10K Students Without Buses Now Have Transportation: PGCPS Superintendent

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — On Sunday, Prince George's school officials announced that the backlog of approximately 10,000 students still waiting for school bus assignments when school started last week had been resolved.

Every student included in the original routing backlog has now been assigned a bus route, school officials stated.

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"This weekend, our team had one clear charge: eliminate the backlog and get our students assigned to buses," said Prince George's County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Joseph. "Our employees worked with tremendous urgency to accomplish that goal. I am grateful for their commitment to our students and families. Now, our responsibility is to stabilize the system, strengthen customer service and address the underlying operational issues that contributed to the challenges we experienced during the opening of school."

While the original backlog has been eliminated, PGCPS will maintain its 27-member transportation surge team throughout the opening-of-school period. As new students enroll, families move, addresses change and other routine transportation requests are received, students may continue to require new or adjusted bus assignments as part of the normal routing process. The surge team will remain in place to ensure those requests are addressed with expedience.

With the original backlog cleared, over the next several weeks, transportation staff will continue reviewing routes to address routing errors, unusually long ride times, stop locations and opportunities to improve overall efficiency and reliability.

"Our priority this weekend was ensuring every student in the original backlog received a route," said PGCPS Chief Operating Officer Dr. Charoscar Coleman. "Clearing that backlog represents important progress, but our work is not finished. We will continue deploying additional personnel and monitoring transportation operations closely as we stabilize routes and respond to the normal changes that occur during the opening of school."

Leadership personnel across all 12 PGCPS bus lots reported for duty Sunday afternoon to process and distribute updated run sheets. Drivers will begin navigating the newly updated routes Monday.

Updated transportation assignments and adjusted pickup times are available to families through the Chipmunk application. Assignments will also be accessible through the ParentVUE portal following system synchronization. Families are encouraged to review these platforms before Monday morning for the most current transportation information.

PGCPS will also host a Telephone Town Hall for families on Wednesday at 6 p.m. District leaders will provide an update on transportation operations, discuss the ongoing action plan and respond to questions from families.

"We will use this moment of setback to address longstanding issues within the Transportation Department, including customer service," Joseph said. "Beginning Monday, we will begin working to automate our telephone systems so that when a parent calls, a response is provided promptly and we can better monitor how issues are being resolved. Our Ombudsman will lead this initiative. It represents phase one of a broader customer service improvement effort that is needed throughout our school district."