Students who attend Van Buren Public Schools are eligible for transportation if:

• They live within the school's residency area,

• They do not live within the school's non-transportation area,

  • The non-transportation area for Elementary Schools and Owen Intermediate School is 1 mile

  • The non-transportation area for McBride Middle School is 1.5 miles

  • The non-transportation area for Belleville High School is 1.5 miles

• They agree to follow the School Bus Rules provided on the transportation website.

• AND they have filled out a Transportation Request Form and been assigned to a bus.

Parents of School of Choice students are required to provide their own transportation for their students. Our department, as a courtesy, may provide transportation for your student, based on the space availability. If you wish to apply for transportation, fill out a Request for Student Transportation form and we will contact you if we are able to assign your student to a bus. Currently we are experiencing high student ridership on our buses, and are unable to assign School of Choice students to our bus routes.

Our bus stop locations change from year to year. We will assign your student to an existing stop location within our district that will not cause overload on the bus, or additional cost to the transportation department. Your student must go to the stop location assigned by this department. If this department has to change your child's stop location, parents will be notified and we will offer another stop location. You are responsible for getting your child to and from their assigned stop location.

Students who attend the Savage GT program are offered transportation to school if they live within the Van Buren Public Schools residency area. If your student wishes to take advantage of transportation services, please fill out a Request for Student Transportation form.

We do utilize community stops for some of our GT students. Your student must go to the stop location assigned by this department. You are responsible for getting your child to and from their assigned stop location.

Districts in Michigan are not required to provide transportation for most students. Please read through the following Board Policy on student transportation. For a complete list of board policies, go to: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Organization/2346.

There are over 4,000 students enrolled at Van Buren Public Schools, many of whom utilize transportation services. When routing buses to pick up students, safety is our primary concern. We make sure buses are making stops and driving on roads that are safe for school bus travel, and meet all legal requirements. Once we have considered all safety factors, we also take into consideration the time that students will be on a bus.

While there are no requirements dictating how close a school bus stop should be to a student's home, or how long a student (kindergarten through 12th grade) spends on a bus, we try to make stops as convenient as possible. Community stops are often utilized to keep student ride times down, and to focus on the safety of our students. It is the responsibility of the parents to get their students to and from their assigned stops.

All kindergarten, ECDC, and special needs students are required to have a parent, guardian, or other authorized person at the bus stop to meet your child. If there is no authorized person at the stop for your child, the student will be returned to their school at the end of the route. In this case, you may pick up your child at the school's latchkey program.

Parents of kindergarten, ECDC, and special needs students must complete an Emergency Contact Form. Be sure to include the names of any individual who is authorized to meet your child at the bus stop. Please ensure that any individual that is meeting your student has a picture ID on them when they meet the bus. The forms can be found on our website.

Bus drivers are able to release all other students without a parent being present at the bus stop.