HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District announced they are making adjustments to their school choice transportation system.
“Previous administrations spent more than $50M on transportation infrastructure to transport roughly 9,000 zoned and choice students to school. This is not sustainable and the District must begin to address the problem in the 2024-2025 school year,” a statement from the district read.
The statement read these changes were guided by a few key principles:
- HISD is one of the only districts in the region to transport students who elect to attend a school other than their zoned school. HISD will continue to provide transportation to families who participate in our school choice program.
- HISD needs to reduce ride time for our school choice students.
- HISD must use transportation resources more effectively.
The following changes have been made in the 2024-2025 school year, according to the statement:
- Decreasing the number of bus routes from 508 routes in 2023-2024 to an estimated 423 routes in 2024-2025.
- Reduced the ride time for the average student to an hour and fifteen minutes each way. This is down from roughly an hour and forty-five minutes.
- HISD plans to reduce total transportation costs this school year by $10M. Streamlining routes will save an estimated $3M. Additional cost savings will come from improving the way we dispatch and manage buses.
Families who use HISD transportation can expect the following, according to the statement:
- Students who attend their zoned school and use transportation as well as students with special education needs who require transportation will be served just as they have been.
- HISD will continue to provide transportation to students attending a school through the school choice program, but there will be a minor adjustment to the school choice routes. Student bus stops will now be within a three mile radius of the student’s home address. (Previously it was a two mile radius).
- Most of the roughly 3000 school choice students who use HISD transportation will be assigned a stop at their zoned high school or middle school, and a bus will transport them to the school of choice they attend. In some cases, to ensure students aren’t crossing dangerous thoroughfares, students will access a bus stop that is not located at another HISD campus.
- Families will receive their bus routes before the end of July, and families will immediately be able to access a transportation helpline closer to where they live.