{"id":89947,"date":"2025-07-25T00:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89947\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T00:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:04:10","slug":"bell-times-will-change-at-22-chicago-schools-to-ease-busing-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89947\/","title":{"rendered":"Bell times will change at 22 Chicago schools to ease busing issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/chicago\/newsletters\/subscribe\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chalkbeat Chicago\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the latest education news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Chicago Public Schools will tweak arrival and dismissal times at 22 schools this fall in order to address ongoing challenges with providing students with busing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Arrival and dismissal times will be pushed back by 15-30 minutes at nearly all of the schools and families and staff at each school were notified of the changes last week, said CPS spokesperson Evan Moore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">District officials did not provide exact bell schedules for each school. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The time changes are due to a bus driver shortage, according to district officials. They\u2019ve cited a driver shortage in recent years as a factor in why CPS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/chicago\/2024\/07\/25\/chicago-will-not-guarantee-busing-for-gen-ed-students-2024-25\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hasn\u2019t been able to provide transportation to general education students.<\/a> Interim CPS CEO Macquline King said the changes are helping the district \u201caddress both our transportation crisis\u201d and its financial challenges. The district is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/chicago\/2025\/07\/09\/cps-struggles-to-pay-bills-amid-budget-deficit\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">facing a $734 million deficit.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">\u201cRegardless of the systemwide benefits, I know this is disruptive\u201d for parents, King said during a Board of Education meeting on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n<p>Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat Chicago is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on local public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The district had suspended transportation for general education students in 2023. That change also came after the state placed CPS on a corrective action plan for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/chicago\/2022\/8\/24\/23320764\/chicago-public-schools-transportation-problems-bus-driver-pedro-martinez\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">exceedingly long bus rides for thousands of students with disabilities.<\/a> The district has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/chicago\/2024\/07\/22\/state-ends-complaint-about-long-bus-rides-for-students-with-disabilities\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">since been taken off<\/a> that plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">As it has been in recent years, transportation will be prioritized for students with disabilities, who are legally entitled to transportation if it is included in their Individualized Education Program, and those who are homeless and approved for yellow bus service. CPS officials say about 17,000 students, or 5% of all CPS students, are legally eligible for bus transportation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">King said the district will also again have hub stops this school year, where a group of selective enrollment and magnet schools serve as central pickup and drop off points for general education students. CPS provided busing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/chicago\/2025\/01\/29\/cps-offers-transportation-to-more-selective-enrollment-magnet-students\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">700 general education students<\/a> using hub stops last school year, and provided bus transportation to 15,790 students by the end of last school year, or 92% of kids who were eligible for transportation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The district did not say how many students will be eligible to use the hub stops this upcoming school year or exactly when the program will start, except that it will be \u201clater this year.\u201d Families whose students participated last year have been notified that the program is continuing and will be contacted again when the district restarts it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The hub stops will be at the same locations as last school year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">The district\u2019s Office of Student Transportation had a roughly $140 million budget last school year, slightly lower than the previous year, according to budget records. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-1px4eze-0 egVxCn body-paragraph\">Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago\u2019s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news. Chicago Public&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[59934,59933,59930,960,13959,8413,5386,45075,1818,59931,6214,59932],"class_list":{"0":"post-89947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-aikira-parker","9":"tag-charity-parker","10":"tag-chi","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-families","13":"tag-harvey","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-ill","16":"tag-illinois","17":"tag-school-choice","18":"tag-students","19":"tag-tess-lacy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114910951169722712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}