Roughly 10,000 Prince George’s County students lacked assigned bus routes at the start of school, while Dora Kennedy families say a disputed co-location plan is intensifying daily transportation and safety worries.
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. — A troubled rollout of Prince George’s County Public Schools’ new bus-routing and tracking system left roughly 10,000 students without assigned bus routes at the start of the school year, forcing families into long drop-off lines and heightening frustration among parents who say transportation failures have become an annual ritual.
For some families at Dora Kennedy French Immersion, the disruption is not simply a first-week technology problem. It has renewed concerns about the district’s plan to co-locate Dora Kennedy with Robert Goddard Montessori, a change that parents say could compound traffic, pickup, parking and safety pressures at a shared campus.
Why It Matters
PGCPS serves more than 75,000 bus riders. On the first day of school, the district said 88% of students had been routed, leaving about 12% — approximately 10,000 students — still awaiting route assignments. The district also acknowledged that its Chipmunk bus app failed as families tried to track buses and confirm route information.
That breakdown carries consequences beyond a late arrival. Parents must choose between waiting at bus stops with little information, driving children through congested school entrances or missing work. In messages shared with TANTV, parents described buses that did not arrive, conflicting information across school platforms and schedules they believed were impossible for one driver to complete.
“Our kids need to get to school and we gotta get to work,” one parent wrote in a forwarded message shared with TANTV after describing a second day of missed service and worsening drop-off congestion.
What Parents Are Seeing
Screenshots shared with TANTV show the Chipmunk app displaying “Bus not reporting” for a student account during the opening week. Other parent messages described unserved morning routes, stop changes and extended waits while caregivers tried to determine whether a bus would arrive.
One parent told TANTV that a review of route information appeared to show a single bus assigned to routes connected to both Bowie and Roosevelt at overlapping times. The parent said a depot supervisor and driver acknowledged that the existing schedule did not allow the driver to reach all stops on time. TANTV has not independently verified the individual route records and should seek a response from PGCPS Transportation before publication.
Parents also questioned early pickup times for students whose schools begin after 9 a.m. They said that lengthy, multi-stop routes can leave children on buses for extended periods and make it difficult for working families to plan mornings.
Dora Kennedy Families Raise Broader Questions
The bus problems have sharpened longstanding anxiety in the Dora Kennedy French Immersion community. PGCPS has said the school’s current building faces aging infrastructure and significant repair costs, and that Dora Kennedy will move to the Robert Goddard Montessori campus as part of a co-location plan.
According to PGCPS’s capital-programs page, the project includes a new two-story modular building with 18 classrooms and brings projected total campus capacity to 1,448 students. The district has also said the move is intended to provide a safe, modern campus while supporting other capital-program needs.
Parents who spoke with TANTV say the plan has not resolved practical questions about daily arrival and dismissal. They describe limited parking, congestion along Good Luck Road, and concern that the campus will need carefully managed access when two programs share common spaces and transportation infrastructure.
Those worries are not new. In reporting on public presentations about the proposed arrangement, the Greenbelt News Review reported that PGCPS discussed shared common spaces, including the cafeteria, and the importance of coordinating arrival, dismissal and campus-use schedules between the two schools.
Parents’ also complained about single entrance and exit, emergency evacuation constraints in the neighborhood marking parking conditions extremely difficult.
What Officials Say
PGCPS Chief Operating Officer Charoscar Coleman acknowledged the opening-day failure in public comments reported by NBC4 Washington and 7News. Coleman said the district did not meet its goal of getting every student to school on time and safely.
District officials attributed the problems to the Chipmunk app failure and difficulties implementing a new routing system. According to 7News, Coleman said staff did not adequately learn the software and failed to properly match some students with buses and routes.
PGCPS said it has assigned additional personnel to resolve route issues, correct stop assignments and work with its technology partner. In a transportation update, the district said it was adding resources and working to improve the system daily.
What’s Next
For families, the immediate test is whether route assignments, bus tracking and communication stabilize quickly enough to prevent another week of missed pickups and chaotic drop-offs. Parents say they want daily, public reporting on unassigned riders, route corrections, on-time performance and maximum ride times — not just assurances that the system is improving.
The larger question is whether PGCPS will meaningfully address community concerns before the Dora Kennedy and Robert Goddard co-location becomes a fully operational daily reality. The district has said it will continue sharing logistics and transportation details with families as the transition proceeds.
TANTV requested comment from PGCPS on the status of the affected routes, the Chipmunk app outage, route design for Dora Kennedy students, and safety and traffic planning for the Robert Goddard campus. This story will be updated when the district responds.
