Transportation

You don't need to do anything! All students in grades K-12 that are eligible to/from their primary household are automatically routed. If you need transportation to/from a secondary household or child care provider, please see the information below regarding those requests. 4K students need to request busing through the 4K office.

Elementary students that live more than 1.0 mile from the school in their attendance area are eligible for busing services. Middle, upper middle, and high school students that live more than 1.5 miles from the school in their attendance area are eligible to receive busing services. Students that live outside of the eligible busing area to the school in their attendance area may receive busing if that area is considered “unusually hazardous,” as determined by the Dane County Sheriff's Department, according to State Statute 121.54(9). The Sun Prairie Area School District’s unusually hazardous busing areas can be found in Exhibit EE-E.

You can verify your household’s busing eligibility by using the Attendance Area/Busing Eligibility Interactive Map.

Unfortunately, the District cannot make an exception. The busing eligibility distances are set by the taxpayers (either at the Annual Meeting or a Special Electors Meeting) and therefore the District cannot allow non-eligible students to ride.

Parents can view their child’s busing information for the regular school year through the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. Busing information will be uploaded at least two weeks before the start of school. Parents do not need to do anything to sign their child up for busing to/from their primary address - all busing eligible students are automatically routed to/from their primary address prior to the start of each school year.

Bus stops/routes are not published in the newspaper or on the District website. If you have specific questions regarding a bus stop or route, please contact Kobussen at 608.825.8700.

Busing eligible students will receive a bus tag prior to the beginning of the school year. Each busing eligible student must have his/her bus tag in order to ride the bus. Drivers will be periodically checking bus tags throughout the school year. If a student does not present the driver with a bus tag, he/she will not be allowed to ride. If your student carries a smartphone, he/she may take a picture of the bus tag and present that in lieu of having the physical tag.

Your child can receive a replacement bus tag at no cost from his/her school secretary.

You will need to complete the Request for Transportation to/from a Secondary Household form.

In order to approve these requests, the following requirements must be met:

1. The form must be filled out completely and submitted electronically.

2. Requests must be renewed annually. Forms for the new school year are available on or after July 1.

3. The secondary household must be in the busing eligible area for your child’s school. To verify the eligibility of your child’s secondary household, please check the Attendance Area/Busing Eligibility Interactive Map.

4. The secondary household information must be in Infinite Campus. If you are unsure if the District has this information, please contact our District Registrar at crwaak@sunprairieschools.org or by phone at 608.834.6571.

Requests before the start of the school year will be processed as quickly as possible. After the school year begins it may take a week or more to add the secondary household to a route. You will be notified via email once the request has been processed. If approved, you will receive your child’s busing information in that email message. Your child will need to get a bus tag from the school secretary before he/she can begin riding. If the request is denied you will be notified in that message as to why.

Please remember that it is the responsibility of the parent and child to know their own schedule. The District is not responsible for keeping track of which address a child is going to on any given day.

You will need to complete the Request for Transportation to/from a Child Care Provider form.

In order to approve these requests, the following requirements must be met:

1. The form must be filled out completely and submitted electronically.

2. Requests must be renewed annually. Forms for the new school year are available on or after July 1.

3. The child care provider’s address must be in the busing eligible area to your child’s school. To verify the eligibility of your child care provider’s address, please check the Attendance Area/Busing Eligibility Interactive Map.

4. The child care provider’s address must be near a current bus route. No additional stops will be added and routes will not be altered for these requests.

5. There must be room available on the bus to accommodate additional riders. This means it may take until after the third week of school before requests can be approved so the District has time to track ridership and determine if there is room to accommodate these requests.

Requests before the start of the school year will be processed as quickly as possible, but may take until after the third week of school to approve. After the school year begins, it may take a week or more to add the student to a route. You will be notified via email once the request has been processed. If approved, you will receive your child’s busing information in that email message. Your child will need to get a bus tag from the school secretary before he/she can begin riding. If the request is denied you will notified in that message as to why.

Please remember that it is the responsibility of the parent and child to know their own schedule. The District is not responsible for keeping track of which address a child is going to on any given day.

Your child’s new busing information can be found in Infinite Campus Parent Portal after you have notified the District of your address change. If the address is in a busing eligible area and is near an existing stop the change will be in Infinite Campus the following day. If the address is not near an existing stop the new information should be in Infinite Campus within a week after the change. Kobussen needs time to create a new stop and add it to the route, which can take some time, especially right before and after the start of a new school year.

Please notify the District of your new address as soon as possible. Addresses can be post-dated to go into effect at a future date. In this situation, the new busing information would be in Infinite Campus five days before the effective change date of the address.

Your child will need a new bus tag once he/she has received the new busing information in Infinite Campus. Please have your child go to his/her school’s office to get a new bus tag from the secretary.

If you need to update your address, you may do so through the Infinite Campus Parent Portal, or by contacting our Technology department via email or phone at 608.834.6571. Please include Proof of Residency in your email.

In accordance with Procedure EE-R, Section (II)(C)(6), under normal conditions, the maximum amount of time an individual student may be expected to ride the bus one way is one hour, with the exception of the after school activity bus and summer school. This time period does not include the time after discharge at the school or the load time after school.

On rare occasions, a bus may be delayed, causing a student’s ride time to exceed one hour. We will make every effort to avoid this happening and will make adjustments to routes as needed. There is no state law that limits ride times.

Middle and high school students can utilize the after school activity buses if they need to stay late for a club or sport.

General Information Regarding Activity Buses

• All eligible busing students are authorized to ride the after school activity bus.

• Students must present their bus tag and a pass from their coach.

• Activity buses do not have set routes. The bus drivers develop routes based on the students riding on any given day.

• The length of time and the bus stops can vary greatly from day to day. Student ride times may exceed one hour.

Central Heights will have two after school activity buses. One bus services north of Main St and the other south of Main St. All other schools will have one after school activity bus.

Wisconsin law does not require the District to provide door-to-door general school bus service. Procedure EE-R, Section (II)(C)(1) states that students may be required to walk to a bus stop location beyond the intersection of their home’s driveway and the public road. The general guideline is that the distance a student is expected to walk shall be no more than 1.0 miles for students in grades K-12. In order to reduce the number of stops and accommodate more than 5,000 eligible riders efficiently, students may be required to meet the bus at a corner or park. A higher frequency of stops made by a bus increases the dangers of an accident due to impatient motorists. More bus stops also increase the number of time students are riding. If you have concerns about your child's safety, you are encouraged to accompany your child to the bus stop or arrange a neighborhood buddy to walk with your child.

In accordance with Procedure EE-R, Section (II)(B), the following factors will generally be used in determining the routing and scheduling of each bus and the location of bus stops:

1. The length of time any one student would be required to remain on the bus.
2. The proximity of bus stops to students’ residences.
3. Safe practices in bus operation.
4. School schedules.
5. Other practices intended to ensure safety and reasonableness of operation.

If a parent still has a concern and would like the stop reviewed for a possible change, he/she can contact Kobussen at 825-8700. Kobussen staff will review the request and parents will be informed via email when the request is approved or denied. If the request is approved, the student will need to get a new bus tag from the school secretary.

The District makes every effort to make stops safe for students and within a reasonable walking distance from their homes. There are currently over 5,000 eligible busing students in grades K-12, and providing door side pickup for each student is not feasible. If parents are concerned about younger students walking to a bus stop, they are encouraged to accompany their child to the bus stop or arrange a neighborhood child to walk with their child.

Please contact Kobussen at 608.825.8700. If the bus arrived and left the stop before the scheduled pickup time they will send the driver back to pick up any students that were missed. Families are encouraged to have their child waiting at the stop at least five minutes prior to the scheduled pickup time. If the bus is running late, Kobussen will be able to give you an estimate as to when the bus will arrive at the stop.

Please contact Kobussen at 608.825.8700.

Your first point of contact should be your child’s school principal for any concerns regarding student behavior on the bus. He/she can talk with your child and any other students involved in the incident and determine any necessary disciplinary measures that need to be taken. If you have a concern regarding your child’s bus driver, please contact Kobussen at 608.825.8700. They will review the concern and contact the appropriate District personnel.

Transportation Statistics