Start and dismissal times will be adjusted so they are 45 minutes apart, which will provide buses with an additional cushion to reach their stops on time. Schools marked with an * will change tiers compared to the 2023-2024 school year, so please read the following schedule carefully: 

Tier 1: 7:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. — 8 Elementary Schools
Fairview*, Fallon Park, Highland Park*, Hurt Park*, Garden City*, Preston Park, RAMS, Westside 

Tier 2: 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. — 9 Elementary Schools
Crystal Spring, Fishburn Park, Grandin Court, Lincoln Terrace*, Monterey*, Morningside, Round Hill*, Wasena, and Virginia Heights 

Tier 3: 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. — High Schools and Forest Park Academy
Forest Park, Patrick Henry, and William Fleming

Tier 4: 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. — Middle Schools and Noel C. Taylor
Noel C. Taylor*, James Breckinridge, James Madison, John P. Fishwick, Lucy Addison, and Woodrow Wilson 

To accommodate transportation for programs that are available for students who reside in attendance zones across the city, RCPS will establish “alternative service routes.” These routes will create centralized hub bus stops in a student’s neighborhood for greater transportation efficiency.

Hub bus stops will not require students to travel more than one mile to reach the stop. Per the Code of Virginia and the RCPS Parent Handbook, students eligible for transportation may be required to walk up to one mile to reach their regular bus stop. It is important to note that hub bus stops do not follow the same family responsibility zones as students riding general education routes.

Programs utilizing “alternative service routes” include Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy, the STEAM Program at Fishburn Park Elementary School, and the Pupils Learning Appropriately TOgether (PLATO) Program. 

Bus routes will be posted to the Transportation Department's webpage in August once they are finalized.

RCPS will not provide afterschool transportation to students who attend a daycare/afterschool program that is located out of their school's attendance zone. Transportation will still be provided for students who attend a location that is within their school zone.

RCPS will continue to provide transportation, no matter a student’s home school, to non-profit community organizations that are partners with RCPS. These include:

• Boys & Girls Club
• Presbyterian Community Center
• West End Center.

RCPS will enter into official memorandums of understanding (MOUs) where appropriate or applicable and reserves the right to evaluate transportation services in the future.

RCPS will enforce its existing walking/family responsibility zones. These zones have existed but not been enforced. The Parent Handbook states: “Students eligible for transportation may be required to walk up to one mile to reach their regular bus stop. Except for kindergarten/preschool students, a student living within a school’s established walking boundary will walk to school.” For general education routes, RCPS works to provide shorter family responsibility zones whenever possible, as detailed below:

• Elementary: .25 miles
• Secondary: .6 miles
• Students with disabilities: Based on IEP

It is important to note that hub bus stops for STEAM, PLATO, and Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy do not follow the same family responsibility zones as students riding general education routes and the family responsibility zone may be up to one mile.

Having a successful transportation system comes down to three things:

• Having the drivers and buses necessary to transport students,
• time,
• and distance.

Zum is RCPS’ new transportation partner, and they will begin providing transportation to students in August. They have a robust technology platform that will help RCPS continue to improve routes and make them more efficient. At the same time, no matter who provides transportation, it is important that additional changes be made to ensure students can get to and from school safely and on time.

RCPS’ bus routes are complex due to the:

• geography of our city,
• nature in which our city has changed over time,
• many unique programs offered by RCPS,
• and the needs of our students and families.

Currently, more than 1,000 students are late to school and returning home daily. For this not to continue, any provider, whether it is RCPS or ZUM, needs additional time to navigate the complexity of our city and to get our students to and from school on time.

Yes, RCPS worked with Zum, and they believe the combination of the schedule change and the other efficiencies recommended, sets them up for the best opportunity for success. During interviews with prospective vendors during the Request for Proposals (RFP) process, all four companies interviewed asked whether RCPS would be open to adjusting times because the current bell times do not leave enough room for bus drivers to travel to their next route.

Howard County, Maryland is one example of how increasing the amount of time between tiers helped to alleviate their longstanding transportation concerns. Howard County began its partnership with Zum in 2023. At the start of the school year, delays initially continued due to having only 30 minutes between routes. After Howard County modified its bell schedule, Zum has achieved nearly 100% on-time pickups on its 250 routes, serving around 20,000 students daily.

As Mr. Perkins outlines in the video, some attendance zones are very difficult logistically to navigate for student pick-up. This must be considered when deciding which tier they will be on. Longer routes need to be in the first tier, as it provides additional time to pick up all students. This includes PLATO routes for Highland and Fairview. We must also consider balancing the number of students who utilize transportation, so there must be a mix of large schools and small schools on each route. 

Finally, for efficiency, Tier 2 schools need to position buses in the best locations to provide service for students riding the bus to and from either William Fleming or Patrick Henry. Therefore, we need to be able to have as many buses as we can closer to our high schools to begin transportation for tier three.

Generally, by geographically aligning routes in Tier 1 and Tier 2, bus drivers can more easily reach their next location and end up closer to their routes for Tiers 3 and 4.

No, the first students getting on the bus will get on the bus later than in previous years. During the 2023-2024 school year, the earliest pick-up time was 6:10 a.m. During the 2022-2023 school year, elementary students were picked up as early as 5:45 a.m. The upcoming change will allow elementary students to be picked up at 6:20 a.m., 10 minutes later than this year and 35 minutes later than the 2022-2023 school year. It is important to note that given the time the sun rises, students have always gotten on the bus before sunrise at certain times of the year.

Based on feedback and with the School Board's approval, “alternative service routes” will be created for students who attend the following programs outside of their school zone: Fishburn Park Elementary School STEAM program, the Pupils Learning Appropriately TOgether (PLATO) program, and Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy.

These routes will create centralized hub bus stops in a student’s neighborhood for greater transportation efficiency. Bus stops will be aligned with the current family responsibility zones, or walking zones, and will not require students to travel more than one mile to reach the bus stop. Per the Code of Virginia and the RCPS Parent Handbook, students eligible for transportation may be required to walk up to one mile to reach their regular bus stop.

The current enrollment for each program is:

• Fishburn Park STEAM: 59 students
• PLATO at Fairview: 42 students
• PLATO at Highland Park: 110 students

Not all students currently ride the bus. As transportation improves, we expect more students will utilize transportation.

Based on current enrollment, 41 students would be affected.

RCPS would continue to provide out-of-zone transportation to students who participate in programming at the following non-profit partners:

• Boys and Girls Club,
• Presbyterian Community Center,
• and the West End Center.

Based on current enrollment, 97 students will continue to be served through these partnerships. RCPS would also continue to provide transportation to students who attend a commercial afterschool/daycare business within the student’s school zone if not provided by the daycare.

The survey was designed to help understand the views of the public when creating the proposed recommendations. At the time of the survey, specific recommendations had not been formulated.

For example, it was very clear from the survey that potentially having middle and high school students ride the bus together was very unpopular. As a result, this recommendation was not included in the initial recommendations.

RCPS will have 115 bus routes. It is advisable post-pandemic to allow for at least 20 substitute bus drivers, given the absenteeism rate seen in the transportation industry.

Family Responsibility Zones are the areas where parents are required to determine transportation for their child(ren). It may mean the child walks to school or is driven by a family member or friend.

The Transportation Department met with the Athletics and Fine Arts Departments to ensure the changes will allow extracurriculars to continue. After-school extracurricular shuttles would travel from middle schools to high schools daily. Zum will also work with schools to support the needs of middle school students who participate in sports and fine arts.

RCPS has worked to ensure that the new schedule will not impact Parks and Recreation programming. As a valuable partner to RCPS, it is our goal that students can participate in Parks and Rec club activities. Based on the current time agreement and procedures in place between RCPS and Parks and Recreation, programming will continue with slight modifications. For example, the baseball field at Westside Elementary will allow for games to begin earlier than at other fields in the division.