New Wake school bus routes posted for the 2023-24 school year
Families in Wake County can now find out if their child will be among those arriving to school late each day because of new bus routes.
New routes were posted Friday morning on the Wake County Public School System website. The district is also sending emails to 90,000 parents.
The new school year starts in 10 days, and while there will be bus service for every child who needs it, some kids are going to arrive late to school each day.
Dropoffs and pickups will be staggered, with some students arriving 10 to 20 minutes after the bell and some more than 30 minutes late.
The district said there will be 560 bus drivers, just enough to cover each route. If drivers call out sick, that could change.
Until more drivers are hired, more than 2,000 students will still be late to school.
A lot of those students will be arriving home late, too, some arriving as late as 40 minutes after the final school bell rings.
The school system likely needs 20 to 30 new drivers — and have no turnover — before everyone can arrive on time.
One parent told WRAL News he was forced to drive his son and carpool other students last year when buses arrived late.
He hopes he won’t be stuck in the same situation this school year.
The school system is currently onboarding 16 new driver candidates, but the hiring process could take more than a month.
How will Wake County cover all routes?
The school system is providing daily bus service with the same number of drivers it reported having earlier this month — 560 drivers — when it said it couldn’t cover all 577 routes. The school system will do this by reducing routes to 560 and lifting their “on-time” arrival practice when necessary to make sure a route is covered.
Some of the existing bus drivers would add another route to their schedule at a handful of schools.
That means 3,157 students — at unnamed schools — would be dropped off after the morning bell signaling the start of classes. Another 7,885 students would arrive only 10 minutes before the morning bell.
Of the students who would arrive late, 1,446 students would arrive one minute to 10 minutes late, 1,008 students would arrive 11 minutes to 20 minutes late, 481 students would arrive 21 minutes to 30 minutes late, and 222 students would arrive more than 30 minutes late.
About the same number of students -- and many of the same students -- will also be picked up late from school, as many as 40 minutes after the final school bell rings, said Mark Strickland, district chief of facilities and operations.
