Busing Information for Families
Working together to make your child’s commute to school a positive experience that enhances their education and fosters positive relationships.
Portal Login Read FAQsBUS DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS
Working together to make your child’s commute to school a positive experience that enhances their education and fosters positive relationships.
Portal Login Read FAQsFollow the links below for the most up-to-date information about your child’s transportation journey.
Eligibility for transportation is based on the distance from your home to the school and other factors like program type or special needs. You can review the full guidelines to see if your child qualifies for bus service.
Our subscription service delivers information about delays and cancellations that affect your child’s route or school. You can choose email or text alerts to receive notification as soon as updates are posted to the STSWR website. Alerts can help you plan ahead and know your child is safe aboard the bus, even if traffic or weather has slowed it down.
Students who are eligible for busing are automatically assigned transportation based on the home address listed in their school record. For any updates to student information, including address changes, please contact your student’s school directly.
If your student is eligible for busing but does not require transportation, please complete the form below. This helps STSWR plan more accurately for September and throughout the school year and eliminates the chance of your student(s) being sent home on a school bus by mistake.
Find tips and resources to help you prepare for your child’s first bus ride. Explore safety videos, orientation events, and guidance on what to expect so the first day feels safe and positive.
The Parent Portal sends alerts to your email or phone about bus delays and cancellations that affect your child’s specific route or school. Notifications are posted as soon as updates appear on the STSWR website, with text alerts typically arriving fastest. Note that delays under 10 minutes are not posted. Register now so you have the latest information.
The daily active commute contributes to academic performance and personal health; so our goal is that every child will have the chance to walk or wheel for part or all of their school journey, making active travel a part of their daily routine.
Welcome to the School Bus! Please watch the video created for students…
The Ride Zone Information and Resources Ministry of Transportation of Ontario Region…
Our interactive database provides the ability to select the current school year or next school year in order to retrieve school boundary and transportation information for your student.
Dates information becomes available for the next school year:
Attendance boundaries in the beginning of February. Busing eligibility and route numbers for next September available in the last week of August.
Notifications are posted by the bus operator when the bus is more than 10 minutes late from its scheduled morning pick up location or afternoon departure time. The delay is calculated from the scheduled time, not the notification time.
For example, if a bus scheduled for 8:30am arrival is delayed by 20-30 minutes and the notification is sent at 8:45 am,the bus should arrive between 8:50 am and 9:00 am.
If your student’s bus is delayed and you have not received a delay notification, please contact the bus operator listed on your Parent Portal directly for updates. They are responsible for posting delays and can provide you with information you request.
All US based phone numbers will not receive text messages. The only option for those families is email.
STSWR will advise, via the media and the STSWR website, of any bus cancellations due to weather. In most cases these notifications will be sent out before 7am on the day of the cancellation. Should the weather deteriorate during the day causing an early dismissal, parents/caregiv ers will be contacted by the school prior to the students being sent home.
For the quickest updates/notifications, please create an account on the Parent Portal. Updates are also posted on our social media pages:
Twitter/X – @STSWR
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/STSWR/
Instagram – @student.transportation.stswr
For the latest daily delays, check the Delays and Cancellations
The distance policy varies depending on school board and grade. Each school board has their own distance policy. In the case of two siblings in different grades having different eligibilities, it is up to the parent to decide how they get their students to school. No exceptions will be given to older siblings to ride with their younger sibling.
Contact the Operator for lost items. To do this you will need to know your student’s bus route.
To find this information use the Parent Portal function
To ensure that your student is not mistakenly placed on a bus, please contact us for the Do Not Ride Form. To have your student back on the bus after being removed, and if your student is still eligible for transportation, please complete the same digital form again.
Please note: If your student will occasionally be riding the bus, do not complete this form, it is only for students who will never be riding the bus. For safety reasons, it is highly recommended that young children have a consistent travel arrangement.
No. Without a written notice from Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region (STSWR), no bus driver is authorised to make changes to your student’s bus stop or bus schedule.
All student information changes, including address changes, must be made through the student’s school directly. Please contact your students school to update the student’s school records to reflect their new drop-off address.
Once the school has made this change and if the student is eligible, the bus will assigned by the STSWR transportation planner through the school records with the primary address listed.
Visit this link on our website to see if the student is eligible to ride the bus from the new address
No. The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) and Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) have determined that students attending French Immersion from outside the school’s regular attendance boundary are not eligible for transportation. Please refer to the board’s transportation procedure for more information.
Once you have received the busing information from your Parent Portal or from the school, you will know the assigned location and approximate time for the bus. Your student needs to be at the assigned location for the bus stop 5 minutes prior to the scheduled pick up time.
Be sure traffic is clear if you need to cross any roadways.
Your student should line up to board the bus. For younger JK and SK students, we suggest they sit close to the bus driver at the front of the bus.
For more information on the responsibilities of different stakeholders see Roles and Responsibilities.