Most CPS students with disabilities, others from magnet schools get bus routes after driver shortage

Almost all Chicago Public School students with disabilities who require busing now have bus routes and — for the first time in two years — the school system is set to provide transportation for a small number of students who attend magnet and selective enrollment schools.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said Friday that only 148 students with disabilities are still awaiting routes, down from 1,900 at the beginning of the year. He also said the state had closed a corrective action case over transportation against CPS.

“I pledge to you that we will not stop working on this issue — the job will not be done until all students with disabilities who are eligible for transportation are receiving that service,” said Martinez, who noted that the district receives new requests daily and tries to get them assigned to routes within 10 days.

After the pandemic created a driver shortage, the school district has been struggling to provide busing for all students who have traditionally gotten it. Because it is legally required to provide service for students with disabilities and unhoused students, the school district stopped last year offering busing for all magnet and selective enrollment school students.

After making progress reducing the number of disabled students without routes and the travel times last year, the district suffered a setback this summer when one of the bus companies went out of business.

At the same time, school district officials said 10,695 disabled students requested transportation at the beginning of the year — an increase of 50% compared to last year, according to CPS. The percentage of disabled and unhoused students enrolled in the school system has also been going up.

Martinez said the school district was able to get these students assigned to routes, in part by changing start times of 36 schools and being more efficient with routes.

At this point, the school district also is able to start a so-called transportation hub program, where some students attending magnet and selective enrollment schools could go to a school near their home to catch a bus to their assigned school and be dropped back off there. The small hub pilot program will begin Dec. 9 for children in neighborhoods facing the most hardship.

While the news might be welcomed by some families, CPS Parents for Buses, a group formed to advocate for fixes to the busing system, said the plans for general education students are "completely vague" and criticized district officials for failing to provide updates since the summer. The group said it hasn’t been given details on the pilot program.

"It is inexcusable that, two months after school began, some students with disabilities still lack transportation, and thousands of low-income and English language learners still don't have a safe way to get to schools," the group said in a statement. "In July 2024, CPS promised progress on the hub model in Quarter 1 this year and failed to deliver, so we aren't holding our breath on this latest promise."

Erin Schubert, a parent volunteer with CPS Parents for Buses, said she felt the district was "just giving us a line to try to stave off any further confrontation about it.

"The second the state oversight went away last year, they just fell back into not doing their job," said Schubert, who has one child at her neighborhood school and another at a selective enrollment school.

Miriam Bhimani and Terri Roback, special education advocates who have pushed for state oversight, said they are disappointed that the Illinois State Board of Education closed the corrective action case against CPS.

“ISBE having given the district an ‘A’ for effort falls far short of the mandate,” Roback said.

They said not all of the issues in their complaint have been addressed, including that students continually get dropped off at school late.

Bhimani said they would also like to see more students with disabilities be able to go to schools closer to their homes. “Student assignment… supports the status quo of CPS determining where programs for disabilities are located in the district — CPS controls… how far students have to travel,” she said.