School bus service has been cancelled for an estimated 3,500 children in Howard County. The Board of Education and the Howard County Public School System elected to cancel services without a broad request for public input or a public hearing. Ever since the new non-transportation area maps were released to the public at the end of March 2023, parents, guardians, caregivers, students, and other concerned citizens have described how these cancellations will harm child safety and equity in Howard County. No formal response or change to the policy has been made.

Whereas the Howard County community has presented concerns to the Howard County Board of Education and the superintendent about how changes to Policy 5200 will harm child safety and equity in Howard County and whereas we have not received a formal response or change to the policy and whereas we were not allowed to participate in the decision making process through a public hearing or other request for broad public input, we are petitioning now for responses to the following:

1) Please provide an explanation to the public as to why a broad request for input was not requested prior to changes that will affect the daily life of thousands of students and their families. If there is no explanation, please provide an apology and a public statement that you will not allow for decisions to be made quietly when they affect the public with such magnitude. 

2) Please explain why the Board of Education chose a more expensive out of state school bus contractor and refused to give raises to local school bus contractors that have been reported in the news media as being significantly cheaper. Please explain why broad public input was not requested for this decision that can jeopardize the ability to have sufficient drivers for next year.

3) Please explain why some hazard buses were cancelled despite promises that hazard buses would not be cancelled with revisions to Transportation Policy 5200. (Hazard bus is the term Howard County uses for school buses that transport children to and from school when a suitable walking path is not available.)

4) Please provide a list of safety provisions that you will make for children and adolescents walking on heavily wooded paths with poor access to help in attempts of sexual abuse and assault. If you do not intend to create additional safety provisions, please provide an explanation.

5) Please provide to families receiving a safety assessment at least one route that was determined by the Transportation Office to be safe enough for walking to school and meeting the distance requirements in the new non-transportation areas.

6) For schools affected by school bus cancellations that are already overwhelmed with backed up car rider lines, please provide a plan to hire police, crossing guards and/or additional staff to insure daily child safety at drop off and pick up times. 

7) Please describe what resources are available to parents/caregivers who neither have the time nor money to hire help transporting children to and from school after school buses are cancelled.

8) Please describe the system that is in place to track and report student injuries, sexual abuse, assault, and/or deaths that occur during walks to/from school or during school drop off/pick up. Please describe how this information will be made available to families.

9) Please describe the membership of the "Student Walking Route and Bus Stop Review Committee.” How are community members chosen to serve in these roles? How do you insure that parent concerns are addressed appropriately without bias?

10) Many parents need to hire before and aftercare to care for children due to school bus loss. Most programs are already booked for next year. Are you working with Parks & Recreation to create more spots? What other solutions are you making available to families?