School is in, but getting to and from their classes appears to be proving difficult for many students around the city.

Parents have been reporting numerous problems with the school bus system on the Facebook group “Concerns with Whitehorse School Busses (sic)”.

The group was created Wednesday, with the school year starting just this week.

From routes that take more than an hour and involve a transfer (compared to a 10-minute drive), to buses that simply haven’t shown up, to Kindergarten students being dropped off at a high school and being told to walk to their elementary school, to kids being dropped off on the Alaska Highway and more, the 63 members of the group have publicized their numerous complaints about the new school bus schedule.

Many flatly argue it doesn’t work.

As one member stated: “I really feel they should just cancel this new route system and go back to old routes, seems like they were working fine.

“I know it’s about saving money but come on, it’s not working, so fix it please so we, as parents, can trust that our kids are safe and not scared and stressed out.

“It’s already hard for parents to let our children travel alone, the added stress that they may not show up at their stop is terrifying.”

Corrina Lotz, who has three kids in elementary school and another in high school, said the bus didn’t even show up this morning.

Fortunately, she leaves for work after the bus is scheduled to arrive. She was able to drive her kids, but that meant phoning the schools to explain what had happened and having the youngsters arrive late for classes.

She was late for work herself.

This comes after she already raised issues earlier about the bus stopping on the Alaska Highway rather than on Canyon Crescent after school.

Her concern is not that her kids have to walk a longer distance to get home, she said, but rather the safety risk it presents, especially in the winter.

Children will be left walking the highway – which could be icy – in the dark, with vehicles zooming by at 90 kilometres an hour.

Lotz went on to wonder aloud if a decision had been made that the morning stop for her kids would be on the highway as well, and that’s why the bus didn’t show at its usual stop this morning.

If that’s the case, she said, parents like herself weren’t informed of the change.

This marks the first time in the nine years she’s had kids in school that there have been any major issues.

Occasionally, a bus has been late, but there’s always a good reason, and very rarely, a temporary driver hasn’t realized there’s a stop at Canyon Crescent.

A call to Takhini Transport, which runs the system, had quickly resolved that issue, with a bus being sent out to pick up the kids.

She noted she has shared custody of her kids, and they’ve also had issues with the bus to their father’s residence.

This morning, Lotz couldn’t reach Takhini Transport about the bus that didn’t show up because the phone line there was continually busy.

As she pointed out, many have been trying to get through to the company to discuss the range of problems.

For its part, she added, staff at Takhini have been good to deal with, listening to her concerns about the stop on the highway.

As she and other parents have been informed, though, it’s the Department of Education which makes up the routes, with the bus drivers simply following its direction.

Takhini Transport declined to comment this morning, directing questions to Education.

Department officials did not respond to the Star’s requests for comment by today’s press deadline.

The department has acknowleged the high level of calls it’s encountering about the situation on its website, stating:

“We are receiving a high volume of calls and new bus registrations. We are processing registrations as quickly as possible and adjusting bus schedules and stops daily. The published routes reflect changes made as of August 26, 2014.

“We apologize for the delay in responding to individual questions and concerns.”

According to the Facebook group, Education will be holding a busing meeting for residents of the Mayo Road area on Sept. 3 in the gymnasium of Hidden Valley Elementary School.

Other parents have cited Education officials, blaming late school bus registration for a number of the problems.

As one entry states: “I got an email back from dept of ed today in response to what I sent them yesterday basically they are blaming the issues on parents filling out registation forms late and there will be one more big change next week....lets hope this change makes everyones busing experience better!!!”