Massachusetts Mom’s Children Left Stranded Without Bus Service Amid Migrant Crisis, District Faces ‘Financial’ Strain
Parents of over 100 pupils in a suburban Boston school district are scrambling to find methods to bring their children to school after a lack of resources and shortages resulted in a lack of bus service outside of grades K-6.
Ashley Francois, a local mom, is one of these parents. She says she has struggled to send her children to school since her license was indefinitely suspended for medical reasons three years ago.
“In February of ’23, the school system filed educational neglect on me,” she recalled on “Fox & Friends Weekend” the next day.
“One of my children on the IEP [Individualized Education Program] has school refusal, and that’s one of the kids not allowed on the bus or taken off the bus, so they just basically gave right into exactly what this child wanted and that’s not to be at school.”
“Now you’ve made it impossible for me to get him there to access the curriculum, the services that you are specializing for him, so he’s not getting to school to get these services,” she talked about. “Kids aren’t going to be able to access any type of curriculum from the Stoughton Public Schools if there’s no way to get them there.”
Currently, only Francois’ elementary-aged students can take the bus to school. Faced with the additional problem, along with her tight budget and inability to hold a license, she told Fox News she is thinking about keeping her other children at home.
“Am I supposed to pay four to six Ubers per day for the entire school year to get my kids to school, and then wonder how I’m going to pay for my house, electricity, food, clothes, and school supplies?” Because we usually get two pages [lists] of school supplies for each grade,” she explained.
The bus service controversy arose after Massachusetts recently subsidized buses for students from more than 200 migrant families who came into their town, but local Superintendent of Schools Joseph Baeta claims it isn’t the cause of the issue.
In a statement to Fox News, Baeta stated: “When we finished the procedure of no-fee busing, we received 162 additional requests this year. We couldn’t have predicted such huge growth. To that end, we began providing busing to all K-6 kids on Fridays by our policy.
“We are addressing this issue this week (and should have close to 100% transportation),” the statement stated. “We will know more after Tuesday.”
In a separate letter to parents, Baeta stated that the state of Massachusetts does not mandate bus service for children in grades 7 through 12, but it does require transportation for those living in hotels and shelters.
According to the letter, budget constraints left the district with one fewer bus than the previous year, while a shortage of bus drivers worsened the problem.
“We are utilizing funding the state provides to the district to bus the students living in hotels/shelters,” a portion of the letter read. “The funds for these two buses are not from our operating budget. It is incorrect to claim that these children receiving busing are the reason yours did not. If we did not get state funds for kids staying in hotels/shelters, we would not be able to provide these two additional buses.
In a letter earlier this year, Baeta cited an increase in student enrollment, which is partly attributable to a larger migrant population, as a factor in causing “financial pressures.”