Redistricting and Transportation: What We Heard and What Comes Next
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By: Ryan Reyna, Chair, Strategy & Accountability Committee;
Kelly Carmichael Booz, Vice Chair, Strategy & Accountability Committee;
Dr. Michelle Rief, Member, Strategy & Accountability Committee
Redistricting implementation and transportation were major focuses of our August 31, 2026, Strategy and Accountability Committee meeting as part of our broader review of the opening of schools. We typically publish a comprehensive update following each committee meeting, and we will still share that broader update. But given the questions and concerns surrounding transportation, we wanted to share what we learned about this issue now.
We know the start of the school year brought real challenges for some families, including late buses, questions about bus route assignments, and concerns about changes to walk zones. We also know that transportation staff, bus drivers, school administrators, and City partners have been working intensively to resolve individual cases and stabilize service.
We were joined for this discussion by ACPS Chief Operating Officer Dr. Anthony Peña and Chief of Student Services and Equity Dr. Marcia Jackson, who has spearheaded ACPS’s redistricting efforts from the very beginning. Together, they helped the committee better understand how the new boundaries are being implemented, the immediate transportation challenges, the work underway now to address them, and the lessons ACPS will carry forward as this multi-year transition continues.
Redistricting Implementation: What We Are Seeing
Dr. Jackson shared that ACPS has received relatively few questions from families about their school assignments under the new boundaries. Given the number of students and schools affected by redistricting, that is an important sign of progress and a testament to the extensive planning, community engagement, staff work, and School Board deliberation that went into the process.
While the new school assignments have generally been understood by families, transportation has emerged as the more significant implementation challenge during the opening of school.
This year is also the first step in a multi-year transition. Under the redistricting policies adopted by the School Board, some students received deferrals allowing them to remain at their previous schools for a defined period of time. As a result, some schools may have higher enrollment this year than they will once those deferrals phase out. This temporary enrollment does not necessarily reflect the longer-term patterns created by the new boundaries.
Staff are meeting weekly to monitor enrollment at each school and determine whether staffing adjustments may be necessary.
Under the School Board’s new policy, ACPS will no longer use capacity transfers to move students out of schools based on enrollment. Instead, staffing allocations will be adjusted, where necessary, to reflect actual enrollment at each school.
Because deferrals and other redistricting policies will continue to take effect over time, clear and early communication will remain important, particularly for families who may experience another change during the 2027–28 school year.
A Significant Transportation Transition
This year’s transportation planning took place alongside the implementation of the new elementary and middle school boundaries. That required ACPS to rebuild routes based on new school assignments, updated transportation eligibility, different student travel patterns, and revised walk zones.
At the same time, student addresses, registrations, program placements, aftercare arrangements, opt-ins, opt-outs, and deferral decisions continued to change throughout the summer and into the opening of school.
Staff explained that many of the cases they are reviewing involve late registrations, student moves, changes in transportation needs, incomplete information, or duplicate requests submitted through multiple channels.
Staff reported that approximately 97% of eligible students had been assigned to routes and that all students already assigned to bus routes had been transported to school. While that does not mean every route operated on time or that every family’s experience was smooth, staff indicated that relatively few individual cases remained unresolved for transportation-eligible students.
Students will not be penalized for transportation-related tardiness while ACPS continues working through these challenges.
Staffing and Bus Capacity
ACPS currently has 18 unfilled bus-driver positions. Transportation staff have been maintaining service by doubling some routes, which means a driver completes one route before beginning another.
ACPS Staff plans to hire and onboard new drivers by the end of September. We are facing similar shortages because of competition from higher-paying commercial driving positions, and the region’s high cost of living continues to affect recruitment and retention.
We also learned that buses are not currently operating at full seating capacity. Under ACPS’s space-available transportation process and Regulation EEA-R, a student who is not otherwise transportation eligible may receive a seat only if space is available on an existing route and the student can use an existing bus stop. ACPS will not create a new stop or change an existing route for a space-available request. Approval is not guaranteed, and transportation-eligible students retain priority for available seats.
We appreciate the drivers and transportation staff who have continued serving students while their team works to fill these vacancies.
Strengthening the Case-Review Process for Transportation
At the time of our meeting, Dr. Peña had been serving as ACPS Chief Operating Officer for only 16 days. He brings extensive experience in urban school-district operations from Boston Public Schools and Baltimore City Public Schools, where he led work involving facilities management, maintenance, capital coordination, infrastructure planning, emergency response, and districtwide communications. He described the full-scale review he began after arriving at ACPS, including efforts to strengthen how transportation cases are tracked, categorized, assigned, and resolved.
His goal is to create a consistent process in which decisions are informed by accurate data and the same standards are applied across schools and families.
Staff are working to distinguish among several different types of requests, including:
Eligible students who need route assignments;
Changes caused by moves or late registrations;
Specialized transportation needs;
Questions involving student or address information;
Walk-zone and pedestrian-safety concerns;
Aftercare or alternate-stop requests; and
Duplicate requests concerning the same student.
This distinction matters because not every transportation concern has the same cause or requires the same solution.
What We Learned About Walk Zones
A guiding principle of redistricting was to strengthen neighborhood schools and create more opportunities for students to walk safely to school.
Walking can support student health, neighborhood connections, and more efficient use of school buses. But families must also have confidence that designated walking routes are reasonable and safe.
The school walk zone distances did not change in policy; however, an initial error in the walk zone locator created confusion for some families, particularly around applying the one-mile standard for students in grades K–8 and the 1.5-mile standard for high school students.
Staff shared that this situation highlighted challenges in interpreting and communicating the policy clearly and consistently, as well as technical coordination among the GIS systems used by ACPS and its partners. ACPS is reviewing how information moved across those systems and how transportation decisions were communicated to families. This review will help clarify any discrepancies, strengthen coordination, and support clearer and more consistent communication going forward.
Working With the City on Pedestrian Safety
City staff has been incredible partners to ACPS throughout this transition. Their collaboration has been essential, not only in reviewing individual intersections, but also in helping ACPS understand current traffic patterns, infrastructure conditions, crossing-guard coverage, and potential short-term improvements. We are grateful for their responsiveness and shared commitment to student safety.
City staff is responsible for designating hazardous intersections based on updated assessments of safety improvements. ACPS staff acknowledged that some updated walking routes include intersections or conditions that warrant additional review. ACPS is working closely with the City to identify potentially hazardous locations and determine whether short-term improvements are possible. These could include:
Reallocating crossing guards to areas of greatest need;
Adjusting the length of pedestrian crossing signals;
Conducting community walks or walking field trips;
Expanding the use of Safe Routes to School instruction;
Exploring partnerships with local businesses that could serve as safe locations for students; and
Considering a coordinated volunteer effort with community organizations.
Staff reported that the City is currently fully staffed for crossing guards, but the allocation of those guards may need to be reviewed based on the new walk zones.
The committee also discussed locations where pedestrian-safety improvements are planned but have not yet been constructed. Staff confirmed that current conditions, not only planned future improvements, will be considered as walk routes are reviewed.
We also discussed the importance of establishing clear and consistent criteria for identifying hazardous conditions. Walking conditions can be complex and specific to a particular location, which makes coordination among ACPS, City transportation staff, and public-safety officials especially important.
What Comes Next: Updates and Lessons Learned
At the September 10 School Board meeting, the Board will receive a broader update on redistricting implementation, including the transportation issues that emerged during the opening of schools.
Dr. Jackson, who has led ACPS’s redistricting work from the beginning, will play a central role in that update alongside Facilities and Operations and other division leaders. The update is expected to help the Board and community better understand:
How the new school assignments and boundaries are working;
The impact on class sizes and building use across the division;
Progress resolving remaining transportation cases;
Bus-driver vacancies and route coverage;
The status of walk-zone and pedestrian-safety reviews;
Coordination among the different student-information, GIS, and routing systems; and
Planning and communication for future phases of redistricting implementation.
After September, ACPS will also conduct a broader after-action review of transportation and walk-zone implementation. That review will examine what worked, what was missed during planning and implementation, and what improvements should be made before future phases of the redistricting transition.
The Strategy and Accountability Committee will continue monitoring this work. Our goal is not only to address the concerns families are experiencing now, but also to help ACPS strengthen its planning, communication, and transportation systems as redistricting implementation continues.
