LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Parents of students in the Lafayette Parish School System remember the problems with school buses at the beginning of last school year.
Officials with LPSS say the issues were because of a new bus routing system and budget cuts.

“We feel good, we’re getting ready and we’re going to be ready for school,” said Damon Evans, the Transportation Director for the Lafayette Parish School System.

Now, the School System is working out all the kinks to ensure a smooth transition takes place, before the school year begins.

“All the information’s there, we’re going over last minute details right now.,the only thing that we don’t have in the system is late arrivals,” said Evans.

He says last year was the first year they started using a new, roughly $400,000 bus route system, which ultimately decreased the amount of bus routes from the previous year, from 284 to 252 routes.

“Those 30 something routes, saved us a million and a half, to 2 million dollars, and we became 3 to 5 percent more efficient,” Evans stated.

This year they’ve added a few more bus routes. 
Evans is hoping to avoid what happened at the beginning of last school year.

“Right now, I have no way to get him to school,” said one concerned parent last year.

“Very frustrated, very frustrated. We want our kids to have the best education but at the end of the day, they (LPSS) needs to help us as well,” said another concerned parent.

“There was missing information,” another parent also added.

“Whenever you pull it up on portal for your particular student, you will automatically see if your child is registered for a bus, all the information for that bus,” Evans said.

To find your child’s bus route, go to LPSS’ website, Departments A-Z, Click on ‘T’ for Transportation, click on Bus Stop Locations. There you can click E-Link for End Zone Transportation students, and type in your information.
Or click Satelittle locations for students in a program or academy.

But first, make sure to call the school and register your child if they are supposed to ride the bus.

“Make sure they are tagged as a bus rider. They have to be specifically tagged as a bus rider for them to show up in our system, for us to put them on a bus. And when that happens we automatically put them on a bus, and that information is visible to the parent,” said Evans.

If you do have any transportation issues or bus route questions, you can also call LPSS’ new hotline, 561-RIDE. 
The hotline will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.