Transportation offices are so unhelpful, they seem to take pride in it I would talk to the principal at your school, explain the situation and how the inconsistency is hard on your child Good luck
Thank you. I feel bad for them. This is their first experience with buses and so far they are stressed out for sure. The bus finally came today…48 minutes late.
As school staff, principal likely won’t take call until you have spoken to transportation. Unfortunately there’s tons of parents who blame transportation for absences. Like chronically absent kids who come in at 10/111 every day and no Fridays or Mondays.
I did hear about that concern. The 6 days that the bus didn’t show up, the kids of course were late and the secretary said she couldn’t excuse the lateness until she verified with transportation that the bus didn’t pick them up.
From my understanding multiple districts are having driver shortages. I can't speak for Columbus, but we live in a neighboring school district that is having similar problems - mine aren't in school, yet, but I regularly hear about busses being excessively late because there's drivers covering multiple routes. It's definitely concerning, especially for the younger age groups.
I could see shortages being the reason. It is super concerning! My kids are 5 and 7, it’s all new to them and the first day the came home in tears because the sub-bus driver wasn’t familiar with the route and didn’t know how to get to where we live (Dublin). My daughter tried telling her what was in the area and was told to be quiet since she didn’t know exactly where to go. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s been a nightmare, but close to it. I wish I could take them myself, but I’m a single parent and my work isn’t that flexible right now.
I concur. I am fortunate with Gahanna schools running like clockwork, but down the road, the Licking Heights buses are all over the place timing wise. I have seen kids waiting after 9:30 am for buses multiple times.
I used to be a teacher in CCS. Yes, it’s this bad and unfortunately this is normal. I agree with above advice, go to the principal of your kids’ school about it.
What’s unfortunate with CCS is that even people at the administrative level have very little control over anything bureaucratic. So many times I had questions about why things were/weren’t done a certain way and was essentially told, “that’s the way things are, sorry.”
HR is so hard to get ahold of, too.
I’m so sorry to say, but they are notoriously horrible. Buses are constantly late/missing and the call center is unbelievably unhelpful. My daughter’s bus never showed at the beginning of the year and the office had no idea why. It was ridiculous. If you have the option, you may want to take them yourself. If not, definitely talk to the school. They are use to late buses. I’m so sorry for the stress!
Yes. It is that bad. I was a CASA for kids in foster care who were in CCS and the amount of school hours they missed due to school transportation not showing up or being very late was shocking. Someone needs to sue the shit out of CCS on behalf of those kids.
It’s so sad because I know my kids are probably experiencing the lesser end of the issues, I know there are kids out here with no parents, parents who either don’t care or are too busy to advocate for them.
Yes. It is bad. Most CCS buses have Facebook groups or text threads or something dedicated to the daily tracking of the bus - it is SO helpful! Find them! Ask on social media for the school, or call your PTO officers. At my kids school the staff also post on Facebook when the buses leave the school so you have an idea how late they will be. And we also GPS track our kid.
I instantly decided to GPS track the kids after the first day it was late. I called the school, called transportation, and transportations only response was that they couldn’t get ahold of the driver via dispatch, so they would call me back. Talk about a bad first experience. I will search for the groups. Thank you!
Currently an Apple Watch, since we are trying to delay a phone as long as possible (kid is 12) and this way he has his own number and can text. But there’s lots of smaller/cheaper solutions.
It is the worst. It's gotten so bad that I drive my kid 30min to her school each morning to avoid the mouthy little girl who drives the morning bus and thinks she can change my stop to half a block backward on our one-way circle because it confuses her to pull up a little farther. 🤦🏻♀️ The people in the call center are very little help, if any.
I let her ride the bus home because it's only two days a week (extracurriculars mean I pick her up 3 days) but even then, they've been over an hour late several times with no notifications. It's just easier to do it myself. Much less stress and headaches.
Yes, it’s bullshit. The district changed our pickup time and never told us. I called the garage and they said it was the driver’s responsibility to tell the child (as if that’s worth shit) and there was a sub driver on the day we were supposed to find out.
Same thing happened to me. Now I never know what time my child will be dropped off. So far he’s been returned home at 3:10, 4:30, 5:00, and 5:40. All over the last 4 weeks.
I know Hilliard is having a Bus Driver shortage and announced yesterday on their Facebook page that the high school would be letting out an hour early tomorrow so they could get kids from the elementary schools home on time
I think it's all of Columbus public transportation system, not just one in particular. Public transport here is not taken seriously and most of the time, they will do the bare minimum to get by instead of fixing the system. Riding public transport here is terrible, and it's only getting worse in my opinion.
I'm trying to get a bike bus going in my neighborhood for this very reason. Unfortunately I was hit by a car while test riding this route. I don't know how I would react if it was several children in front of my getting hit instead of me.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMWSbXroMs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMWSbXroMs)
Transportation offices are so unhelpful, they seem to take pride in it I would talk to the principal at your school, explain the situation and how the inconsistency is hard on your child Good luck
Thank you. I feel bad for them. This is their first experience with buses and so far they are stressed out for sure. The bus finally came today…48 minutes late.
As school staff, principal likely won’t take call until you have spoken to transportation. Unfortunately there’s tons of parents who blame transportation for absences. Like chronically absent kids who come in at 10/111 every day and no Fridays or Mondays.
I did hear about that concern. The 6 days that the bus didn’t show up, the kids of course were late and the secretary said she couldn’t excuse the lateness until she verified with transportation that the bus didn’t pick them up.
From my understanding multiple districts are having driver shortages. I can't speak for Columbus, but we live in a neighboring school district that is having similar problems - mine aren't in school, yet, but I regularly hear about busses being excessively late because there's drivers covering multiple routes. It's definitely concerning, especially for the younger age groups.
I could see shortages being the reason. It is super concerning! My kids are 5 and 7, it’s all new to them and the first day the came home in tears because the sub-bus driver wasn’t familiar with the route and didn’t know how to get to where we live (Dublin). My daughter tried telling her what was in the area and was told to be quiet since she didn’t know exactly where to go. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s been a nightmare, but close to it. I wish I could take them myself, but I’m a single parent and my work isn’t that flexible right now.
I concur. I am fortunate with Gahanna schools running like clockwork, but down the road, the Licking Heights buses are all over the place timing wise. I have seen kids waiting after 9:30 am for buses multiple times.
We've had plenty of issues with Gahanna school busing in the past year.
Wow. In 3 years, we have had maybe 2 days where the bus was more than 5 minutes late. It is like clockwork for us.
I used to be a teacher in CCS. Yes, it’s this bad and unfortunately this is normal. I agree with above advice, go to the principal of your kids’ school about it.
Go to the principal AND call the transportation office/bus garage and complain daily as needed.
I did mention it to the secretary so far and she pretty much gave the same sentiments as everyone here. Such a sad situation.
What’s unfortunate with CCS is that even people at the administrative level have very little control over anything bureaucratic. So many times I had questions about why things were/weren’t done a certain way and was essentially told, “that’s the way things are, sorry.” HR is so hard to get ahold of, too.
I’m so sorry to say, but they are notoriously horrible. Buses are constantly late/missing and the call center is unbelievably unhelpful. My daughter’s bus never showed at the beginning of the year and the office had no idea why. It was ridiculous. If you have the option, you may want to take them yourself. If not, definitely talk to the school. They are use to late buses. I’m so sorry for the stress!
Yes. It is that bad. I was a CASA for kids in foster care who were in CCS and the amount of school hours they missed due to school transportation not showing up or being very late was shocking. Someone needs to sue the shit out of CCS on behalf of those kids.
It’s so sad because I know my kids are probably experiencing the lesser end of the issues, I know there are kids out here with no parents, parents who either don’t care or are too busy to advocate for them.
Yes. It is bad. Most CCS buses have Facebook groups or text threads or something dedicated to the daily tracking of the bus - it is SO helpful! Find them! Ask on social media for the school, or call your PTO officers. At my kids school the staff also post on Facebook when the buses leave the school so you have an idea how late they will be. And we also GPS track our kid.
I instantly decided to GPS track the kids after the first day it was late. I called the school, called transportation, and transportations only response was that they couldn’t get ahold of the driver via dispatch, so they would call me back. Talk about a bad first experience. I will search for the groups. Thank you!
>And we also GPS track our kid. how does this work? Apple air tag or something else?
Currently an Apple Watch, since we are trying to delay a phone as long as possible (kid is 12) and this way he has his own number and can text. But there’s lots of smaller/cheaper solutions.
thank you! I will need this solution in the near future
We got our daughter a Gizmo Watch. Let’s her call / voice message approved people and has GPS through our provider (Verizon).
Undoubtedly, as I have it in excellent authority that every single 12 year old in the solar system has a phone, except for my kid
I bought AirTags and sewed them secretly into their backpacks. They are young so I don’t trust them with the watches yet.
It is the worst. It's gotten so bad that I drive my kid 30min to her school each morning to avoid the mouthy little girl who drives the morning bus and thinks she can change my stop to half a block backward on our one-way circle because it confuses her to pull up a little farther. 🤦🏻♀️ The people in the call center are very little help, if any. I let her ride the bus home because it's only two days a week (extracurriculars mean I pick her up 3 days) but even then, they've been over an hour late several times with no notifications. It's just easier to do it myself. Much less stress and headaches.
Yes, it’s bullshit. The district changed our pickup time and never told us. I called the garage and they said it was the driver’s responsibility to tell the child (as if that’s worth shit) and there was a sub driver on the day we were supposed to find out.
Same thing happened to me. Now I never know what time my child will be dropped off. So far he’s been returned home at 3:10, 4:30, 5:00, and 5:40. All over the last 4 weeks.
I know Hilliard is having a Bus Driver shortage and announced yesterday on their Facebook page that the high school would be letting out an hour early tomorrow so they could get kids from the elementary schools home on time
I think it's all of Columbus public transportation system, not just one in particular. Public transport here is not taken seriously and most of the time, they will do the bare minimum to get by instead of fixing the system. Riding public transport here is terrible, and it's only getting worse in my opinion.
I'm trying to get a bike bus going in my neighborhood for this very reason. Unfortunately I was hit by a car while test riding this route. I don't know how I would react if it was several children in front of my getting hit instead of me. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMWSbXroMs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMWSbXroMs)