The Wellesley Transportation Department has sent out an informational letter that explains how to register public and in-town private school students for school bus service for the 2019 – 2020 school year. Here’s the deal: if you live two or more miles from the school and your public school child is in kindergarten – 6th grade, there is no fee by state law. According to Wellesley Public Schools Transportation Director Deane McGoldrick, 206 K – 6 students live more than two miles from their school, making them eligible for no-fee bus service.
If you want bus service for your closer and older kids, it’s yours, for a price. Wellesley has held the fee next year at $521 per student, with a family cap of $1,142, same as last year. McGoldrick says that 1300 students are currently enrolled in the school bus program, adding, “We are always looking for ways to increase bus ridership at our elementary schools. We point out that the cost is $2.89 per day, riding the school bus is the safest way for students to get to school, more students on the bus means less cars on the road and in car line. That last one is also part of the Town-wide green initiative. But it is real, buses help the environment.”
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District enrollment for Wellesley Public Schools was 5,006 for the 2017-18 school year, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“I am borrowing a great line from Lexington Public Schools,” McGoldrick added. “Simply said, ‘you are not in school traffic, you are school traffic.'”
The registration deadline and payment in full are due April 5, 2019. You can find all the details here.
For questions, contact Deane McGoldrick, Transportation Coordinator, 781-446-6210 x5614
