After School Transportation Guidance for 2023-2024 School Year

Ahead of the new school year, we would like to provide some clarity about transportation eligibility from our school buildings to the Department of Human Services Programs’ (DHSP) after school programming and other community-based after school programs. The information outlined below is consistent with what was done last year as well as the long standing policies of the Cambridge School Committee. 

• Any elementary school student with a destination beyond one mile from the school they attend will be eligible to sign up for transportation via the district’s primary bus vendor, Eastern Bus Co.

• Exceptions to the one mile requirement:

  • Students traveling within a mile of their school or after school programs that must cross Massachusetts Avenue, McGrath Highway, Fresh Pond Parkway, or Alewife Brook Parkway  are eligible for  transportation.

  • If there are available seats on a bus that is traveling from one CPS school to another within the one mile radius as part of the district’s standard bus routes to pick up other CPS students, then students traveling to the second school for a DHSP after school program are eligible for after school bus transportation. Please note that eligibility may be discontinued if additional students traveling beyond the one mile radius register for that bus.

  • Finally, there are a limited number of safety and equity-based exemptions in place to take students to specific housing developments that are in proximity to certain after school programming locations. These limited exemptions are based on the  need associated with specific after school programs and/or families living in housing developments (please see table below).

While we cannot accommodate transportation to each and every after school program operating within the city, we intend to continue to sustain the level of service provided last year. Through these exemptions, we and our vendor, Eastern Bus Co., have maximized our capacity to accommodate students traveling from our schools to after school programs within the one-mile radius. We intend for the service to remain the same for the 2023-2024 school year.