This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage.
Officials with Prince George’s County Public Schools said this school year won’t be a repeat of the start of last year, when school buses arrived late for some families or didn’t show up at all.
This year, school system officials said the transportation department is entering the school year better staffed. They’re encouraging parents to take a few steps to help make sure their children get to school without issues.
“We learned a lot from last year,” said Prince George’s County Public Schools Transportation Director Keba Baldwin.
Baldwin said the school system has been communicating with families and encouraging them to verify their transportation information before school begins. He said parents should make sure their children are registered to take the bus and contact their school if they have questions about whether or not they’ve been assigned a bus.
“The biggest part is working with the school to make sure the correct information is in our ParentVue system so then it hits my transportation system where we can appropriately assign you a bus,” he said.
Parents are also being encouraged to download the Chipmunk bus-tracking app, which Baldwin said provides estimated arrival times and updates about a child’s bus. He said the app is one of the improvements made following last year’s challenges.
Last year, families complained about late buses, missed pickups and long waits for answers as the school system struggled with a bus driver shortage. By late September, school leaders said transportation service was improving, although some challenges remained.
This year, Baldwin said the transportation department is about 95% staffed. He said the district will operate roughly 1,000 buses each day with more than 1,000 drivers and about 300 bus attendants helping to get kids to class.
With classes set to begin next Tuesday, thousands of students are expected to rely on school buses to get to and from school.
One request he has for parents is not to drive children to school during the first days of the school year if they intend to have them ride the bus regularly.
“Please allow your students to ride the school bus because we need to be able to take a ridership count so that we can clean up our stops to maximize the use of our buses,” Baldwin said.
He said those early rider counts help the school system determine which stops are being used and make adjustments to routes.
Baldwin added that parents who encounter transportation issues on the first day of school should contact their child’s school first so staff can help resolve the problem.
He also had a message for students riding the bus this year: follow the code of conduct, respect fellow students and remember that drivers are responsible for safely transporting dozens of children each day.
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