Will parents drive their kids to school this year?

School districts around the county are deciding how they are going to reopen.

News 12's Bekah Birdsall talks about how local school districts plan to transport students this fall.

School districts around the county are deciding how they are going to reopen.

News 12's bekah birdsall talks about how local school districts plan to transport students this fall.

As school districts begin to outline their back to school plans for the fall, transportation to and from school has been a common topic.

Rhea school's superintendant is asking parents to drive their own kids to school this fall.

"this reduces the number of students on buses, and also gives another layer of safety to those children."

Masks will be required for students and bus drivers.

And students will be seated in every other row.

"buses will be loaded from the back moving up to the front, asking students that are in the same family to sit together."

Hamilton county schools reentry and & continuous learning plan outlines their transportation in phases.

Phase 1 being schools are closed, the risk of spreading covid-19 is significant, and there is no transportation.

Phase 3 and phase 2, when the spread of covid-19 around the community is minimal to moderate.

Will be very similar with guidelines on bus transportation.

"if we have 50% of students attending schools on certain days, that will just naturally reduce the number of students on a bus.

You know, we've had a lot of students that have already expressed interest in hcs at home which is going to reduce the number of students on a bus."

In these guidelines, students will have an assigned seat.

Students who live in the same household can sit together in the same seat.

And as possible, every other row will be empty.

"often times we have some routes that have too many kids on it and we have to make some adjustments for routes.

So, we are going to pay close attention at the begining of the year to see where we have routes that are being used heavily and some that maybe aren't being used as much."

Bus riders will be tracked daily in case of contact tracing, and bus drivers will be sanitizing after every ride.

Bus transportation will return to normal at phase 4 where there is no risk of spreading covid-19.

Reporting in hamilton and rhea county, bekah birdsall, news 12 now.

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