Private transportation companies will temporarily provide free busing to Pittsburgh students who must walk through an especially violent neighborhood to get to school, after the state turned down a request to subsidize busing.
The 33,500-student district requested, but was denied, additional money from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to transport children who walk to and from the 420-student New Homewood Elementary School.
The state provides additional money for transportation if students must travel a “hazardous route,” but the provision applies only to traffic, according to Pat Crawford, a spokeswoman for the district.
Superintendent John W. Thompson announced last week that a coalition of private transportation companies had stepped up and offered free busing for those students as a temporary measure.
