Transportation

K-8 students who live 1.0 mile or less from their campus and students in grades 9-12 who live 1.5 miles or less from their campus are each designated as a walk-to-school student.

Exceptions may be granted to neighborhoods based upon specific safety issues along the expected walk path to/from the campus. Exceptions, if granted, will result in those addresses becoming temporarily eligible for bus services, subject to later review of those safety issues.

Each campus attendance boundary determines the designated eligible area after taking into effect the walk-to-school policies and exceptions designated for certain programmatic attendance rules. Parents are responsible for the safety of students to and from designated bus stops.

Students are expected to adhere to specific school bus safety rules as a condition of this privilege to ride the school bus to and from their campus of attendance. Violations of safety rules can create a dangerous situation for all bus riders. Students who do not respond appropriately to these requirements or the instructions given by their bus driver will be reported to the campus for administrative sanctions. Consequences may include loss of school bus riding privilege when their conduct represents a threat to other passengers or to the safe operation of the school bus.

In accordance with State law, standees may be permitted to and from school for the first 30 days of the school year (to allow time to balance the number of passengers on routes).

In the interest of the safety of our student riders, school bus schedules are no longer posted online or made available to the general public. Bus stop information is distributed to each campus for every assigned school bus rider, generally with an individualized memo for each student rider which is distributed to the family. Bus stop information is also available on the individual student record, accessible by the parent.

Bus assignments and stops will be updated as needed on Thursdays to reflect adjustments to ridership information. Campus administrative officials must coordinate with the Office of Pupil Transportation to identify those students requiring new morning bus service or an adjustment to the student’s current afternoon delivery point. In the interim, the campus may issue a "Temporary Bus Pass" in order to use an existing bus stop location until a route adjustment can be finalized.

Students not manifested to a specific school bus stop are not provided afternoon service from the campus. Students participating in afternoon activities at their campus may be provided school bus service to their neighborhood provided that the campus has properly manifested that student on a specific school bus activity route.

Alexandria City High School students are afforded no fare, unrestricted use of the City of Alexandria DASH bus system. Where scheduled DASH bus service adequately supports student rides to/from their campus, school bus services may be withdrawn.

The Office of Pupil Transportation and Fleet Management reserves the right to make changes to bus stops and schedules at any point during the school year.  The reasons for the changes include, but are not limited to road blocks, construction, and safety concerns.  Additionally, such changes can occur temporarily or for the remainder of the school year.  Proper communication will be issued to students and families accordingly.

Please have your child at the bus stop at least 5 minutes before the scheduled pick-up time.

While ACPS strives for on-time performance, traffic, weather, and loading times may occasionally cause buses to arrive slightly earlier or later than expected.

Drivers are not permitted to leave a bus stop more than 5 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.

If your bus stop is located at an apartment, condominium, or similar building, students should wait outside the building entrance.

Drivers may not be able to see students waiting inside a lobby or entrance area.

For safety and traffic reasons, buses cannot remain stopped for extended periods while waiting for students to exit a building.

School buses cannot block traffic for extended periods of time.

If no students are visible at the bus stop, drivers are not required to make a full stop.

As a courtesy, drivers may wait approximately 60 seconds for students or families who are approaching the stop.

Families should not rely on this courtesy wait time and should plan to arrive at the bus stop early.

Parents of ECSE or Kindergarten students are required to meet the arrival of the bus in the afternoons as these students are not allowed to depart the school bus except into the hands of a “responsible receiver.” Parents are permitted to appoint up to three additional individuals as their child’s responsible receivers. If the driver does not recognize this individual at the bus stop, the individual must provide a picture ID which matches the name shown on the school bus manifest.

Students not met by a “responsible receiver” will be returned to their campus later in the day to be reunited with their parent. Repeated failure to have a responsible receiver meet the bus can result in loss of rider privileges and/or reports to Child Protective Services.

Communicate with our Specialized Transportation Coordinator at spedtransportation@acps.k12.va.us which is monitored during office hours.

ACPS provides transportation services for specific students to meet the needs expressed by their Individualized Education or 504 Plan. The bus stop location may be the same as for the other neighborhood riders. If an alternative, curb to curb bus service is provided. The parent is responsible to meet the arrival of the bus at the curb both morning and afternoon.

ACPS follows the safest path from homes to Out-of-Division campuses. If that path is in an area whose jurisdiction has declared a weather-related delay or that school closes, ACPS will follow that schedule. If ACPS is closed because of inclement weather, NO out-of-division bus or cab transportation is provided.

If ACPS or the receiving campus has a start time delay, ALL out-of-division bus and cab transportation will be delayed as well and transported two hours late unless the other school district has decided to close for the day, in which case, we will not transport to that campus.

If ACPS or that Out-of-Division campus declares an early release because of inclement weather, students who ride cabs or buses to those schools outside our division will be picked up early.

ACPS provides funding to each school to support transportation for off-campus educational or sporting experiences. The school administration may request use of a school bus for such field trips by submitting an approved request through the T.O.M. online system. Field trips are generally limited on school days to between 9:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. or after 4:00 p.m. The use of school buses is generally limited to points within a 50-mile radius of Alexandria City High School.

Requests for the use of a school bus are required to be submitted to the transportation office as soon as planned and at a minimum of two-weeks prior to the field trip date.  The request is acted upon and assigned to drivers on the Tuesday prior to the week of travel. Late requests are subject to disapproval, altering of schedules or the added expense of chartering commercial transportation.

Emergency contact information for each student will be carried by the sponsor on the bus with the children on field trips. All students transported to a field trip location will be transported back to the school, unless advance arrangements have been made with the principal of the school. ACPS students, employees, and only those volunteers registered and approved by the principal are authorized to ride on school buses during field trips; others are not permitted to ride the school bus.

If there are questions concerning specific field trips operating after 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or anytime on non-school days, call the Field Trip telephone at 703-678-9465 prior to 10:00 p.m. If the attendant does not answer, always leave a return phone number in your voice message..

Routine questions or discussions about field trips can be sent by email to our administrator at fieldtrips@acps.k12.va.us which is monitored during business hours.

In order to effectively allocate limited resources, ACPS will provide transportation services in the following order of priority:

1. To and from school

2. Late buses for after school instructional and co-curricular activities

3. Instructional field trips

4. School-sponsored participation in Virginia High School League (VHSL), Virginia Music Education Association (VMEA), and National Capital Area Scholastic Rowing Association (NCASRA)-sponsored events

5. Other competitive events

6. Practices