• The District is currently short approximately 65 drivers. This means the District can only transport approximately 7,000 of about 20,000 eligible General Education students at one time. 
• Staff recruitment and retention is a national and growing problem. The District has implemented aggressive hiring incentives and its working. However, the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) state regulated training takes three weeks to complete.

• The District is implementing a Rotating Bus Route Plan. Routes will be divided into three cohorts and provided bussing on a rotation. Each student cohort will receive three consecutive weeks of transportation. This means there will be six weeks between bus service. Routes have been condensed for efficiency, therefore students will be walking further to bus stops than in prior years.

• ASD parking fees will be waived for high school students.

• Our partners at People Mover Youth Connect will make a city bus pass available for all middle and high school students.
• A helpline is in place as another way for families to receive District information. The number is 907-742-HELP option 2. For school-specific information, please refer to your school’s front office staff. 
• The District is working on providing financial support. Gas cards will be provided to families in need, and will be distributed by the schools to their school communities. 

• The District is providing bus transportation on a 3 week-on and 6 week-off schedule rotation.
• Cohort means the group of buses receiving transportation for the assigned three weeks.
  • Cohort 1 (Bus #1-38) will receive buses from August 18 – September 9.
  • Cohort 2 (Bus #39-77) will receive buses from September 12 – September 30.
  • Cohort 3 (Bus #78-116) will receive buses from October 3 – October 20.
• The goal is to stand down the rotating bus route schedule ASAP.
• This is a temporary solution.

Families will receive notice from their schools if their bus route is being reinstated through our district-wide mass notification system prior to the route reinstatement. It is important to have current and up-to-date information in your ParentConnect account to receive these timely announcements. Please contact your school if you are not receiving notifications. You can sign up for text notifications by following the directions on the mobile app page.

You can find out which routes have been reinstated and are active on the Bus Cohort Chart. These routes have been given a route number of 200 or above, and are indicated in a light green box on the chart under Routes.

View the Bus Cohort Chart

• This option provides some transportation for all eligible students vs. no transportation for approximately 12,000 students.

The first cohort would be primarily the north-east side and part of the northwest.
The second cohort would be primarily the northwest side and part of the south-east side.
The third cohort would be primarily in the south area of town and Eagle River.

The purpose of this chart is to help keep our community informed of our overall progress toward resolving the transportation issue on an enterprise level. This information is a snapshot of the routes included in each cohort on the date the report was pulled. The information is constantly changing as we continue to reinstate routes. This is a working document and will be updated weekly.   

View the Bus Cohort Chart

The District follows route reinstatement priorities to add routes daily as new bus drivers are brought onboard. Route reinstatement priorities include safety, student needs, and efficiency. Once a route is reinstated, our transportation team contacts families directly as quickly as possible. Families are our priority. For the most up-to-date information on student bus routes, parents should continue to check their Q ParentConnection.  

Note that the ‘200’ routes listed at the end of each cohort are those that are permanently restored at this time.  At the bottom of each cohort group is a total number of riders that includes Special Education students, whose service remains uninterrupted.  

Beginning Monday, September 12^th, ASD will switch from Cohort 1 to Cohort 2 for bus transportation services. Drivers should expect traffic delays in the areas of Bartlett High School, Begich Middle School, Bettye Davis East High School, and Wendler Middle School during the times of 7 a.m.-8:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.-3:15 p.m.  Click here to view a map. Please avoid any unnecessary travel in these areas during these times. If you must travel through the area, remember to drive slowly and be alert for students crossing the streets.

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• All General Education students are eligible for transportation services. Eligible students are those who live more than one and one half (1.5) miles from school or live in an area which has been determined to be hazardous by the Districts’ Safe Student Transportation Committee
• JBER schools will be impacted. Families who have already been impacted by the Ursa Major Relocation Project will be prioritized for full-time routes as soon as the District has more drivers, given these families are already facing unique transportation challenges.
• Special Education transportation will not be impacted at this time.

The activity bus schedule operates outside of our school bus schedule. It starts later as to not interfere. We have no plans to make any changes nor expect any significant impact to us as this time.

• It takes about 3-5 weeks to complete the training and that is why there is a little lag in progress. 
• A Commercial Driver's License (CDL) is not quite enough to be authorized to drive our students safely. It’s a plus, but it still requires training. There are federal requirements that must be satisfied as well.
• The most urgent thing we can do is hire more bus drivers and bus attendants. With more, we will begin to restore our levels of bus service.

• The District is accepting applications for bus drivers and bus attendants.
  Bus attendants ride the bus and assist the bus driver.
• Apply here: www.asdk12.org/bustransportation
• Volunteer positions are available as well.

• The District continues to explore all options to correct this situation. To include:

• • More transportation resources
  • More military resources
  • School start times

• The District had discussions with our partners at the National Guard regarding the bus driver shortage. While a viable means of support was not possible, we are very appreciative of Governor Dunleavy and our partners at the National Guard for their collaboration to help find solutions. 
• ASD and our partners at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) have solidified an agreement to allow active duty Airmen with the 673rd Logistics Readiness Squadron to transport students who attend school on base for the next 90 days. The JBER drivers start on September 12^th and will be assigned to the JBER bus routes.

ASD Flex enables students to combine in-person and online learning to create schedules that are flexible, explore new abilities and interests, and offer new levels of opportunity. From family-driven homeschool learning to individual learning plans with online and in-person support, ASD Flex allows families to rethink how their students do school. Visit https://www.asdk12.org/asdflex for more information. 

• Alaska Statute Sec. 14.09.010. Transportation of students. 

  •  (a) A school district that provides student transportation services for the transportation of students who reside a distance from established schools is eligible to receive funding for operating or subcontracting the operation of the transportation system for students to and from the schools within the student's transportation service area. Subject to appropriation, the amount of funding provided by the state for operating the student transportation system is the amount of a school district's ADM, less the ADM for the district's correspondence programs during the current fiscal year, multiplied by the per student amount for the school district.

• No

• The District is working on providing financial support. Gas cards will be provided to families in need, and will be distributed by the schools to their school communities. Please contact your individual school for more information.

• Spread the word to anyone who might be interested in attaining their CDL and becoming a bus driver. Apply here.
• Families and our community can assist by car-pooling to reduce student pickup and drop-off congestion.

As of Aug 22, bus service is being provided to 8,139 students and there are 12,171 students not receiving service. 

Yes, schools will work with families individually who are struggling to find transportation. If a student has an extended period that prohibits them coming to school, online options will also be explored with the student and family to meet their needs.

The District has stepped up its recruiting and hiring efforts.

• • • An incentive package for both new and existing bus drivers and bus attendants has been developed. This will simultaneously address recruitment and retention concerns.
    • Bus drivers will receive up to $2,500 extra for the first semester of the 2022-23 school year.
    • Bus attendants will be paid up to an extra $500 for the first semester of 2022-23.
    • If you or anyone you know would like to join our bus driver team, apply here.

The District is conducting a review process.

• • • • This will include, among other things, dissecting our transportation processes and logistics so that our transportation teams have a better blueprint for success