JCPS bus hotline addresses parents' questions ahead of school year

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools has its bus hotline ready to take questions.

JCPS employees are already busy taking calls. To access the hotline, dial 485-RIDE.

By the first day of school next week, JCPS expects more parents to have questions, so there are about 70 people staffed to answer calls. In the first week of being open, the call center has already taken 3,000 calls to help with anything from where a bus stop is located to safety concerns.

"They also have other job duties, so they're taking time away from their job to do the most important thing that we do as a school district and that's get kids to school and make sure that they are able to be educated by their teachers," said Rachel Droze, JCPS Executive Administrator of Communications and Community Relations.

JCPS BUS TELLER CALL CENTER — JCPS school bus hotline center in Louisville, Ky. on July 30, 2024.

Parents have been asking about bus stop times. School district leaders are suggesting parents to access its Bus Teller Portal. Bus Teller will allow parents to see the bus stop and time assigned to their child. Click here: Bus Teller Portal Link.

"It's a new platform and so with anything new comes questions, so we're actually walking families through it," Droze said. "If they have an assigned bus stop, we're asking parents to grab their computer and we will make sure that they can login and see their bus stop."

The Edulog app is another resource for parents. It shows where a bus currently is located.

District leaders recommend looking at Bus Teller and Edulog sooner rather than later, and use the hotline as soon as possible because they expect more and more calls to come through.

"We are likely just going to get busier and busier so now is the time to lay those questions out so that you can find a way to get an answer by the first day," Droze said.

District officials said they're doing everything they can to make sure they don't repeat last year's chaotic first day, when some students didn't get home until 10 p.m., and several days of classes were canceled to resolve the issues.

Right now, about a dozen TARC drivers are expected to be ready by the first day of school. The rest should start in mid-September.

District leaders are expecting all current bus drivers to be ready by the time classes resume on Aug. 8.

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