It took until the second week of November for the school bus to arrive on time to pick up Christine Neumerski’s son.

The boy – a fourth grader with autism – missed hours of class as Montgomery County Public Schools buses ran late during the first two and a half months of school. The yellow bus often pulled up to his Takoma Park home after the first bell had already rung.

“I understand the first two weeks being rocky,” Neumerski said in early November. “How can we still have a chronically late bus?”

Neumerski shared emails and text messages with The Banner, outlining her attempt to get the bus to show up on time. She asked for her 10-year-old son’s name to be withheld to protect his privacy. He’s enrolled in the autism program at Rock Creek Forest Elementary School.

The Montgomery County school district, the largest in Maryland, transports more than 100,000 students to campuses. Between pickup and drop-off, its fleet of 1,300 buses drives the equivalent of four laps around the equator — daily.

But this sprawling transportation system has a history of issues, both specific to the district and reflective of national trends.

According to MCPS spokeswoman Liliana López, the district’s Division of Transportation Services has received only a handful of complaints about Rock Creek Forest buses this year.

“The Division of Transportation works closely with school staff to try and reduce tardiness as much as possible,” she wrote in an email.

López said MCPS doesn’t keep data on bus arrivals, making it hard to quantify the scale of this issue.

Bus problems

Since the pandemic, districts across the country have struggled to hire enough drivers. School bus driver employment sits 9.5% below 2019 staffing levels, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Just last week, Montgomery County Public Schools hosted a job fair for bus drivers and bus attendants, who watch over students while the drivers keep their eyes on the road.

“It’s a nationwide problem based on the hours and the compensation,” said Pia Morrison, president of SEIU Local 500, which represents district support staff.

The district’s transportation department also ran into problems after it announced a long-term plan to convert to an all-electric bus fleet. The district signed a massive contract with Highland Electric Fleets, but the rollout was plagued by delays and allegations of wasteful spending.

The Maryland State Board of Education recently ruled that the board’s decision to award the contract was “arbitrary, unreasonable, and illegal.”

Separately, the district attempted last year to launch a tracking app, which would’ve allowed parents like Neumerski to monitor their children’s bus location in real time. Officials quickly found a “vulnerability that could potentially expose student information,” and they ended the pilot program in the spring of 2024.

Neighboring Prince George’s County schools, meanwhile, use an app that allows parents to follow their child’s bus. Other districts across the country have deployed similar technology.

For Neumerski, what matters is that her son gets safely to school on time. She called the bus depot and checked in with his fourth grade teacher for updates as the weeks of late pickups dragged on.

“The bus driver kept apologizing and said they keep adding kids and there is no way that the route can get here on time,” she texted the teacher on Sept. 5.

Still late

Neumerski began flagging the late bus almost as soon as the school year started.

She emailed district officials in the first week of September to say her son’s bus had been arriving between 9:20 and 10am.

School hours begin at 9:25.

“My child has missed anywhere from 25 minutes to a full hour of classroom instruction every day,” she wrote. “The loss of instructional time is particularly concerning since my son — and all of his peers on this bus — have disabilities and cannot afford to miss part of their school day.”

A week later, she was still calling the bus depot for updates. “The dispatcher said she knows the bus has been running 45 minutes late, and while they are ‘working on it,’ they still have not fixed the problem,” she wrote in an email.

A week after that, Neumerski escalated her complaints to the district’s chief operating officer.

“He has been on two separate bus routes, and each bus [carrying all children with extensive support needs] has been late every day,” she wrote to Adnan Mamoon.

Many children with autism fare poorly when their routines are disrupted. Neumerski said it’s unacceptable that the bus delay is impacting some of the district’s most vulnerable students.

Her son struggles with communication, but he will turn to his mother on days the bus is running behind and tell her, “Want school bus.”

Rock Creek Forest’s special education program draws students from disparate neighborhoods who may be zoned to other campuses.

“This wide geographic reach adds considerable travel time and complexity to the bus routes,” López said.

Delays likely stemmed from enrollment changes in the program, she added.

“It’s common for route changes, especially those involving special education programs, to have a cascading effect on other students, as buses are routed to accommodate multiple stops efficiently,” López said.

Neumerski said she’s lucky she had the time to deal with it. She’s a researcher with the University of Maryland and can work mostly from home. Still, the frequent delays have meant missing many of her morning meetings.

“If I were an hourly employee, I’d be fired,” she said.

New route

Neumerski held onto hope as she stood in her front yard on Nov. 10. A new bus, with a new route, was supposed to be heading their way for the first time.

She and her son walked out of their house at 8:54 a.m., bringing the family’s dog Leo to wander the front yard. Orange leaves littered the grass, and Neumerski suggested that her son scoop the foliage into a trash can.

The family has gotten creative with how to fill their mornings. They’ll toss a yellow ball around, bouncing it off the roof and watching it roll down. They’ll wander the parking lot across the street.

They have to keep an eye out because district drivers aren’t supposed to wait around for kids if they’re not ready to go when the bus arrives.

“Parents should have their children ready and at the pick-up site 5 minutes before the bus is due. Tight scheduling does not permit bus operators to wait for your child,” reads a district FAQ about special education bus transportation.

On that Monday morning, Neumerski saw a flash of yellow rounding the corner at 9:08.

“Bus is coming!” she told her son.

It was the earliest she could recall it arriving all year. Even so, Neumerski wondered if morning traffic and other student pickups still made it impossible for her son to make it to class on time.