CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Clay County schools recently enforced a new bus policy that makes students ineligible for bus service if they live within two miles of their school, unless the district identifies a hazard. The change has left roughly 1,200 students without bus transportation, according to the Clay County School District.
For families like Alex Lukas’, the new rule means his 5-year-old son is expected to walk nearly 1.9 miles to Tynes Elementary School in Middleburg.
The child isn’t walking to school because his mom is able to adjust her schedule to drop him off.
“When you think about kindergarten, or you think younger like five, six, seven, that’s a long walk with a lot of heat,” Lukas said. “What happens if it’s inclement weather and raining, thunderstorming? It seems like they’re not taking the safety of children very seriously.”
News4JAX tested the walk and stopped partway due to heat.
Lukas said he submitted a request to classify the walk as hazardous but hasn’t received a response. He also expressed concerns about safety risks from registered predators living within the two-mile radius.
“If you type in the school’s address to the FDLE website and look for predators from two-mile range, there’s a lot of houses on there,” Lukas said. “You’re required to walk within two miles, and there’s predators live within two miles. That could be an issue.”
Other parents have reported having to adjust work schedules to accommodate dropping off and picking up children since the bus service ended.
The district said some students within the two-mile limit may qualify as courtesy riders.
We have not assigned courtesy riders yet and will not do so during the first four weeks of school. Approval is based on space, and we need to finalize the routes for those that qualify for ridership first, and then, if a route is not at capacity, we can accept courtesy riders. Parents can apply for courtesy ridership on the www.oneclay.net website under Transportation and can download the Chipmunk app and create an account/login to complete the courtesy rider form.
Terri Dennis, Community Relations Department , Clay County District Schools
News4JAX reached out to the school district to ask when families were notified about the bus policy changes. They replied saying:
Regarding your question about the advertisement on June 5th, this refers to public advertisements sent to the Clay Today newspaper, which were then featured in their June 12th edition.
Additionally, we have been consistently posting bus registration updates on our social media platforms. For instance, our June 2nd social media post (photo below) specifically outlined the change in ridership criteria concerning the 2.0-mile radius. When parents visit our website to register for transportation, they also see a parent letter clearly stating that they need to opt in for transportation and noting the policy change regarding the 2.0-mile ridership.
On July 10th, the Director of Transportation sent an email to all principals with information for schools to share with families regarding the transportation changes. Superintendent Broskie discussed the importance of registering your child to ride the bus and mentioned the 2.0-mile ridership requirement during interviews for our routine “Back to School” stories.
Terri Dennis, Community Relations Department , Clay County District Schools
