(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Hundreds of special-education students in Chicago don’t have bus routes, and hundreds more have bus rides that take more than 90 minutes each way, a situation the city’s top school official promises to fix.
The topic of bus service came up this week, as Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle asked Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez about problems.
Martinez said 80% of students have a ride averaging 39 minutes, but 365 families have rides that take longer than 90 minutes each way. Twelve hundred don’t have routes yet, he said.
Del Valle said no student should be on a bus for more than an hour.
“Anything over an hour is just too much,” he said.
Martinez said CPS is working on solutions and expects fixes by Labor Day.
He noted the school system is doing better than last year, now that starting bus driver wages have increased to $20 per hour from $16.
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