Ridership Eligibility

Free Transportation: Elementary or middle school students must live more than two miles from the school designated for attendance. High school students must live more than three miles from the school designated for attendance. Economic status does not automatically qualify a student to obtain transportation consideration.

Discretionary Transportation: Elementary or middle school students may request transportation on a discretionary basis. Transportation Route Specialists will determine availability of space on an existing route; stops cannot be created. Buses are considered full when ridership exceeds 70 percent of capacity for the entire route. Because the Transportation Department has to determine actual ridership at the beginning of the school year, discretionary requests will not be reviewed or approved until at least October.

Open Enrollment: Students approved for within-district open enrollment may request discretionary transportation to the receiving school. Transportation Route Specialists will determine availability of space on an existing route; stops cannot be created. Buses are considered full when ridership exceeds 70 percent of capacity for the entire route. Because the Transportation Department has to determine actual ridership at the beginning of the school year, discretionary requests will not be reviewed or approved until at least October.

Bilingual/ELL Programs: The Bilingual/ELL Coordinator in Intercultural Programs must approve students eligible for these programs, and in need of transportation services. The secretary at the assigned building will complete the Transportation Request Form for new students and submit to Transportation.

Voluntary Transfer: Regional leadership approves students eligible for VTP transportation. The site enrollment person at the assigned school completes the Transportation Request Form for new students and submits to Transportation.

Special Education: Students eligible for special education transportation are determined by the building staffing team. The building secretary makes transportation requests in conjunction with the Special Education Consultant via the Transportation Request Form. Special education students may qualify for services under other District procedures (i.e., distance).

Request for Exceptions: Written requests for exception or special consideration may be made by the building principal to the Transportation Department for review.

Transportation-General Information
The school district’s Transportation Department employs 195 people who drive and maintain the school district’s busses, safely delivering 10,000 students each day to and from their classes. Des Moines Public Schools is home to one of the state’s largest and busiest transportation programs. To put it all in perspective, here are some facts and figures:

Number of DMPS buses: 136
Daily number of bus routes: about 100
Daily number of individual bus runs: 650
Number of students transported daily: about 10,000
Number of miles traveled annually: over 1.5 million
Number of gallons of diesel fuel consumed annually: about 250,000
Cost of a 2012 65 passenger bus: $77,200

Transportation
Todd Liston
Address: 1915 Prospect Road, Des Moines, IA 50310
P: 515-242-7887 | F: 515-242-7786 | E: todd.liston@dmschools.org
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