Stafford County Schools is still working to resolve a transportation crisis.
On Monday, the first school day for kindergarten, 6th, and 9th-grade students, parents learned that some 3,000 children would not have bus transportation to school. All Stafford County students were scheduled to return to classes the following day, and the problems continued, with about 1,000 students still without a bus to carry them to school.
On the night before school started, Sunday, August 11, the parents learned their child would not have a bus ride to school during the first week of classes because they were not assigned to a bus route. The issues are countywide and affect both general and special needs students. School spokesman Sandra Osborn said that by Tuesday, 2,000 students had been assigned to a bus route, and the transportation team continued working toward a resolution.
Potomac Local News posted an apology letter from the school division via email Sunday night. The next day, Acting Superintendent Chris R. Fulmer sent another email blaming technology for the fiasco. “We have identified problems within our routing software that are causing severe inefficiencies, delaying the routing process significantly. Please understand that this process is also hindered by the volume of incoming change requests,” wrote Fulmer.
The school division’s transportation team is working with the software vendor My Ride K-12, which provides parents with their transportation information and real-time updates. The team has pulled in extra staff to help sort out the remaining issues. Fulmer didn’t elaborate on how the software failed parents.
The school division did not answer whether transportation is fully staffed or if more bus drivers are needed. Additionally, despite multiple requests, elected school board officials responsible for directing the school staff have not agreed to an interview.
In the meantime, parents who still do not have bus transportation for their children have been asked to drive their children to school. Acknowledging that while some delays are normal in the first week of school, “not having your child routed at all is unacceptable. For this, we take full responsibility,” Fulmer continued in his email Monday night.
The troubles for students and parents follow what the school division said would be an improved bus system at the start of the school year. In July, we told you buses would no longer be identified by fleet numbers but would use route numbers instead.
The school division said the change is designed to streamline locating and tracking buses, especially when substitute buses are deployed. Osborn explained the decision, stating, “Identifying buses by route number simplifies the sub-bus process as any bus may be identified quickly with the route number. We no longer need to issue updates to which bus number a family needs to look for – they will simply look for the route number on any of our buses.”
Parents across Stafford County have shared their experiences online in multiple Facebook groups. They have noted the delays and bus-tracking issues are typical of the first week of school, but the lack of assignments and late notice has caused confusion for the families and stress for those unable to miss work or drive their children themselves.
Parents still experiencing significant delays or other issues can file an online report with the transportation department.
Two years ago, when schools reopened fully after the government-forced closures during the pandemic, the school division—like many across the country—suffered a shortage of drivers and was unable to provide on-time services. This forced many children to walk further distances to and from bus stops and to rely on their parents for a ride to and from school.
According to the Stafford schools website, county school buses transport 19,000 children each weekday, over 277 square miles, with routes covering 33 schools and centers. The school division also provides transportation between Washington, D.C., and Richmond for out-of-division students with special needs. A fleet of 306 buses, multi-function school activity buses, and administrative vehicles travel 27,500 miles daily, 4.8 million miles annually.
