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Houston parents frustrated by transportation issues
FOX 26 Reporter Jade Flury spoke with parents who were frustrated about not knowing their child's bus route prior to the first day of school.
HOUSTON - Students are back in the classroom, but getting them there is a problem. Some parents are upset because they don’t know or have their child’s bus route.
As students from Houston Independent School District return to the classroom, hundreds of parents and students are facing a major hurdle - transportation. Parents didn't know where their child's bus stops or route was going to be located.
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"This morning, I called for route information. Nothing again, so he just Ubered, and it looks like until I get an answer, he’s going to have to Uber," said Kia Davis, a parent of an HISD student.
Kia Davis’s son attends Chavez High School. She said the school district normally calls, emails, or texts about bus route plans and changes. But this year, parents aren’t getting those notices.
"We needed to revamp our transportation system, and it's going to take more than this year or last year to get it fixed. Lots of, lots of problems with routes, the number of kids on a bus, the distances that we have to travel, and the amount of money we spend on transportation," said Superintendent Mike Miles of HISD.
"We were advised that someone would be available by phone from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, despite it being the weekend, but that didn’t happen. I still didn’t get an answer," said Davis.
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By Monday morning, Davis said she had to miss work and send her son to school by Uber.
Houston ISD said about 700 children still need to be assigned a bus route, and are working to make sure they have transportation to school.