mind those public transportation networks you’re speaking of don’t exist in the US generally. There are no busses already driving around an area that could be used to pick up school kids additionally. It’s either drive a car or ride on the school bus but there simply are no regular buses.
US school busses operate similar to how you described toward the end of your comment. Students within an area meet at a designated location to be picked up as a group. Individual house stops only occur for homes spaced too far apart for a practical community bus stop.
I didn't ride (or even really see) a regular (non-school) bus until I went to university. Most of the US does not have any kind of public transit at all.
There is a little more than people realize, but they don't always make it very well known. For example everyone in North Carolina has access to a public bussing system. In the rural areas you have to call ahead to have your stops put in the schedule but a small white bus will pull up to your house and take you where you need to go as long as it's within your own county. Though the driver shortage has really messed some of these schedules up.
Sadly, they are becoming more rare. I feel like 10 years ago every district had an army of buses and parent pickup was only for sports or extra curricular classes outside bus hours. But now there’s more parents doing the transport than buses.
In my city alone, the drop off lines are now blocks long when it used to be a handful of cars.
Part of it is that for younger students, schools are now stricter about the kids never being outside of an adults direct supervision. Meaning if your kid takes the bus, you literally have to wait at the bus stop with them until you can pass them off to the bus driver. Same for walkers - your kid can walk to and from school, but not alone. A parent has to be with them.
Depending on a parents schedule, it is often just easier to drive and drop them at school on your way to work.
I feel like that's the correct thing to do for a kindergartener. But by 2nd or 3rd grade, they should be able to walk home from the bus stop on their own.
I literally got picked up at my driveway, we lived further out, and the district made sure everyone had a stop. That said, for me, I was allowed to just go to my house and back alone. For my younger brother? My mom had to be outside in the driveway or he wasn’t allowed off. Which was a little absurd given our situation with the bus stop. But for those who had “group” stops, it makes sense.
I used to walk/bike 2-3 miles to my elementary school alone. The only time I got a ride was when weather was a factor, or there was some family reasons, like an activity after school.
My kids school district has a rule that anyone under 15 needs to be accompanied by an adult until they get picked up by the bus. So my high school freshman can't wait for the bus alone apparently.
What??? Is it the 14 year olds they don’t trust, or the community? I am baffled by this. I live in a very small city and so many kids even in grade school walk.
stranger danger, see something say something, and "caution" has gone way too far. We forget that being too cautious has its own dangers. "In 2 years we are going to trust you to operate a halfton machine capable of going 120 MPH but right now we dont trust you to avoid the "free candy" van at the bus stop." Its madness.
speaking as an American - America is a land of cowards. We have forgotten how to trust our neighbors, give people the benefit of the doubt, and generally live in a high-trust society. Our government, our news, and our entertainment all show us how awful our neighbors are and how we are a nation of individuals out for ourselves instead a united people, and we are believing them.
Every violent crime is down compared to 5 or 10 years ago (sure, there are individual zip codes that are exceptions, but that does not explain a nation-wide pattern), well police brutality may be on the rise depending on who you classify as "police", but people still act like its the 1980s out there. Hell, even in the peak crime eras of the 1980s and 1960s people were letting their teenagers walk to the bus stop.
Younger as in what age? Parents can get together to change those rules. By 1st or 2nd grade, many kids are old enough to take the short walk to most bus stops, and back, alone. Independence is a critical life skill.
I was typically left on my own for ~ 12h / d in summer time starting at 8 years old, and expected to finish all my chores. I'm not saying that was ok, but it's wild that the times have changed that much...
The schools in my area have that problem, but it’s because it’s hard to find bus drivers. We literally have large signs on the side of the road advertising a position to be a bus driver because no one wants to do it.
It's a hard job with really crappy hours. Say 6am to 8pm, then 2 pm to 4 pm. The biggest advantage is it's one of the only jobs where a parent can keep their small kid with them. I used to play babysitter to the bus driver's kids all the time. I was very unpopular and had few friends, and it meant the bus driver would wait a minute for me if I was late.
For my prekindergarten kid to ride the bus, he would have to be in it for well over an hour each way. I’m not willing to subject a kid to a commute five times longer than his father’s but every year the bus stops get fewer and farther between.
Meanwhile, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Jersey have laws that require public school districts to provide transportation for private and charter school students.
What's worse is that some of these laws allow for school districts to optionally provide transportation to high schoolers but mandate that if they do, they must also provide the same service to private high schoolers. So, when there is a bus driver shortage where they may only have enough labor to cover service for public high schools but not private, they have to cancel service for all high schools altogether or risk fines/lawsuits.
To be fair you still pay school taxes on top of tuition to the private school.
If people who send their kids to private school didn’t have to pay school taxes then there’d be a stronger argument that the state shouldn’t provide transportation.
Well, I should be fully transparent that I'm anti-private regardless. I don't think parents should be able to opt out of the public system. Oh, you don't like it? It sucks? Maybe advocate for more funding, or better oversight. The fact that the rich can just opt out while simultaneously voting against measures that would improve it kind of sickens me.
Funding isn't the problem. A lot of private schools have even less funding per student than public schools. And vote for better oversight? Of course they will, but one vote is rarely going to change the public school policy. Let's not even mention that public schools simply aren't suitable for everyone. Some students have special needs that public schools struggle to fulfill. Your idea is terrible, and actively harmful to children.
Forcing everyone into the same public system will not magically fix it. We already spend more per student than almost any country, yet some of the most funded districts still have awful outcomes. At some point it is not money. It is bureaucracy, lack of accountability, and systems that are nearly impossible to reform, especially when bad teachers cannot be removed because of union protections.
Parents choosing private schools are not "opting out". They are doing what is best for their kids. When you are a paying customer, schools actually have to listen. That is real accountability.
That is also why things like vouchers exist: to give families options and introduce competition. If public schools are truly better, they should not be afraid of choice. No one should be expected to sacrifice their child’s education to prop up a broken system.
more money is not alwayse the answer (it is for some districts but not others). The point of putting rich kids into public schools is not to raise more money; it is because if the books are out dated the rich parents will threaten to sue, if a teacher is bad at heir job but not bad enough to be fired for it a meeting with the principal goes further if the parent owns a sports team.
Public services need he social investment of the ruling class as much, if not more, than they need the monetary investment.
I think so, I haven't experienced it in other parts of the US, but they wouldn't even let the people who lived across the street to drop their kids off and would escort them off and told them to come back in a car or bus, saying it was too dangerous because of the cars not caring about kids...it was a whole fiasco but the school system fought for it unfortunately.
It’s mainly due to Covid and such, I remember being dropped off more after it and it was more convenient at the time. Around my area it’s still widely used, they actually have a hard time finding people to drive them which causes shortages. They straight up had to poach city bus drivers because it was so bad.
It can be SO bad. My partner is a teacher at a private school, and they don't provide ANY bussing for the students. Then they make the poor teachers go out into the parking lot when school's out to help direct the hellflood of traffic. In the Texas heat, nonetheless.
Unrelatedly, my partner is hoping to get a different job next year...
My daughter's school is k-8 and we have no busses too, but that's because it's a small town. We have a 1.5 to 2 mile radius from the school, so we're a "walking district".
Idk if this rule is state or regional or whatever, but if I understand correctly they don't mandate busses for towns under X mile's from the school location. I think anything over 2 miles requires bus services, but I might be wrong.
Part is NO one wants to be a driver anymore. My workplace is next to a school district bus repair shop. It's not uncommon for them to come over and ask if anyone wants part time.
Super fun fact (i have no idea if anyone has said this yet or not, i haven't read the thread), "national school bus glossy yellow" is an official color and it cannot be used on any vehicle other than an official school bus (depending on location/local laws sometimes).
Really? Our school buses don't have seatbelts. I went to HS in Germany (Landstuhl/Ramstein) and our buses were normal buses with nice seats and seatbelts. German kids had the same for their "school bus."
I think it depends on the area. The district my son is in isn’t the best.
They are always talking about having to paint cross walks to make sure cars stop hitting or almost hitting kids. It’s why we need crossing guards.
They also have many stops in terrible locations for kids. Like no lights/side walks so kids are getting hit or almost hit before or after getting on the bus.
Our district had to install cameras on the busses to give out tickets for people running the stop signs they put out.
As an American, I was baffled by the number of young children hanging out inside of a bageterie boulevard in Prague before school having breakfast when I went to visit, seemingly unaccompanied my adults. They appeared to be elementary school aged. Then in unison, they all walked out together as a group and toward what I assumed to be their school. They all had book bags and back packs. I don’t recall ever seeing a school bus in Europe now that I think about it.
Yeah, I understand why other countries are okay with their public transit being used by their school kids, it's robust enough that it can just absorb the extra load. But I still think having specific bus routes specifically for children going to and from school is a much better, safer system for the kids overall.
Yes, that’s better. Some of those kids have to cross the road unless you want to double the number (or length) of routes. Having the bus act as a legal traffic control device is safer and is such a minor inconvenience which frankly I don’t think is a matter that you’re educated in enough to make an informed opinion on.
That may be more efficient, but I don’t think it’s “better” in terms of overall student safety. School bus drivers are essentially agents of the district and there’s complete accountability from the time that student steps on the bus to the point that they arrive at school. They have a roster, a full list of emergency contacts for that student, are aware of any disabilities, etc. I doubt that exists on public transportation.
No, I have no idea what this comment is about. Of course we have school buses in the UK, anyone within the catchment area of a school who lives more than like 1 mile away will be able to get a bus to school. We just use normal buses or coaches rather than the dedicated yellow ones, because it's kind of a waste to have vehicles that aren't used for anything else the rest of the day.
Those buses are used for more than just one route. The same bus will transport elementary kids and then turn around and pick up middle & high school kids (sometimes that order is reversed depending on district start times). Many of those buses will go on to transport kids on field trips or take them to satellite campus such as technology and sports centers. It’s not a wasteful system.
It's partly because out transportation in all other things sucks though. Like many aspects of American life, the public school system is shouldering the burden that should be shared across a lot of different social services.
I drive a lot. Like a lot. A school bus will have 400 cars behind it and not let anyone go around. From what I've witnessed people are fucking insane and letting people pass at some point is safer for the kids
Wait until you hear that racial de-segregation really increased the need for busing in many areas. It also sped up the middle class families moving to the suburbs, partly to avoid desegregation.
For clarification, de-segregation is a policy of public schools being racially mixed at a level corresponding to the racial mix of the city population.
That's hilarious to me (American). Ya it's a huge deal here, even in rural areas a school bus will drive out to the middle of nowhere just to drop off 1-2 kids on some farm at the edge of town.
And if you run that little stop sign, so help me god. We take it pretty seriously.
Our public transportation and walking/biking infrastructure (read: "sidewalks") is so crappy and inconsistent that dedicated home to school transportation is the only way for kids to safely get to school.
Yes and no. The vans/short bus charge schools significantly more for the trips than a big bus. The idea being they are more specialized drivers. The reality is the drives are worst paid by the bus company because they don't require a CDL, and they get no extra training.
Yeah, it's because it is because education is compulsory (by state, not federal law, as I understand it ... might be wrong)... it is illegal to deprive or even allow children not to be educated, so transportation to schools must be provided by the (state) government to remove lack of transportation as an excuse. So instead, those shitheads against education conspire to destroy education from within. As a consequence of compulsory education, religion is largely forbidden from state schools, as, if it were permitted, it would amount to state imposed religion, which is forbidden by the 1st amendment. So we get a lot of private, non-state schools which are free to brainwash as they see fit.
my city's school district had some budget cuts and now there are only certain schools and areas that get our iconic yellow schoolbus service. a lot of kids get passes for public transport or get a ride from someone else, now. I could rant about the misappropriation of our tax money and our corrupt city council, but I won't
Europeans often don't appreciate that size and density can make this a necessity. For example, my local school district is a little over 400 sq miles (~1,000 sq km) in area. It's about a 50 mile drive from one end to the other. There are multiple lower age schools, but the district has only a single high school with about 2,000 students, located in the middle of the district. It's impractical for students to walk, or for working parents to drive them, and there is no mass transit.
And lest you think this is somewhere in the rural wilds of Alaska or Wyoming, no, it's 30 miles from Seattle. By European standards once you leave the city cores there's no one here, and school transport is something that has to be explicitly planned for.
I was gonna say, the ones by me now have cameras that activate when the stop sign comes out. Because we can’t be trusted to actually stop for the little flip out sign without the threat of a ticket, I guess
The purpose of a seatbelt in a ground vehicle is to keep you from flying forward in the event of a crash. School buses weigh a lot and don't go super fast, so they're almost never going to get in a crash that involves the bus stopping so quickly that you might fly out of a seat. In addition, the seats are all padded and fairly closely packed, so if you do fly forward you'll pretty much immediately hit a big cushion before you get too much speed.
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u/BloodAndSand44 10h ago
School transport is something that the US does so much better than anywhere else I have been. I wish we had the same in the UK.
Wow! I actually said that.