District to Charge Daycare Centers School Bus Use Fee

DALLASTOWN, Pa. — A school district here will start requiring daycare centers to pay $2 per student per day to use its school buses in 2017, FOX 43 reports.

Daycare centers will have to pay the fee for students who travel to and from their daycare center and their school in the Dallastown Area School District as of January, the news source reports. Daycare centers are required to make the decision to pay the fee by Friday, and if they choose not to pay, the school board will discontinue school bus service for that daycare center.

Daycare centers received a letter from the district at the beginning of the month stating that it will no longer provide free bus transportation to and from the daycare centers, citing a lack of funds to continue offering the service, according to York Dispatch. The letter also stated that although the Pennsylvania School Code requires schools to transport students, the district is “under no legal obligation to transport regular education students to and from a daycare facility."

Parents are asking the school board to reconsider the fee, but board members told FOX 43 that the decision was already approved for this year’s school budget.