Student bus information is available to parents/guardians on the Parent FOCUS Portal. If you need help setting up your Parent Portal or finding the transportation section, you can get help HERE.

The Bus Stop Locator Tool allows users to search for bus stops based on an address.  Try it out!

Students can only be guaranteed bus service to and from their primary address (as shown in FOCUS).  Parents and guardians may request bus service to/from other locations within the school's zone by submitting an Accommodation Request.  Accommodation Requests are granted on a space-available, first-come-first-served basis, and cannot be guaranteed to any student.  Click here for more information or to submit an Accommodation Request.

Students are not promised bus service to or from anyplace other than their primary address and only to their residentially-zoned school.  Parents and guardians may request bus service to/from other locations within the school's zone by submitting an Accommodation Request.  Accommodation Requests are granted on a space-available, first-come-first-served basis, and cannot be guaranteed to any student.  Click here for more information or to submit an Accommodation Request.

Please utilize the Accommodation Request process, and specify the location of the alternate bus stop that you would rather use.

For information on the procedures for requesting to move the location of a bus stop, please visit this page.

There are many factors, safety regulations, and laws that must be accounted for when creating bus stops and routes. In general, bus stops are placed as centrally as possible to all the students who will use the stop. Our buses don't have enough time to stop individually at every student's house, and in some cases, doing so would violate the traffic laws we must follow. If you want to request a change, you can start that process HERE.

Whether a parent chooses to have their children walk what is known as a “reasonable walking distance” is left to the parent’s discretion.  However, it is the distance at which transportation services begin.  The reasonable walking distances between home and the bus stop are:

• 1/2 mile for elementary school students
• 1 mile for middle and high school students

* Florida Administrative Code establishes the distance between home and the bus stop as 1.5 miles for all students, but ECPS has set a different criteria.

Note:  Distances apply only to the extent that publicly-maintained all-weather roads can be accessed.

Students are eligible for transportation if they are legally enrolled in Escambia County Public Schools and they live greater than or equal to:

• 1 mile from their zoned school if they are elementary school students
• 1.5 miles from their zoned school if they are middle school students
• 2 miles from their zoned school if they are high school students

   

* Florida Administrative Code establishes the distance between home and school as 2 miles for all students, but ECPS has set a different criteria.

Every bus driver has a printed roster of the students assigned to ride their bus. If a student is added to the route, moves into the area, or rides for the first time between when rosters are printed and distributed, the driver may not have a way to know that the student is authorized to be on that bus. Contact the front office at your child's school and ask them to either print your child's bus ticket to be given to the driver that afternoon, or ask them to submit a new bus ticket request form for your child.

If your child has an IEP or 504 Plan that specify a need for special accommodations relating to transportation, the school must submit a Specialized Transportation Services form, to ensure that the Transportation Department has all the information we need to properly meet your child's needs.

If transportation needs are not currently defined in your child's IEP, and you believe that they should be, contact your child's school to discuss whether these changes would be appropriate for your student's IEP.

If your child has an IEP that specifies Transportation-related needs, we are required by law to follow the terms of that IEP.  If you believe that your child no longer needs special transportation included in their IEP, contact your child's school to discuss the most appropriate arrangement for your child.

If your student is not ESE and does not have an IEP, but is being transported on a wheelchair-capable bus, it is possible that the  wheelchair-capable bus is being used to complete a non-ESE route at your child's school.  Not all wheelchair-capable buses drive exclusively ESE routes. If you are concerned, please reach out to our department.

If your K-12th grade child has an IEP that states that they require drop-off supervision, there must be a legal adult (18+ years old) at the bus stop to receive your child when they get off the bus.  If drop-off supervision is not required under the student's IEP, then no adult must be present. If you believe your child's IEP needs a change, please consult with their school.

Pre-K students who are designated as ESE must be met at the bus stop by a legal adult (18+ years old), with ID, who has been pre-approved by the child's parent/guardian and listed on the Specialized Transportation Slip provided to the bus driver.

Pre-K students must be met at the bus stop by a legal adult (18+ years old), with ID, who has been pre-approved by the child's parent/guardian and listed on the Pre-K intake form which is provided to the bus driver by the school. Pre-K students may not get off the bus alone, and may not be placed into the care of siblings, neighbors, or anyone other than the pre-approved adults on the list.

Please consult THIS PAGE for all the relevant information about requesting bus assignments for students following enrollment or an address change.

Effective with the 2023-2024 school year, Principal's Bus Tickets have been classified as obsolete.

Whenever possible, a bus ticket request should be submitted before 12:00pm (noon) to have a student added to a bus route.  In most cases, these requests can be ready same-day for PM transport when submitted before the noon cutoff.

As a last resort, principals are now able to issue a Single-Use Bus Pass, which you can read more about HERE, as well as download a copy.

For the past couple of years, we've sent out 2 emails for every field trip request—one confirming that a driver has been scheduled, and one a few days before the trip with reminders about creating passenger rosters for your trip.  Now that the volume of trip requests is back to pre-pandemic levels, however, sending this many emails is putting a huge time strain on our field trip coordinator.  Please note the following changes being made to the trip confirmation process, starting in the 23-24 school year:

• We are completely eliminating the first email confirmation, the one that told you when we had successfully secured a driver for your trip.  Schools will be independently responsible for locating this information on your own, on the Activity Trip Status Dashboard.  If you don't see your trip on the Dashboard, it means we have *not* received your request.  Please check the Dashboard first for all trip-related status information.
• The second email, which you have been receiving a few days before your trip, will become a once-weekly group email, sent every Friday (or the last work day of the week, if Friday is a day off), showing all field trips scheduled for the following week.  This email will also contain a reminder about passenger rosters and a blank copy of the passenger roster form, as we have been doing.  A blank copy of the passenger roster form has also been attached to this email.  This form will continue to be completed prior to every trip, and ready to be handed to the bus driver prior to any students boarding the field trip bus.
• Please do not wait until the "Friday before" email to take notice of your trip status!  It is our goal to have drivers assigned to all trips about 2 weeks prior to the trip, whenever possible, and this status will show on the Dashboard.  If you know you have requested a trip, check the Dashboard early and often, to ensure your request hasn't been eaten by the Liquid Forms Gremlins!