COEUR D’ALENE, ID – After changes were made to Idaho’s safety regulations, only Idaho students that live outside of a 1.5 mile radius from their schools will automatically qualify for bussing.
The Coeur d’Alene School District has been addressing this issue.
They told NonStop Local that anybody within the 1.5 mile radius can only be bused if they are eligible based on safety reasons.
The District learned during an audit last year that over 700 students would be ineligible for bussing in the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
Thomas Gandy, the District’s Safety and Security Coordinator, told NonStop Local that after learning about the changes, he worked on a committee to figure out what is a “safe” or “unsafe” distance from their schools.
“What are the things that we feel are unsafe and would allow a student to qualify for safety reasons,” Gandy said.
Some factors they considered include whether a child can walk on a sidewalk or not, do they have to walk over train tracks, a major highway, etc.
“We ended up creating a criteria that saved about 600 kids from having to walk. We ended up having just over 100 kids that would have been bused that no longer qualify under the State’s guidelines,” Gandy said.
He added that when families were notified about this change last school year, there was a lot of frustration. But now, the reaction has been more positive.
“Most of our families understand that we have to play within the State’s guidelines and criteria. And that we did our best work to make sure that we impacted the least amount of students possible,” Gandy said.
