North Clackamas Eligibility for Transportation Services

Transportation Services will be provided for students to and from their neighborhood school, consistent with Oregon Revised Statute 327.043.

Transportation Eligibility is based on the distance between the student’s property line and the property line of their school of residence:

North Clackamas elementary and middle school students who live more than one mile from their school of residence will be eligible for transportation services. The district’s high school students who live more than one and one-half miles from their school of residence will be eligible for transportation services. Per board policy EEA.

Distance will be determined by District Transportation practice, in accordance with Oregon Administrative Ruling 581-023-0040 (1)(e).  "Mile(s) from School" means the distance a student lives from school, measured from the closest, reasonable, and prudent point between the school property identified by the local board for that pupil's attendance and the property where the pupil lives. The distance will be measured over the shortest practical route on maintained public roadways or over existing pedestrian facilities capable of meeting the requirements listed in ORS 332.405  (4).

Online mapping services, such as Google Maps, do not measure distance to the nearest accessible point of school property and will provide measurements that are significantly different than the measurements used by the North Clackamas Schools.

Transportation services will also be provided to students residing in a District School Board approved supplemental plan area on record with the Oregon Department of Education.

Transportation services are provided to students requiring special needs transportation as determined by their Individualized Education Program.

Transportation services are also provided to students qualifying for Transportation services under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

Transportation services are provided to qualifying students attending North Clackamas School’s magnet programs as well as Spanish language immersion programs: Milwaukie El Puente, Riverside Bilingual, Alder Creek, Putnam, Sojourner School, Oak Grove Center, and New Urban High School.

Charter school students that attend Milwaukie Academy of the Arts or Clackamas Middle College may ride a district bus to their neighborhood school from an existing stop if space is available and transfer to a shuttle which will take them to their school. In the afternoon, students will be bused to the closest high school to their residence. Students who reside more than 1.5 miles from that high school will transfer to a high school route bus and be bused to the nearest bus stop to their residence. There is no bus service for students who reside less than 1.5 miles from the high school.

Transportation services are not provided to students attending a school outside of their local attendance area.  

All students eligible for Transportation Service will be assigned to a specific bus stop determined by Transportation Services.  Students will only be picked up from, and dropped off at their designated stop.  Parents may view their student's assigned bus stop information through the district’s eLink site. Students should be at their designated bus stop five minutes prior to the student’s designated pickup time.

Guidelines for walking distances to stops are:

• .25 mile for elementary students.
• .33 mile middle school students.
• .4 mile for high school students.

Some students may be assigned to stops that exceed these distances if local street infrastructure does not support school bus travel.  While there are exceptions, bus stops will generally not be placed in cul-de-sacs, dead-end streets, or on private roads.

Kindergarten students must be met at the door of the bus in the afternoon by an authorized parent/guardian or may be taken back to the school. A Kindergarten Release form needs to be filled out in advance for anyone other than the parent or guardian on file.

Transportation is able to accommodate one stop in the morning and one stop in the afternoon for specialized transportation. Because of the inconsistencies created by having more than one morning or afternoon stop for one or more students, Transportation cannot accommodate these requests:

• Students have medications they have to be home consistently to receive
• Special needs students need stability, different stops for different days can cause a problem for emotionally disturbed, Autistic students if the route changes and isn’t consistent.
• The system as a whole is affected by one student. As an example, based on routing and distances to stops, any given bus may not be able to cover routes for the next tiered schools on certain days.

There are many instances where our buses are routed to pick up students in front of a residence or daycare due to physical disabilities. There are instances where our buses cannot get to the residential address and may have to pick up the student at an intersection. These are routed on a case by case basis.

Students are expected to be at their bus stop five minutes before the designated pickup time and ready to board when the vehicle arrives. Drivers are not permitted to sound their horns to alert families of their arrival or utilize their back-up beeper.

A parent or guardian is expected to meet their students at the door of the bus unless they have a Special Needs - Permission/release filled out and on file with Transportation Services. This form needs to be filled out every year.

Students are expected to use their designated stop to board and disembark from the school bus. School bus drivers are strictly prohibited by the Oregon Department of Education from adding unscheduled stops to bus routes.  Please do not ask them to make stops that are not on their route.

If a student needs to ride on a different bus or use a different existing bus stop, a parent or guardian must provide a signed note.  This note must also be approved by the school office and presented to the bus driver in the afternoon.  The note is good for one day and is subject to space availability.  If additional days are needed, a note will need to be supplied for each day. These situations may be subject to Transportation Services approval.

Parents may request a permanent change to their student's bus stop on our website. Requests for an additional existing stop must be associated with a residential or daycare address that the student will be going to.

Requests to create bus stops inside the Walk Zone (the area within 1.0 miles of an elementary or middle school, or 1.5 miles of a high school) will not be granted unless the address falls within a hazardous area as outlined in the School Board adopted supplemental plan on file with the Oregon Department of Education.

Local Attendance Area Ride Time

Ride time refers to:

• In the morning, the time between when the first student boards the bus, and when the bus arrives at school.
• In the afternoon, the time the bus departs the school after loading, and when the last student is dropped off at their bus stop.

Regular education routes serving a school's attendance area for normal home-to-school operations will endeavor to operate with travel times of 45 minutes or less.  However, ride times may exceed 45 minutes due to factors beyond the District's control. 

Ride Times for Schools and Programs Outside the Local Attendance Area

Transportation service to the following programs will have travel times that exceed 45 minutes, due to the extended geographic area served:

• Options Schools (Sojourner School, New Urban High School, Milwaukie El Puente, Riverside Bilingual, Alder Creek Middle School Immersion, Putnam High School Immersion).
• Afterschool programs and Activities.
• Special Education Programs outside of the student's local school attendance area.
• McKinney Vento students attending a school different than their school of residence.