Transportation Eligibility:

Junior & Senior Kindergarten students must live greater than 1.0kms from their board designated school to be eligible for transportation based on their home address.  Click here: https://geoquery.buskids.ca/TransportationEligibility to check transportation eligibility.

Initial Setup and Changes:

All transportation requests must be made through the school.   Subsequent changes, including address, designate name, daycare or sitter arrangements are also made through the school.    Requests must be received by our department by Wednesday at noon  in order to start the following Monday.

Designates:

Parents of JK/SK students must submit up to 4 designate names to the school. (Parents can count as one name.)  Designates are people listed by the parent/guardian who have permission to pick up the kindergarten student from the bus in the afternoon.  It is the parent/guardian’s choice who they would like to have listed as designates, while the following the age requirement that siblings must be over 10 years old and all other designates must be over 12 years old.  Designate name change requests received by our office take 2 business days to process.  In an emergency, it is best to have your child picked up directly from the school.

Finding your transportation information for September:

A letter will be communicated to you from WESTS through your school sometime in May or June.  This letter will include instructions on to setup your bussing account on www.buskids.ca. The parent portal account is the only way to access your child’s transportation details, and is available after August 15^th.    These transportation details your child’s assigned bustop, pickup and drop off times, and the assigned bus route number (the number found on the side window of the bus).

To access or create your bussing account:

Step 1:

Click on Parent Portal

Step 2:

Create the account using a valid email address, if you have not already done so.

**If you do not have a parent portal account, you will need to create one with the email address you provided to your school for your student's contact information. If you change your email address here, you must also register the change with your school.

Step 3:

Log into your account.  If your email address matches what the school has for your student’s contact information, your student(s) should automatically appear in your account.  Accounts can be created at any time, however students and their transportation information will only show after August 15^th.

First Ride Program:

The First Ride Program is an education and awareness program. It is designed to promote school bus safety to young children and their parents. It familiarizes young children who are beginning school with school buses and helps them overcome any fears they may have about riding on the "big yellow bus". It also provides information to children and their parents on school bus safety procedures, including how to get on and off the bus safely. The program is planned as a fun learning experience for the participants.  Please revisit our main page and sign up for First Ride under “Information for Parents” section.  This program takes place at the end of August at various locations throughout the City and County.

Purple Tag:

Kindergarten students must have their purple tag on their school bag at all times.  It will be given to them by the school during the first week of September. The purple buskids tag is a visual aid for the bus driver to identify students who are in kindergarten.

Bus Delays/Cancellations Alerts

Once you know your bus route number, the best way to receive delay and cancellation information is through the Bus Planner Delays and Cancellations APP:  https://buskids.ca/bus-planner-app/