(Unsplash photo)
An ongoing shortage of bus drivers in the Ottawa Valley means a few new rules for local parents to mind.
The Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium is changing the eligibility for busing to now only provide the service to addresses within a school’s attendance boundaries, meaning that new families enrolling at a school will be responsible for providing their own transportation if they live or move outside that zone.
Families who have already received out-of-boundary transportation for multiple school years will still be allowed on the bus as long as their pickup address remains the same.
Another new policy will see transportation privileges taken away from students who do not make use of the service for fourteen consecutive school days, unless absent from school for legitimate reasons such as medical or school events.
The consortium explains that irregular bus use is costly and creates inefficiencies that reduce the accuracy of bus stop timing for families on affected routes.
(written by Kasey Egan)