A Prince George’s County Council workgroup discussed improving student transportation options and increasing student attendance rates on Monday.
Transportation challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to a surge in chronic absenteeism at Prince George’s County Public Schools, according to Hyattsville City Council vice president Joanne Waszczak.
PGCPS defines “chronic absenteeism” as students who are absent for more than 10 percent of school days, according to the school system’s website.
The decline in attendance has adversely affected student performance and well-being, Waszczak said during the school pedestrian safety workgroup meeting.
“Kids who are chronically absent are struggling on a lot of different levels, academically, socially, physically, mentally and emotionally,” Waszczk said.
The Federal Transit Administration partnered with the United States Department of Education to determine transportation strategies to increase student attendance, according to Waszczak, who is also a senior advisor for the Federal Transit Administration.
Ensuring students have reliable and accessible ways to get to and from school is especially important to reduce absenteeism, she said.
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Waszczak emphasized the importance of partnerships between PGCPS, parent-teacher associations and community-based organizations to improve student transportation options.
Several communities have established temporary traffic restrictions during school drop-off and pick-up time, she said, which has helped provide safer walking and biking routes.
The Prince George’s County public works and transportation department also secured a $21.2 million grant to fund seven transportation projects beginning in 2025, said Erv Beckert, chief of the department’s highway and bridge design division.
These investments will focus on areas with higher serious traffic injury and fatality rates, Waszczak said. She noted the grant is also part of a broader effort to ensure safer and more reliable transit options for students across the country.
While the school system still uses traditional school buses, Waszczak said that many students rely on public buses and trains.
Like Waszczak, District 3 PGCPS school board member Pamela Boozer-Strother highlighted the growing importance of public bus routes for students.
“Bus routes are going to be the most advantageous in our increasingly urban environments,” Boozer-Strother said.
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Aligning transit routes with school districts is essential for making public transit a viable option for families, according to PGCPS’ chief operating officer Charoscar Coleman.
Coleman reflected on past partnerships between PGCPS and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority during Monday’s meeting.
The SmartBenefits program, which ran from February 2022 to June 2022, allowed students to use the Metrobus and Metrorail for free.
But Coleman noted that students were not automatically enrolled in the program, which required an additional step for families. The program required ongoing marketing to ensure students took advantage of the free transit option, he said.
Waszczak suggested there should be training sessions for families to help parents and students become more comfortable using public transportation. The sessions would reduce anxiety for parents when their kids use public transit, she said.
Moving forward, Waszczak also proposed the formation of community-led walk and bike groups. The groups will allow students to commute together with adult chaperones, she said.
“These hands-on sessions are a really great way to get more kids, and their parents and guardians comfortable with biking to school,” Waszczak said. “This is a really promising practice that’s emerging all throughout the country.”
