Bus Transportation Service Review

 Background |Community Feedback | Community Engagement Opportunities | Resources

Overview

APS buses make more than 400 trips each morning and afternoon transporting thousands of students from approximately 2,500 stops to and from school each day.  Our buses also provide transportation for field trips and other school-based activities.  As the school system has grown and changed, APS transportation challenges have also increased.

In Spring 2019, APS began a comprehensive review of our bus transportation service, policies and procedures to help create a long-term vision for our bus transportation system and find new solutions to safely deliver our students to school on time and ready to learn. The Bus Transportation Services Review is being led by the Office of Multimodal Transportation Planning and has included several large-scale, community engagement activities to gather input and ideas from APS stakeholders.  APS staff also met with individual school communities to gather input, and will continue meetings throughout the Fall.

School Board action on the policy update is planned for Spring 2020, and some changes to bus transportation service will be implemented in the 2019-20 school year.  

Background

Since APS last reviewed its Transportation Policy E-5 and Policy Implementation Procedure (PIP) E-5 PIP-1 on yellow bus transportation in 2005, both APS and the County have grown and changed dramatically, ultimately impacting APS’ transportation services. Specifically, there are ongoing challenges related to:

  • Enrollment growth
  • Budgets
  • Staffing
  • Traffic congestion

Throughout Spring 2019, APS engaged the community on ways to creatively, effectively and efficiently address the challenges, identify opportunities, and develop a policy and PIPs to support a more efficient and successful transportation service.  

Feedback from the Spring 2019 Bus Transportation Review Questionnaire

The community was invited to engage with staff and share their thoughts and ideas on bus transportation matters at public community workshops, PTA presentations and school-based meetings, pop-ups at school activities, and an online questionnaire.

APS received a little more than 2,000 responses to the questionnaire from families with children at all school levels.  Summary of questionnaire feedback. 

Community Engagement Opportunities

Date and Time Activity Location 
Mon., March 25, (7-9 p.m.) Community Workshop Wakefield HS cafeteria (1325 S Dinwiddie St.)
Wed., March 27, (7-9 p.m.) Community Workshop Yorktown HS cafeteria (5200 Yorktown Blvd)
Wed., April 3, (7-9 p.m.) Community Workshop Washington-Lee HS cafeteria (1301 N Stafford St.)
Sat., April 6, (10 a.m. -Noon) Community Workshop  Patrick Henry ES Gym (701 S Highland St.)
March 22 – April 12 Community Questionnaire Online 

Resources