• What area does Northwestern Lehigh School District include?

Northwestern Lehigh School District serves the four townships of Heidelberg, Lowhill, Lynn and Weisenberg, which are all located in the Northwestern area of Lehigh county, hence the name.   The New Tripoli and Germansville postal areas, 18066 & 18053, are completely inside the District; Kempton, Schnecksville, Orefield, Kutztown, Slatington, Breinigsville and Fogelsville addresses are also partially included in Northwestern Lehigh’s boundaries.  If you are not sure of your house address in relation to our area’s boundaries, you welcome to call the transportation department to confirm your understanding of its location.

• What are the hours of operation for the transportation department?  Where is it located?

The transportation garage is open from 6:00AM to 5:00PM, Monday through Friday during the school year.  The garage is located just north of the middle school on Hunters Hill Road.

• How is it determined which elementary school my child will attend – Northwestern or Weisenberg Elementary?

The Northwestern Lehigh school district encompasses 107 square miles of area, and this area is roughly divided west to east by a series of hills known as the Schochary Ridge.  For safety precautions in the winter, and efficiency year-round, we use this ridge, along with the roads bordering either side of it, to help determine your child’s assignment.  If you are unsure as to where your house location would be in reference to this land feature, you are welcome to call the transportation office at 610-298-8661, ext. 1222. for more specific information.

• How do you determine where my child’s bus stop will be?  Can I have it at my house?

Bus stop locations are determined by many factors, such as road sight-distance in either direction, safety of the stop location for standing, distance from the nearest established stop, traffic frequency on the road involved and whether there is a hazardous walking situation as a result, and the age of the student(s) being transported.  Stops are not added lightly to the bus system -- the school board must approve them.  With few exceptions, cul-de-sac roads and narrow lanes are not eligible for stop or route consideration, and no unpaved road travel is allowed.  If your house location is not prevented from consideration based on the factors listed, and you are sufficiently far enough away from other students in your general area, such a decision will be made on a case-by-case basis.

• Can my child have a second bus stop at a daycare or a babysitter on days when I am working?

The Northwestern Lehigh School Board policy states that, “The Board recognizes the constraints placed on working families, and to that end will consider written requests for a singular day care stop alternative where that stop is along an existing route within a building attendance area, and when that stop is established on a consistent basis from week to week throughout the school year.”  The answer is yes, as long as you can provide the transportation office with a schedule that does not vary from week to week.

• My child would like to go home to a friend’s house, since they will go from there to their sport team’s meet.  Is this possible?

Unfortunately, no.  School board policy also states, “. The use of buses for personal convenience and the transporting of students for social arrangements will not be permitted.”

• I don’t want my child dropped off unless I am at the stop.  How do I get that to happen?

If your student is of kindergarten age, this decision will be automatic; kindergarten parents must sign a waiver, allowing their child to be dropped off alone.  If no one is at the stop, we return the child to his or her elementary school, and will make an attempt to reach the parents.  This policy is only in effect for kindergarten students.  Parents of older children, however, can ask that this note be placed on their driver’s schedule.  Call the transportation office before the start of school to arrange for this detail to be added, or it can be added later on in the school year.

• I have a personal emergency that will not allow me to be home when my children arrive at the end of the school day.  Can I have them go home to a friend’s house in this instance?

In an emergency, the District will try to assist with a special exception to the current pattern of transport, if possible, based on existing routes, and subject to approval by the transportation supervisor.  Since there is risk to the child if a miscommunication results in him or her being dropped off in the wrong location, such requests are not automatically approved.  The transportation supervisor, with input from the appropriate principal or his or her designee, will determine the viability of the need for an exception.  Other factors will be based on the bus seating capacity, and the frequency of requests made

• How will I know my child’s bus assignment for the coming school year?

Approximately two weeks before the beginning of school, the transportation department sends out stop and time information on a postcard to the guardian of each student.  Morning times are listed, but afternoon times are usually not, as delays or adjustments can occasionally affect these times.  If you need an afternoon time, you are welcome to call the transportation department for an estimate of the approximate time of home arrival.  Be aware that new routes at the start of each school year often run late, until both students and teachers become familiar with the loading pattern at each school

• I will be enrolling my child in Kindergarten for the next school year.  What procedure do you use to determine whether she has a morning or afternoon session?

A major consideration for assigning kindergarten sessions is the determination of how long a child’s ride will be on the kindergarten routes.  These hour-long routes run in the center of the day, between the AM and PM sessions, and both pick-up and discharge students.  After all kindergarten students are registered, and their stop locations are determined, circular routes are planned to accomplish this dual purpose.  Ideally, no student assigned by this method would have to ride more than 30 minutes on these routes.  We do understand, however, that parents sometimes have a legitimate reason for wanting to choose a session time different from their initial assignment.  Input from parents will be considered, if it comes in the form of a letter to the transportation department postmarked prior to July 1^st of the intended school year.  Please realize that your child may have a longer ride to or from school as a result. 

• We are moving into the Northwestern Lehigh SD over the summer, and we have no neighbors that we know of with children.  School will start shortly..what do we do about getting bus service to our road?

You need to inform the transportation office as soon as possible of your location and what service you need – even if you are not ready to move in immediately.  Routes are planned in the month of July in preparation for notifying parents in August.  If your location can be serviced by a school bus currently traveling on your road, our department will try to give you a stop and time as part of the normal postcard notification process.  Any location that is not along an existing route, however, and particularly any location that will affect the stop times of other students by its inclusion on a route, is subject to a postponement period.  This postponement period will be from a week before postcards are printed, to two weeks after the start of school.   This time allows us to determine how any change will affect the transport of other students on the same route, and give us time to notify those families of any time or direction change as a result.

• We have enrolled our child in a private/parochial school, and wish to apply for transportation to that site.  How do we go about this?

First of all, you should notify the transportation department of your need, specifying which school it is, and where it is located.  Act 372 specifies that the school district in which you reside shall be required to transport to any nonpublic school within the school district, or to one not more than ten miles outside the school district by the nearest highway.  If your school meets this distance criterion, an Act 372 form must be filled out by you, the parent, directing our department to provide such transportation.  This form can be obtained from the private or parochial school your child will be attending, and can be faxed to us at 610-298-8002, attention ‘Transportation"

• Does this ten-mile provision apply to Special Education situations?

No.  If your student’s individual educational program (IEP) specifies a school outside this limit, this boundary does not apply.  Such a request, however, would come to the transportation office from our District’s Director of Special Education

• May a school district provide transportation for part of the way to a nonpublic school

No.  Act 372 requires like service for any school within a ten-mile limit, but does not require a district to provide any service if that school is beyond the ten-mile limit.