August 20, 2021 – Today DPS released a statement on a transportation update. The full statement is below:
“Hello DPS Family! We hope your new school year is off to a great start, we’re so happy to have all students back in our buildings! We do know there were some bumps along the way this week when it comes to transportation — some buses were very late and some were missing altogether. This is largely due to a critical shortage of bus drivers, which is hitting districts across the country. So far, we have been able to offset some of this driver shortage by insisting Alltown use bus drivers from other school districts that have not yet started school. However, over the next few weeks, Alltown anticipates losing these drivers to their home locations. While we continue to work with Alltown to develop long-term solutions to make bus routes more efficient, we do want to let you know that delays and canceled bus routes will likely continue for the next couple weeks. We will do everything we can to notify parents when a bus is late or will not pick up students. Working to make our bus routes run more efficiently will have longer-term positive effects. A reliable, efficient bussing system will significantly reduce car traffic at many of the school sites, which is currently causing significant traffic congestion. We will also reach out soon to ask you to verify that your student does in fact use bus transportation – please respond quickly to this request for info. In the meantime, DPS has an app to give you real-time alerts and location information for your student’s bus ride to and from school. The Edulog Parent Portal app will show you the GPS location of your student’s bus and send you a push notification when it’s nearing your student’s bus stop. You can also receive time-sensitive messages from the transportation department, for example, if your student’s bus is running late. Learn more now, plus detailed instructions on how to sign into the app, at www.dps61.org/findmybus. When logging in, please ensure your student’s first and last names are spelled correctly (as entered into Skyward), and the student ID and date of birth are entered correctly. If you’re still having trouble, you can reach out to Keisha Holliday at 217-362-3026. We thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to work through challenges and find solutions that work for our entire DPS Family.”
