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CALGARY – The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) has announced the fee and service levels for yellow school bus transportation for the 2020-21 school year. Following direction by the CBE Board of Trustees and responding to 10,000 survey responses, transportation services and fees for the 2020-21 school year have been set to allow the CBE to balance the transportation budget using only provincial funding and user fees.

Service levels and fees have been differentiated based on what services the CBE is mandated/required by legislation to provide. Detailed information about CBE transportation services is available at cbe.ab.ca/transportation.

• Fee for students who live further than 2.4 km away from their designated community school and students in specialized programs who can use general transportation (mandated): $465/year
• Fee for students who live between 1.6 and 2.4 km from school or who attend alternative programs (non-mandated): $800/year

“Specialized programs” refers to programs that support students with exceptional or special needs.

“Alternative programs” refers to programs of choice, such as French Immersion, language programs, arts or science focused learning, etc.

Kindergarten students in half-day programs will be transported one-way only. This means that students in the morning program will have transportation to school and students in the afternoon program will have transportation to their homes at the end of the school day. No mid-day transportation service will be offered. Some CBE schools may be gathering feedback on the possibility of offering kindergarten on alternating full days rather than offering half-days, which would allow for two-way kindergarten transportation. Fees for half-day and alternating day kindergarten students will be 50 per cent of the non-mandated fee: $400/year

Other changes include moving more students in Grade 6 or above to Calgary Transit and adjusting bell times at approximately 20 CBE schools to allow for efficiencies in transit route pairing.

Students in specialized programs who require specialized transportation will not pay a fee. Families with students in specialized programs will receive more information about adjustments to their transportation services for 2020-21 later this month.

Families can register for 2020-21 transportation service starting on May 19, 2020. Families are asked to register by June 14, 2020 to assist us in planning routes for the upcoming school year.

These plans have been made for the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, however, the re-opening of schools is based on recommendations of the government and re-entry plans have not been finalized.

The full transportation survey results, facts about the 2019-20 transportation budget and services and more information about the 2020 transportation engagement are available at cbe.ab.ca/dialogue.

The CBE’s 2020-21 budget will be presented to the Board of Trustees for discussion during the public board meeting on May 19, 2020. For more information on the budget, visit cbe.ab.ca/budget.

Dany Breton, Superintendent, Facilities & Environmental Services, will be available for interview via phone or Skype on Friday, May 15, 2020. Please contact Media Relations to arrange an interview.