CHICAGO — More than three months into the school year — as freezing temperatures and snow descend on the City — 5,500 Chicago Public Schools students are still being denied bus transportation and are having to take the CTA or find another ride to school.
“We are not writing-off this year,” CPS director of student transportation Kimberly Jones said on the WGN Evening News.
However, Jones would not say when — or if — more students will get access to school bus transportation before the end of the school year.
“We’re leaving no stone un-turned,” was her answer.
General education students who attend selective enrollment and magnet schools and were previously given bus transportation are now offered free CTA passes instead. Even those who do receive bus service are enduring increasingly long commutes. The district acknowledges 116 students with disabilities are commuting more than an hour to get to and from school, compared to 47 students in August.
CPS admits it has only been able to hire 55% of the school bus drivers it needs. Chalkbeat Chicago, a nonprofit news site that covers education, reports the district is only providing bus service for 8,100 students, mostly children with disabilities.
CPS is dealing with a 20% increase in students with disabilities as well as a nationwide shortage of bus drivers. Increased pay hasn’t been enough to lure new drivers.
“We continue to work with our contractors to mitigate this shortage,” Jones told WGN.
CPS is considering consolidating pick-up sites for magnet and selective enrollment schools and even changing school start and finish times.
Jones said an influx of asylum seekers in Chicago is not contributing to the transportation trouble because the district is not currently providing migrants with bus service. However, WGN Investigates previously reported the City’s $29 million contract with a private firm to build a winterized tent city now being erected in Brighton Park, does include private transportation to school.