Roughly 10,000 Prince George’s County students began the school year with incomplete or incorrect bus assignments as the district’s new tracking app failed. While struggling to reach transportation employees, some parents had to find routes on their own, drive their children to school or arrange alternative transportation.
The breakdown was not solely a technical failure, Shawn Joseph, superintendent of Prince George’s County Public Schools, said during a Board of Education meeting on Thursday.
“I agree this wasn’t just an app problem,” Joseph said. “This was a leadership failure, and I’ll own that.”
The breakdown exposed several communication failures throughout the district’s transportation system. Parents reported missing route assignments, unavailable tracking information and difficulty reaching the transportation office. It also renewed questions among families who rely on district buses to deliver children to independently operated after-school programs, including who alerts the provider when a bus is delayed and who confirms that the child arrived.
The district transports about 85,000 bus riders daily. Some students began classes Tuesday with incomplete or incorrect assignments, while the district’s Chipmunk bus-tracking app failed that morning, preventing some families from viewing routes and anticipated arrival information.
Although district officials said most of the 1,100 buses operated, some students received incomplete or mismatched route assignments. At Dora Kennedy French Immersion, some students received afternoon transportation assignments without corresponding morning routes, according to the district. Other buses were delayed more than 45 minutes, while delays for some specialty-program rides approached two hours.
“Some of the problems experienced during opening day exceeded what families should reasonably expect,” the transportation office said in an Aug. 25 transportation update.
For Tiara Powers, a Temple Hills parent whose son began his freshman year at a specialty school, the communication breakdown began before classes did.
Powers said she began checking ParentVUE and Chipmunk for his transportation assignment Aug. 12, the day of freshman orientation. When classes began, neither system displayed a route.
“We’re told to check ParentVUE. We’re told to check Chipmunk,” she said. “As of today, that app is crashing. It’s not showing any information. ParentVUE is still blank.”
Powers said she remained on hold with the district’s transportation office for 15 to 20 minutes without reaching anyone. Without an assigned route, she adjusted her work schedule and depended on others to drive her son.
“If I rely on public school transportation to get my kid to school, then where is the bus?” she asked. “What time is the bus coming? What time is the bus going to drop my kid off? What bus is my son looking for?”
In a follow-up interview, Powers said the first week of school had damaged her confidence in the district. Although his morning bus had become consistent and Chipmunk was accurately tracking it, her son still had trouble finding his afternoon bus at school and relied on public transportation to get home.
“It’s tough to trust PGCPS because I have had such a bad experience just based off of week one,” Powers said.
Another parent, Mia Logan, said the district should contact families directly when children lack confirmed routes and provide information about transportation alternatives.
“Parents shouldn’t have to come up with solutions to solve this problem on their own,” Logan said.
The need for reliable information does not end with the school day. Some students depend on district buses to reach programs operated outside the school system. A delay can leave parents seeking information from the school, the transportation office and the provider expecting the child.
Tomehka Ettinoffe has experienced that communication gap while relying on a school bus to take her 6-year-old son to independently operated after-school care. Her son was not affected by this week’s breakdown, but she said previous delays were not always communicated promptly.
Ettinoffe said her son’s former provider used an app to check children in, but employees did not consistently record his arrival. When his bus ran late, she sometimes learned about the delay from other parents before hearing from the school system or the provider.
Asked what she wanted the school system and provider to do differently, Ettinoffe said, “If they are expecting my kid to arrive somewhere and [he doesn’t], they communicate with me so that I know that he’s not there and I can try to figure out what’s going on.”
Logan, though, said she believes that the district should remain responsible until students reach their assigned destination.
“The school’s job is to make sure students arrive at their destination safely,” she said. “It is a shared responsibility with after-care providers, but the school system is ultimately responsible for student safety. The after-care is responsible only when the students arrive at their facility.”
The Parks and Recreation Department states on its website that its Pre-School, Kids’ Care and Therapeutic Recreation programs are “unable to provide transportation to or from child-care facilities” during the 2026-27 school year. The notice directs families to district alternatives but does not explain what happens when a child expected at one of its programs is delayed or does not arrive.
The department’s public relations staff had not responded to a message seeking comment on Friday. The school district’s transportation office also did not answer calls for comment as late as Friday.
In its FAQ on Tuesday, the district directed families to ParentVUE, Chipmunk and BusPlanner Web for transportation information. The district also provided a telephone number and online resolution system for families needing assistance.
“We will continue communicating about our progress rather than leaving families uncertain about transportation,” the office said.
In its published materials, the district does not address whether it alerts independently operated after-school programs when a student’s bus is late, rerouted or canceled.
The district will hold a transportation telephone town hall from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday. It apologized to families who received incomplete information, endured lengthy waits or experienced unusually long rides.
“Our families deserve both transparency and reliable service,” the transportation office said. “We intend to provide both.”
La Tetra Metts-Owens is a reporter for HUNewsService.com. She covers Prince George’s County.
