Leon County Schools now requiring parents to register their kids to ride the school bus
Students who plan to ride the bus to school in Leon County are now required to register with the district in advance.
The school district calls it “Ready to Ride,” and leaders are asking parents to sign up as soon as possible. Parents can register in FOCUS before August 1.
District spokesperson Chris Petley said this will help streamline bus routes and avoid delays when school starts this fall.
“By knowing where people are going to be and knowing what stops they’re going to be at ahead of time before school starts, we’re going to know which stops we need to make, as opposed to what we’ve done in the past which is stop at every single bus stop listed wondering if students are going to be at that stop,” Petley said. “So we’re really excited about this. We think it’s really going to save some time.”
Another change will be that bus routes and stops will no longer be published. Instead, parents will receive a message in FOCUS that lets them know where their child’s bus stop will be.
Ready to Ride will also allow the district to communicate with parents throughout the school year.
“In case a bus may be running late or if there’s changes to the route, we’re going to be able to communicate directly with parents to let them know what’s going on with their buses,” Petley said.
There are are 42 schools and 93 different bus routes, but currently there are only 83 drivers. So the district will need to hire more.
Approximately 8,500 students ride the school bus each day. That’s about 30% percent of the district’s 29,000 students.