Parents in Howard County are still scrambling to get their children to class on time after two weeks of school bus delays and cancellations.

In June, the Maryland school district signed a five-year contract with Zūm, a California-based transportation company that boasts “safe, reliable, and sustainable” student busing.

But on the first day of school, parents woke up to news that 20 bus routes had been canceled. And not much has changed since. Buses are consistently late for pick-up and drop-off, sometimes delayed by an hour or more, parents said. And sometimes, they don’t show up at all.

Kiran Adimoolam said that no bus has shown up over the past two weeks for her oldest son, who is supposed to receive specialized transportation because of his disability accommodations.

“Things like that should not happen, but it has happened,” Adimoolam said. “I was provided with the bus number and pick-up time. But so far, the bus never shows up.”

Adimoolam and her husband both work as doctors. Since August 28, they’ve been alternating driving their son to and from Pointers Run Elementary School.

“It’s a last-minute struggle,” she said. “It's so hard to find someone to drop him off on short notice. I've been taking time off from my work, canceling patients. So it has a tangible effect.”

The most frustrating part is the lack of communication, Adimoolam said.

“The uncertainty is really bothering me,” she said. “If only they told me, ‘Hey, you will not be getting transportation for so and so days,’ then I can make some arrangements, like I can have at least a concrete plan.”

Parents across the county said communication from Zūm and Howard County schools officials is inconsistent at best, and nonexistent at worst. Representatives from both declined requests for comment for this article, instead directing to released statements or blogs.

Eight bus routes remain canceled “due to a driver shortage,” the Howard County school website says. Four others were canceled this morning, September 8, when drivers called out of work — and 14 ran late.

As of Tuesday, Chief Operating Officer Scott Washington no longer works for Howard County public schools, a district spokesperson confirmed via email. School transportation issues persist.

‘It’s an every day thing’ 

Pooja Bansal said her fourth grade student has been left waiting for his bus at Fulton Elementary School past the final bell multiple times over the last two weeks, sometimes for up to an hour.

On the first day of school, her son’s bus didn’t arrive until 4:45 p.m. It was supposed to be there at 3:55 p.m.

“So the kids were sitting there for an hour,” Bansal said. “He was tired. He was starving. It wasn’t a great experience.”

Since then, Bansal said buses have been late for pick-up in the morning or canceled the day of. And her son continues to be dropped off at home much later than the scheduled time. Parents in her neighborhood created a group text to coordinate last-minute carpools that now has hundreds of messages.

“Every day we are getting text messages and emails like, ‘Oh, these bus routes are canceled for today,’” Bansal said. “And we get these at 8 in the morning. It’s an every day thing.”

Bansal said she has received texts about late after-school buses as late as 4:00 p.m.

“We want the communication to be at least beforehand so that parents can make the arrangements,” she said. “But if you weren't getting that message half an hour after the kids' dismissal, then there is no arrangement there.”

Bansal said her school officials have communicated that no child will be penalized for late arrival due to busing issues. But Stephanie de Wit, another Howard County parent, wrote in an email that her high schooler has been marked absent after being more than 25 minutes late.

Parents say their children are missing valuable class time. Adimoolam worries that her son will have to skip school if transportation issues are not resolved soon, because of her work schedule.

“He might end up staying home, which would be a loss in his instruction time,” she said.

Driver shortages, new bell schedules contribute to issues 

According to the Howard County transportation site, there were 85-95 bus driver vacancies going into this school year. Zūm hired 46 bus drivers from Washington state to fill gaps in the first week — but those drivers have since returned to their normal routes.

Last week, Zūm began offering an $8,000 signing bonus for new certified drivers in Howard County. Over 30 new drivers signed up over the weekend.

Zūm’s blog site also says that new Howard County bell schedules make delays inevitable. In February, the county board of education voted to create a tiered bell schedule that allows high school and middle school students to get more sleep.

“There is very little time between each bell schedule (this is “stacking”),” Zūm’s website reads. “One of our drivers may be fully on time in delivering elementary school students, but he or she might be late when delivering middle or high school students.”

Howard County schools’ transportation site says that “starting schools later has taken out any slack that we used to have in our routes” and it is “not realistically possible” for buses to be on time.

The county site says it is “highly likely” that bell schedules will need to be changed again to ensure buses arrive on time for pick-up and drop-off. No formal details have been announced yet.

But parents want answers now.

“To leave everything up in the air and have this uncertainty is not acceptable,” Adimoolam said.