CPS students have struggled to get to school on time with the school-provided buses for years. Families have had to adapt to late buses, faulty trackers, equity issues, and archaic bus routes. Parents are frustrated, they have engaged in online discussions on Groups.io in an attempt to gather support for their cause and change this outdated and unresponsive system. Eugenia Schraa, a member of the school committee, says to the Register Forum, “Mistakes can happen, but parents shouldn’t have to do all the work of advocating for a solution. CPS should be proactively working on getting every student to school on time and communicating with parents if there’s a one-time or an ongoing issue that’s preventing their children from getting to school in time.”
The roots behind the delays in the CPS bus system vary. For one, on the Edulog Parent Portal app that is designed to provide communication about bus-related issues, the buses have routes that don’t get updates and are not the most effective in getting to and from stops, needlessly passing through areas of high traffic. The bus trackers similarly have issues, which Schraa brings up, “You can see that [a] bus has remained in the same place (Somerville) since 2021 – at least according to the app.”
Late buses cause a myriad of problems. Clara Hendricks, a CPS Parent, highlights these effects on the children in a message to the school committee, “Children [are] suffering from anxiety attacks due to worries about the bus.” Additionally, due to students being prohibited from eating on the bus, and missing the school breakfast, some students have to wait for lunch to have their first meal of the day.
CPS parents have voiced their concerns to members of the administration. In response to this surge of complaints, some reforms have been introduced. David Murphy the chief operating officer for CPS told the Register Forum, “In recent weeks we have worked with our primary bus vendor, Eastern Bus Co., to reroute certain buses and to eliminate some bus stops for which families have declined service this year. In addition, we have increased the amount of personnel based in our Transportation Office”. He anticipates seeing improvement in the bus transportation system in the coming weeks.
Still, issues with Cambridge buses have continued thus far and have led to inequities between students. Cambridge is proud of its Controlled Choice Plan, which ensures socio-economic integration by placing students in schools across the district if they qualify for Free/Reduced Lunch. However, with the late buses, this program is backfiring, as students whose school is not within 1.5 miles of their residence are forced to rely on the faulty bus transportation system. These inconsistencies in bus transportation are an even larger challenge for students with neurodivergence.
As families settle into the school year they are hoping their children will receive a well-rounded education as well as the assurance of safe and timely school buses. Hendricks reiterates, “Families should not have to consider switching schools (which some have) because CPS cannot get them to their preferred school safely and on time.”
This article also appears in our October 2023 print edition.
