WINTER GARDEN, Fla. — Some parents in the Vista del Lago community in Winter Garden say school bus delays are causing their children to arrive late to Orange County Public Schools, miss breakfast and lose class time.
Parents said the delays have become a regular issue for elementary and middle school students since the start of the school year. They said buses that are scheduled to arrive around 8:06 a.m. have sometimes arrived 40 minutes to more than an hour late.
“I just got a text message from the bus company that the middle school bus will be running 40 to 50 minutes late this morning, but to please have your child arrive at the stop at regular pickup time,” said Sarah Judd, a parent of OCPS students.
Judd has a third grader and a sixth grader. She said both children have been getting to school late.
“Every day is a mystery in when the bus is showing up,” Judd said. “The first two weeks of school, my daughter’s bus, the middle school bus, picked up an hour and 25 minutes late.”
Parents said the bus was scheduled to pick up students at 8:06 a.m. On Friday morning, Spectrum News 13 was at the stop, and the bus arrived at 8:43 a.m.
“8:43 a.m. It was supposed to be 8:06 a.m.,” said Sterling Freeman, a parent of an OCPS student.
Freeman said his son is in fourth grade at Ovation Elementary School. He said the bus delays are affecting the school day.
“The bus is never on time,” Freeman said. “The bus comes out 40 minutes late, and by the time they get to school, they already missed most of the first class.”
Parents said the delays can also cause students to miss breakfast.
“The school starts at 8:45. There’s no way they’re going to get from here to the school in five minutes. It’s about a 25-minute ride,” Freeman said. “Some of the kids, they’re missing some breakfast in the morning when they get to school. Some are missing the first part of math class.”
Judd said her middle school student has an individualized education program and that arriving late affects needed learning time.
“It is very frustrating,” Judd said. “My middle schooler, she has an IEP, she has some learning disabilities, and she’s showing up late to school every day. So she’s missing critical learning time that helps her.”
Judd said her daughter was initially marked tardy, but the school later told her the children would not be penalized and the tardies would be removed from their records.
Parents also raised concerns about bus tracking. Judd said the tracking system has not been working properly since the beginning of the school year.
“We can’t see them scanning in and out. We can’t see when the bus is coming, we can’t see when the bus is dropping off, and we just don’t know where the bus is at that point in time,” Judd said.
Earlier this week, parents of Ovation Elementary students received a message saying only one bus had arrived and asked parents to take students to school if they had transportation.
Freeman said several parents have tried contacting the school, the district and the bus company.
“We’ve called the school department. We called the bus. We’ve called the school itself, and we’ve called the bus company multiple times,” Freeman said. “We’ve sent emails out.”
Leaders with OCPS said there has been a nationwide shortage of bus drivers for a number of years and the district needs roughly 100 drivers each year to be fully staffed. That number has not changed since the pandemic. This has resulted in bus drivers having to do doublebacks.
Judd said afternoon delays have also been an issue.
“They sit at school for almost an hour after school gets out, and they’re stuck sitting there waiting for the bus to pick them up and get them home,” Judd said.
Parents said they want more communication from the district and answers about how the issue will be addressed.
According to OCPS, bus drivers, mechanics and bus monitors are exempt from the current hiring freeze and staff continue to conduct job fairs to fill open positions.
OCPS is scheduled to host four Transportation Career Fair events in the coming months. One is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 28 at the Pine Hills bus depot.