CPS developing 'transportation hub' bus system for general education students

Some Chicago Public Schools families who have gone without busing for the past two years might see relief at some point this school year.

District officials are looking into creating a so-called transportation hub program, where general education students could go to a school near their home to catch a bus to their assigned school and be dropped back off there, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said at Thursday's monthly Board of Education meeting.

But the details are still being sorted out.

"This option will not be available for our general ed students on the first day of school," Martinez said. "We hope to open our first hub stops during the first quarter and continue to expand them throughout the school year."

Martinez said officials are also adjusting some schools' arrival and dismissal times to optimize bus routes and pick up more kids.

While they work on those fixes, CPS will keep prioritizing door-to-door busing for special education and homeless students, as required by state and federal law, Martinez said. Those families will also still have the option of taking a stipend to pay for an alternative transportation method.

The school district started prioritizing special education and homeless students the past couple school years after pandemic era bus driver shortages upended the transportation system and left some kids on buses to and from school for more than 90 minutes. The Illinois State Board of Education implemented a corrective action to force CPS to get those times down. As a result, general education students were left without busing last year.

Chalkbeat Chicago reported this week that state officials have stopped monitoring CPS' transportation woes, citing improved travel times for the vast majority of special education and homeless kids. But general education students are still without buses.

CPS Parents for Buses, an advocacy group that formed in the past couple years, could not immediately be reached for comment.