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Management Support TRANSPORTATION |
Policy
No. 6600
The district may
provide transportation to and from school for a student: Whose residence
is beyond the one mile radius from the school to which the student is
assigned; Whose walking
route to school is hazardous; Whose disability
prevents him/her from walking or providing for his/her own welfare while
walking; or Who has another
compelling and legally sufficient reason to receive transportation services.
The parent or guardian of a student whose assigned bus stop is beyond the
maximum walking distance may receive reimbursement for private transportation
at the state mileage reimbursement rate. Each year the
superintendent shall present to the board the number of students who are
transported who live within the minimum distance of their schools and for
whom there appears sufficient justification for the district to provide
transportation. In this report, the superintendent shall also provide the
reasons why each of these students is transported. The district's
transportation program shall comply in all ways with state law and
regulation. Transportation services of the district may include approved bus
routes, district-approved field trips, school activities (participants only)
and extracurricular activities (rooters). Thesuperintendent is authorized to
permit a parent of a student enrolled in school to ride a bus as a designated
chaperone on a fieldtrip or other school related event. The board of
directors may authorize children attending an approved private school to ride
a school bus provided that the bus route and stops are not altered, space is
available, and a fee to cover the per seat cost for such transportation is
collected. ROUTES AND
SCHEDULES
The superintendent
shall be responsible for scheduling bus transportation, including the
determination of routes and bus stops as well as overseeing the
transportation program. The purpose of
bus scheduling and routing is to achieve maximum service with a minimum fleet
of buses insofar as this is consistent with rendering safe and reasonably
equal service to all students entitled to such service. The board may
authorize the use of a district-owned passenger car in lieu of a bus for
transporting students to and from school. In order to
operate the transportation system as safely and efficiently as possible, the
following factors shall be considered in establishing bus routes:
Location of bus
stops may be determined by such factors as student safety, economy and
efficiency. Students may be required to walk up to one mile from their home
to their bus stop provided that the walking route is safe. School schedules
shall be adjusted to allow maximum utilization of each bus in the system by
alternating elementary and secondary trips. The district
shall apply for state transportation apportionment funds and shall maintain
the records required to obtain such funding. EMERGENCY
ROUTES AND SCHEDULES
The district
shall develop emergency bus routes and schedules to be used when weather
conditions make the usual routes impassable or, in the superintendent's
judgment, too hazardous. At the beginning of the school year, copies of
emergency routes and schedules shall be distributed to parents with
instructions on how to obtain emergency information. If roads are
closed to buses but not to private vehicles, the district may continue to
operate the instructional programs of the schools without providing bus
transportation until the roads are again open to buses. Legal
References: RCW 28A.160 Student
Transportation
28A.160.020 Authorization for
private school students to ride buses — Conditions
28A.160.030 Authorizing individual
transportation or other arrangements — WAC
392-141 Transportation —State allocation for operations
392-172-204 Transportation (Special
Education)
392-172-035 Definitions of
“free appropriate, public education,” “adult
student,” “special education student,” “parent,”
and “public agency” Adopted: May
27, 2008 |