LAKEWOOD, N.J. – More than 300 Lakewood public school students are losing bus service just days before the start of classes, leaving parents scrambling to figure out how their children will get to school.
The Lakewood Board of Education says it can no longer afford courtesy transportation for students who live too close to school to qualify for state-mandated busing. The cut follows the loss of municipal funding and comes after the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority had already warned non-mandated private-school families in August that the same funding problem was hitting their transportation program.
- More than 300 Lakewood public school students are losing courtesy busing for the 2026-27 school year.
- The LSTA warned non-mandated private-school families on Aug. 20 that Lakewood Township’s transportation subsidy was being eliminated.
- The timing leaves an unanswered question: when did the school district know its public-school transportation funding was disappearing, and why were affected families notified so close to opening day?
Public School Parents Get the Bad News Days Before School
For families affected by the decision, the distinction between “mandated” and “courtesy” transportation does little to solve the immediate problem.
New Jersey requires transportation for elementary students who live more than two miles from school and high school students living more than 2.5 miles away. Students living closer can receive courtesy transportation, but the district is not legally required to provide it.
Lakewood had been doing so with financial support from the township.
That money is now gone. The township is facing its own budget crisis and can no longer subsidize busing.
According to the district, Lakewood Township advised the Board of Education that it could no longer fund transportation for students who do not qualify for mandatory busing.
“As such the Lakewood Board of Education no longer has the funds to provide courtesy bussing for the non mandated students in the public and non public schools,” the district’s Aug. 26 resolution states.
The board voted that night to rescind its previous authorization for courtesy transportation.
For some families, however, the practical warning came even later.
News 12 reported that more than 300 students are affected. One Lakewood father said his family received an email only days before school telling them his incoming high school sophomore would no longer have a bus.
Parents and students alike fear the walk to school up to two miles on Lakewood’s busy and dangerous roadways. There has also not been a plan announced for crossing guards at busy Lakewood intersections.
“We’re now putting our children’s lives into the hands of Lakewood drivers,” said Maria, a mother whose student was affected. “It’s a warzone out there every single morning.”
LSTA Was Warning Private-School Families in August
The timing becomes more notable when compared with what was happening simultaneously at the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority.
On Aug. 20, the LSTA sent an urgent notice to families of non-mandated students explaining that Lakewood Township’s subsidy was disappearing.
“For the coming 2026-27 school year, the State has significantly reduced its municipal aid funding for Lakewood Township,” the LSTA told families.
“As a result, the subsidy that helped fund this program for the past decade has been eliminated.”
The LSTA initially told families the cost of non-mandated transportation would rise from $385 to $945 per student. After discussions involving the LSTA, government officials and community leaders, the additional charge was subsequently reduced.
But the Aug. 20 notice contained another important detail.
“Due to the Township’s budgeting schedule, the LSTA was only recently informed of the subsidy cessation,” the authority wrote.
The LSTA acknowledged how disruptive the timing was.
“As this notice is coming very close to the start of the school year and will create an unexpected financial hardship for many families, we regret the timing and understand the difficulty this will present.”
That was Aug. 20.
Six days later, the Lakewood Board of Education formally voted to eliminate courtesy transportation for its own non-mandated students.
When Did Lakewood Schools Know?
That sequence creates a straightforward question for the district: when exactly did school officials learn that municipal money supporting public-school courtesy transportation would not be available?
The available public information does not establish that the district knew at the same time as the LSTA and deliberately waited to notify public-school families.
It does, however, show that the transportation funding problem was public by Aug. 20.
By Aug. 24, negotiations were already taking place involving LSTA representatives, local and state officials and community leaders over how to reduce the financial impact on non-mandated private-school families.
Then, on Aug. 26, the public school board acted.
For parents receiving individual transportation notices around the beginning of September, that chronology matters.
The district had already approved the cut. The broader community had already been debating the municipal transportation funding problem. Yet some public-school families say they were left with only days to make entirely new arrangements.
Ortiz said the situation left him with “a lot of questions.”
“It’s like something’s not adding up,” he said.
Lakewood’s Financial Problems Loom Over the Busing Cut
The transportation decision also arrives during an extraordinary period for Lakewood‘s public school system.
The district has struggled with its finances for years, with transportation representing one of its unusually large expenses. Lakewood must transport thousands of public school students while also carrying statutory transportation responsibilities for a massive nonpublic-school population.
State education officials have previously scrutinized Lakewood’s transportation spending and practices.
The financial situation has now become serious enough that the New Jersey Department of Education is moving forward with a state takeover of the district.
Against that backdrop, the district says it simply does not have the money to replace the municipal funding that disappeared.
But that explanation addresses why courtesy busing was cut.
It doesn’t fully answer why families were left with so little time.
One Funding Cut, Two Transportation Systems
Lakewood’s unusual transportation structure makes the story more complicated.
Public school transportation is administered by the school district, while the LSTA plays a major role transporting the township’s enormous population of students attending nonpublic schools.
The two groups of students are not necessarily funded or transported through identical mechanisms.
That distinction is important. The fact that the LSTA knew about its subsidy problem on Aug. 20 does not, by itself, prove that the Board of Education simultaneously had everything it needed to determine which public-school routes would be eliminated.
Still, both problems trace back to the loss of municipal support for non-mandated transportation.
The LSTA publicly sounded the alarm in August.
The Board of Education eliminated its courtesy program six days later.
Now more than 300 public school students are beginning the year without rides they previously had.
For their parents, the most immediate problem isn’t Lakewood’s complicated transportation structure or its long-running financial crisis. It’s figuring out how to get their children to school.
More than 300 public school students are losing courtesy busing.
The change affects students who live within the state’s mandatory transportation distance and therefore are not legally entitled to district-provided transportation.
The LSTA announced its own subsidy problem on Aug. 20.
Its notice told non-mandated private-school families that Lakewood Township’s financial support had been eliminated, initially triggering a steep increase in transportation fees.
The timeline still leaves a question for the school district.
Public information does not establish when district officials first learned the funding was disappearing or why some affected public-school families received notice only days before classes.
More than 300 Lakewood public school students are losing courtesy busing days before classes, raising questions about when officials knew funding was gone.
Sources: Lakewood Board of Education; Lakewood Student Transportation Authority Aug. 20 parent notice; Lakewood Township; News 12 New Jersey.
