COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Over 100 kids in the Coeur d’Alene School District will no longer be able to take the school bus this year.
The district recently made changes to its “Safety Busing” program, which provides busing to students who live within a mile-and-a-half of their school, but still need transportation due to age, health or safety reasons.
An audit by the State Department of Education prompted the change.
The district said the decision by the DOE could have affected up to 700 students, but that it was able to scale it down to affect just over 100 students at seven schools.
“As much as we worked as a safety busing committee to try and get everyone included that we could, in some cases, we were just able to articulate that there was a safety issue for that person to still maintain a place on the bus,” said Thomas Gandy, safety and security coordinator of CDA Public Schools.
Gandy said the Safety Busing Committee gave each route a safety score. They considered if there is a sidewalk, how dangers the street is to cross and how safe it would be in severe weather.
“We had the ability to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ to the State. We’re not making kids cross train tracks, we’re not making kids cross freeways. We’re not making kids cross four-lane highways where cars rip down the street at 60 or 70 miles an hour,” said Gandy.
Some of the affected schools are Dalton Elementary School, Canfield, Lakes and Woodland Middle Schools, Coeur d’Alene and Lake City High Schools and Ventura Academy.
Busing will remain the same for all students living beyond a mile-and-a-half away from their school.
The district is encouraging parents whose kid no longer qualifies for the bus to form carpools or go over safe walking routes to school.
Any parent with questions can call the Coeur d’Alene School District Transportation Department at (208) 667-3451 or visit cdaschools.org.
Find a full list of the affected schools in the PDF attached to this story.
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