I see buses all the time with only a few children on them. What are they doing?
Fairfax County Public Schools’ buses make two to four runs into and out of schools each day. We currently carry over 110,000 students to school and bring them home daily. On the majority of these runs, FCPS buses achieve a load factor of more than 60%. However, there are exceptions.Several high schools have boundaries that stretch from the western to the eastern part of Fairfax County. For example, Langley and Oakton High Schools have boundaries stretching from Loudoun County to McLean and Fair Oaks. Robinson, Lake Braddock, South County, and Hayfield also have large boundaries that extend bus runs in miles and time resulting in less than capacity loads.FCPS has many special programs that require that students be transported considerable distances, sometimes across the entire county. When transporting students to these special programs, the time length of the run usually makes it impossible to fully utilize the capacity of the bus.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ buses make two to four runs into and out of schools each day. We currently carry over 68,000 students to school and bring them home daily. On the majority of these runs, VBCPS buses achieve a load factor of more than 75%. However, we have many special programs that require that students be transported considerable distances. When transporting students to these special programs, the time length of the run sometimes makes it impossible to fully utilize the capacity of the bus. Often, however, as the bus travels within the school’s attendance boundary it will stop and pick up additional students.Examples of these special programs would be:Magnet schools and gifted and talented programs that encompass multiple base school boundaries and result in light loads due to the number of students involved and the time and mileage to the centralized locations; Alternative programs, vocational programs, alternative schools, and other programs with limited enrollmen
Deer Creek Public Schools buses make two to four runs into and out of schools each day. We currently carry over 1,500 students to school and bring them home daily. On the majority of these runs, Deer Creek buses achieve a load factor of more than 75%. However, we have many special programs that require that students be transported considerable distances. When transporting students to these special programs, the time and length of the run sometimes makes it impossible to fully utilize the capacity of the bus. Often, however, as the bus travels within the school’s attendance boundary it will stop and pick up additional students. Examples of these special programs would be: Special Needs Programs – Special need runs tend to be light loaded due to the small number of children assigned to centers and the boundaries can be citywide. Another reason is school boundaries. Some school boundaries cover wide land areas that extend bus runs in miles and time resulting in less than capacity loads.
