DENVER — Cuts to a few Denver Public Schools bus routes have left some families struggling to get their kids to school.
Parents at Morey Middle School have been very vocal about the challenges, especially for families that don't have access to a car.
That includes Dallas Rael and her 11-year-old son, William.
"Growing up, we never went through this. We never had to worry about, you know, taking three, four miles to schools," Rael said as she sat on a city bus with her son. "It's an equity issue. It’s a huge, you know, they shouldn’t be on a city bus when they have the yellow buses."
Rael told 9NEWS that William is a highly gifted student, so he has to go to Morey Middle School to get access to the necessary resources.
"Morey is the only magnet school in Denver that allows students like William to be himself," she explained. "So it takes, it says about 45 minutes just to get to school."
A 45 minutes commute includes a stop downtown to transfer onto another bus. On this Wednesday, William opened up his laptop to finish a homework assignment before catching the second bus.
"So rushing from one stop to the next, you know, we shouldn’t have to deal with that either, you know, it’s just frustrating some mornings," Rael added. The mother of three works at a grocery store and sometimes has to tailor her schedule to her son's school's start and end times so she can be with him on the bus and get to the school safely.
"As a mom, the scariest thing in the world is for me to allow my son to take the city bus by himself," Rael added. She said the school has tried to help. They gave her a bus pass for the last two weeks of this month, but that doesn't fix the real problem. She hopes the school district will take a look at the cuts and consider reinstating some of the routes. In the meantime, she is raising money to help buy a car to make the commute easier.
"It’s not only unfair to us as parents, it’s not fair for the children because they’re the ones being affected," she continued. "This shouldn’t be a new norm at all for any type of parent or for any type of child."
Denver Public Schools (DPS) released the following statement regarding the complaints about the bus route cuts:
"Denver Public Schools (DPS) has had to adjust our transportation routes this school year due to the change in school start times from the Healthy Start Times initiative.
While investigating how to adjust our bus routes, the DPS Transportation Department worked with the Healthy Start Times Advisory Committee and analyzed a number of data points, including the Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) status of riders and the utilization rate of each respective route. While not a perfect solution, by prioritizing rider utilization percentages and FRL data, we maintained access to transportation to the greatest extent possible.
It is also important to note that DPS does not guarantee transportation for students who utilize the choice system to select their school. When families elect to use the choice system, they are informed that transportation is not provided for their student.
We are currently working with Morey Middle School to see if there are any potential solutions for this school year."
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