Last year's bus rules changing

Posted by Philissa at 9:00 AM

Yesterday, the Daily News ran a tiny article saying that the DOE is revisiting the changes to school bus eligibility rules that caused such a fiasco last January when they were put in place. Kids will no longer have to live a quarter mile from a bus stop to get service, and kids in second grade or younger will now get yellow bus service instead of Metrocards. It looks like much of the work done by the highly paid consultancy Alvarez and Marsal is being undone, which is good news for parents who weren't happy that their young children were suddenly denied school bus service and required to take dangerous or convoluted routes to school. (One child was hit and killed by a city bus when walking to school earlier this year; he previously had taken a bus.) Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is right to ask why the DOE isn't publishing the changes widely. Contact the Office of Pupil Transportation if you have questions about how your kids should get to school.