Transportation

Transportation

Transportation is provided to all Key School students who do not live within walking distance of the school. A bus schedule is distributed one or two weeks before school starts. Look carefully at the schedule to determine which stop is most convenient for you and your child. If you do not received a schedule by the last week of August or to discuss concerns about the bus schedule, call the Transportation Department at 228.6640.

Please go with your child to the bus stop, introduce yourself to the bus driver, and be there when he/she returns in the afternoon. If you cannot be there, please be sure some adult knows your child is a Kindergarten child and will look out for him/her. Generally, if you are not at the stop in the afternoon the driver will bring your child back to school. Key School identifies its bus routes by color as well as by number (e.g. Route 227/Red). Make sure your child knows the color of his/her bus route. All students riding the buses must wear a name tag clearly marked with bus route color/number for the first two weeks of school. If your child will regularly ride the bus, please do not plan to transport him/her by car on the first day of school. Children and school officials alike will do better when the routine for the rest of the year is established and followed on the first day as well. If you feel you need to assist your child, plan to wait at the bus stop with him/her, and then follow the bus in your car to school where you can accompany your child into the building.

At the end of the day the patrols announce dismissal by area in the school to cut down on congestion and those riding the bus will go into the gym and line up facing the back wall under the circle with the route and color of the bus. The buses are loaded from the front of the bus line to the back, so the order alternates daily. If for some reason your child misses the bus, you will be notified and can come pick up your child from the main office.
The riding of a school bus, for some children, is a bit traumatic. Please explain the process to your child and let him/her know that after a few days they will be very comfortable. Patrols are assigned to each bus to help them. Patrols wear the yellow belts. They are there to assist the children and to keep quiet and order on the bus.
At the beginning of the school year, each student who rides the school bus receives a bus schedule and a copy of Arlington Public Schools’ Regulations for Pupils Riding School Buses.  Read these regulations with your children to make certain they understand how to behave while waiting for and riding on the bus.  For example, children should:

• Arrive at the bus stop 5-10 minutes before the scheduled pick-up time;
• Wait quietly on the sidewalk at the designated stop until the bus arrives;
• Remain seated and talk quietly on the bus;
• Cooperate with student bus patrols and the bus driver.

*Riding the bus is a privilege not a right.  Failure to comply with the rules could result in the loss of this privilege.