Spring ISD mom said bus driver shortage has caused her special needs kids to miss school

SPRING, Texas - A mom says a bus driver shortage at Spring ISD has caused her three kids to have to miss several days of school. 

The same mom tells FOX 26 Spring ISD is now working with another school district to get her kids a ride.

"It’s making me feel very upset as a parent," said Ms. Lacy, who asked to be referred to only by her last name. 

For the last month, Lacy said she’s been back and forth with Spring ISD officials about transporting three of her kids to Momentum High School.

Her 14, 16, and 17-year-old kids are special needs and unable to drive themselves to school. Lacy said her personal and financial situation makes it difficult for her to pick up the slack. 

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"My mom has been sick. She was in cancer remission but unfortunately, a mass has come back. I kind of try to juggle that with the life of dealing with my kids and being a single parent. I gave them numerous chances to fix the situation," Lacy said.

At times during the last several weeks, Lacy said her kids would have to miss school. 

The family currently doesn’t have a permanent address, bouncing around from living with family and various hotels.

Under a federal law known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Lacy says her kids have a right to receive an education including transportation services.

"This is not something that I'm asking them to do, this is their job that they get paid to do," Lacy said. 

Spring ISD officials apparently asked for help from Humble ISD to transport Lacy's kids.

In a statement, a spokesperson said:

"Spring ISD works with school districts to arrange transportation for students who may be experiencing homelessness or temporary shifts in housing outside of Spring ISD. Often, these families wish to remain in Spring ISD, but are unable to transport their child/children back to their home campus. When this occurs, school districts share transportation responsibilities. In this instance, three siblings who attend Momentum High School are currently residing in a neighboring district, and Spring ISD Transportation is working with that neighboring district to arrange transportation services. While those arrangements are in process, Spring ISD Transportation has made the determination to handle all service for these students until arrangements are finalized. We make every effort to ensure consistent and reliable access to transportation services for all students." 

A Spring ISD spokesperson said the district has been dealing with a bus driver shortage but would not provide any specifics or numbers.

FOX 26 also reached out to Humble ISD for comment.

In a statement, Humble ISD said, "School districts partner to meet the needs of students. Spring ISD notified Humble ISD on Tuesday, March 28, that students would need afternoon transportation from a high school in Spring ISD to where the students currently live in Humble.

Humble ISD fulfilled this request by providing bus service beginning Monday, April 10 - which is seven school days after receiving the request. Friday, April 7, is a school holiday.

Seven school days is a reasonable amount of time. While we would like to begin service immediately, it takes time to develop a personalized route, schedule a driver for the route, allocate a vehicle, and make other adjustments. When a new route is developed to serve students, it potentially affects other students’ routes and schedules. The transportation department works to implement the new route while keeping routes in place for other students.  Our goal is to provide safe, quality transportation services to all students.

Spring ISD is currently providing bus service and we appreciate our partnership to serve in the best interests of students."

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Lamar CISD officials have reported transporting 3,000 more students this year than last year, due to "being a fast-growth district." To accommodate the additional students, Lamar CISD has recently voted to transition from a two-tier bus system to a four-tier. 

In a statement, a Lamar CISD spokesperson said, "The bus driver shortage is a nationwide issue that we (and other districts) have been battling for a while now.

And, being a two tiered-system doesn’t help. We have several comeback routes causing students to either be late to school or arrive home much later in the evening than we prefer...all because we can’t hire enough drivers to cover all of the routes that we need.

But, we have a solution. We are moving to a four-tiered system which eliminates the need for some of the routes that we currently have. We are hopeful that once we implement this significant change, we will not be at the mercy of limited drivers.

Moving to a four-tier system will allow us to continue to provide transportation to all students who currently receive it. Our district would be able to transport students in a timely manner without eliminating any routes. At the February Board Meeting, the Lamar CISD Trustees approved new school hours. We have designed the following four-tier system, which will be implemented at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. This shift ensures that we have enough drivers for each route and eliminates the need for comeback routes."