A White Rock mother with children in the Surrey school district is on unsteady ground for September, when her children with diverse needs will be impacted by the district cutting bus services for some students.
At the May regular school board meeting, trustees announced that some bus services for students would be halting, along with other cuts in order to produce a balanced budget.
"We will continue to provide service to students with the highest, most complex needs, specifically those who are physically dependent, deaf/blind or enrolled in a specialized intensive intervention program," a Surrey school district spokesperson told Peace Arch News.
Other students who previously met the qualifications for bus services in Surrey Schools will no longer have access, come September. For mom Jessica Norman, this means her two children will not have transportation to school – one the family heavily relies on, as both children have diverse needs.
"There are many families in the same situation as myself and we are scrambling at this point," Norman said.
The single mother's two children are in specialized programs, her eldest in HOPE, a program for students who have been diagnosed with anxiety and/or depression, while her youngest is in B.A.S.E.S., which is for neurodiverse children.
"I'm still advocating for them with the schools, with Surrey school district to get them reinstated for the bus but so far I have not been able to get a yes yet," Norman shared.
"At this point, I don't have another option of getting my kids to school."
Her children — one in Grade 11 and the other going into Grade 8 — go to different schools, while the older one attends one out of the district's catchment, making walking to school unsuitable. Norman is also not comfortable with her children taking public transit.
"I'm losing sleep over this because I don't have another option for them, I'm not sure what's going to happen in September. It's one more barrier."
If the bus service is not reinstated for Norman's children, she says she will have to ask for a leave from her job in order to drive her kids to and from school. Financially, this would impact the family immensely, she added.
"We have to advocate for lots of things so this feels like one more thing we have to ask for that we shouldn't have to ask for; it should just be provided," the mother stressed.
"I'm a single mom trying to parent two kids with different needs, so it's pretty tough and pretty stressful to have to worry about another thing... It seems like they're ranking children with needs (by) who's neediest versus who's not, which is also unethical."
It is no secret that Surrey school district is facing funding issues, the cuts to bus services being another change impacting the city's students. Inflation and increasing student enrolment are the largest contributors to the district's financial struggles, it states.
"While transportation service is not funded by the provincial government, nor is it mandated, historically the Surrey Board of Education has chosen to fund transportation support. However, the costs have risen significantly, and the current model is no longer sustainable due to ongoing budget challenges," the district spokesperson explained, adding the district understands this change will be difficult for families to adjust to.
"In the current school year, our district allocated approximately $7.6 million to bus service for students with disabilities or diverse needs. Our projected budget expenditure for the upcoming school year will be approximately $3 million."