Stafford County Public Schools are still experiencing bus troubles'

STAFFORD, Va. — Parents in Stafford County are growing frustrated as school enters its second week and some students still do not have confirmed bus routes. 

On Monday, parents flooded the WUSA9 news tips email over growing concerns about the county's school bus issue. We spoke with one parent who said just two weeks before school was scheduled to begin the county switched bus applications. 

Ever since this change was made, bus waits have been over an hour with reportedly no communication from the county. Parents with younger children in elementary schools have been finding themselves waiting at the bus stop as early as 7:15 a.m. for the bus to never show. 

Forcing parents to drive their kids to school themselves and children to start their school day late. In addition to Stafford having issues with transportation for students, the county is also in the middle of searching for a new superintendent. 

Stafford County Schools issued a statement on Monday to address the inconsistency in transportation: 

"We deeply regret the ongoing challenges many families are facing as we navigate the complexities of this school year. As we begin the second week of school, some of our students still do not have confirmed bus routes. We understand the frustration and stress this has caused. We acknowledge that this situation has broken the trust the community has placed in us, and want to assure the community that we are fully committed to repairing that trust.

Over the past weekend, the Transportation team worked tirelessly to address these issues, successfully routing nearly 99 percent of our students. However, the work is not done. Despite our best efforts, some students remain without confirmed routes, and we are committed to resolving this as quickly as possible. We are continuing to refine and improve our bus routes, and we will not rest until every student has a confirmed and reliable route.

Beginning August 26th, we are implementing additional changes to our morning hub stops. These changes are designed to create greater efficiency and significantly shorten morning routes for our travel and transfer students. This also frees 16 additional buses that will be redirected to support additional routes.

We are still seeing the effects of the national bus driver shortage, which further complicates this issue. We encourage any member of the community who has interest in becoming a bus driver or bus attendant to apply at www.staffordschools.net.

We understand that actions speak louder than words, and we are taking every necessary step to restore your confidence in our ability to serve our community. We appreciate the continued patience and understanding as we work to ensure that every student has safe and timely transportation to and from school. Stafford Schools is fully committed to making this right, routing our students, and repairing the damaged trust.

For those special education students that do not have routes, we ask that they contact their child’s school designee to schedule an IEP meeting to discuss compensatory services."