Under current practices, all eligible students are automatically registered for busing and are assigned seats on bus routes for the beginning of the school year through our transportation providers STSCO (for Peterborough, Northumberland and Clarington students) and Trillium Lakelands District School Board (for City of Kawartha Lakes students).

We are proposing to change this procedure so that eligible families must opt-in to busing prior to the start of each school year. Those who do not opt-in will not be assigned seats on bus routes.

Why are we proposing this change to current procedure and who will it impact?

Many families who are eligible for busing opt to transport their children to school using alternative means. This means that on any given route, there are many empty seats on buses that could otherwise be filled.

By having eligible families go through the steps of opting into busing, we will be able to ensure our buses are running as efficiently as possible from the onset of the school year. Based on the experiences of other transportation consortiums in Ontario who have made this change, we estimate this change will save the board as much as 10% to 15% in operating costs and will lead to better service for all eligible families.

This change would affect all eligible families who will need to opt-in to busing prior to the beginning of each school year starting prior to the 2024-2025 school year.