Chicago Public Schools students are facing transportation issues with school resuming next week, NBC Chicago’s Lexi Sutter reports.
Marissa Glesne had no idea her 7-year-old son, Laike, was gifted.
That is, until he tested into a CPS selective school called Ted Lenart Regional Gifted Center.
Her only hesitation was the location. They live on the Northwest Side, and the school is on the South Side. Initially, it was not a problem, because Laike was able to take district-funded transportation, with several other students.
“When they offered us buses, we were really excited.” Glesne said. “And the distance, we thought about it, but they offered buses.”
Due to a national bus driver shortage, CPS got rid of Laike’s bus, along with buses for thousands of other students. The family is now left with that lengthy 20-mile commute, all via public transportation.
Glesne lives with epilepsy, so driving a vehicle is not an option for her.
“We walk probably about three blocks to Northwest Highway, and we catch the 68 bus which takes us about 12 minutes to the Blue Line,” Glesne explained. “We take the blue line all the way down to the Loop, and then we transfer on Washington Street to the red line. And that takes us all the way to 79th Street, then we walk another seven blocks to 81st.”
Local
NBC Chicago reached out to Chicago Public Schools for a comment on the transportation situation. The district cited a national bus driver shortage as the root of the problem, and says it is not alone in its struggles to meet the demand.
Below is a letter sent out to impacted families on Dec. 21, 2023.
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Dear Families,
Like many school districts around the country, CPS has been impacted by the national school bus driver shortage (you can read more about the shortage from USA Today, the New York Times, CBS, and The Week). CPS has worked tirelessly over the past few months to recruit more drivers, hosting numerous hiring fairs and communicating the need via TV news interviews, billboards and more, while also working with our vendors to provide financial incentives, including signing bonuses and a raise in wages that has brought CPS bus drivers to a pay rate of between $22 and $27 per hour.
Despite these efforts, CPS has not been able to hire the number of drivers needed to provide transportation services to all eligible students. Therefore, bus transportation WILL NOT be available for any general education students for the remainder of the 2023-24 school year.
In keeping with the State School Code and the January 2022 CPS policy approved by the Board of Education, we must continue to prioritize transportation services for our Diverse Learners and Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS). That said, we fully understand how frustrating this news will be for many of our families, and sincerely empathize with the challenges and inconvenience that this situation has caused.
As a reminder, general education students in magnet or selective programs who qualify for CPS transportation can receive free Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Ventra cards valued at $35 per month and a companion pass for one parent or guardian who may need to accompany the student on CTA. Please complete the CTA Ventra Card Request form or see your school’s designated transportation coordinator for more information.
CPS has also made funding available to impacted selective enrollment and magnet programs for before- and after-school programming to accommodate students whose parents have to drop them off early or pick them up later. Families and students should contact their schools directly regarding information on these programs.
Again, we regret the hardship that this ongoing national bus driver shortage is having on our CPS families. We thank you for your understanding and invite you to contact transoptions@cps.edu with any transportation-related questions," the statement read.
Glesne is a part of a parent coalition that meets every Sunday to discuss the district’s transportation issues and works to come up with solutions.
She said she is speaking to NBC 5 on behalf of the dozens of other parents, sharing her struggle.
She hopes CPS is able to bring more buses back in service in the near future.
“Life changing, anything,” Glesne said, of being able to put her child on the school bus. “It would bring us almost five hours of our lives back, because we spend four to five hours daily taking our children to and from school.”
CPS is holding several hiring fairs in an effort to find more bus drivers:
- 1/11: 9:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., Garfield Park
- 1/23: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Malcolm X College
- 2/20: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Malcolm X College
- 3/4: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Malcolm X College
