La Joya ISD changed how it gets students to and from school this year, and some parents say the new policy is putting their children at risk.

The district stopped sending school buses to pick up middle and high school students who live within one mile from their campus. Those students now have to find their own way to school, including going to a bus stop no more than half a mile away from their homes.

Channel 5 News was outside Cesar Chavez Middle School on Showers Road near the expressway Thursday. There is a sidewalk in front of the school, but further down the road, past the public safety building, the sidewalks end.

Channel 5 News saw students leaving campus walking on the other side of the road, where there is a grass strip but no sidewalk.

La Joya ISD announced the transportation changes at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. The district also stopped providing bus rides home for students involved in extracurricular activities. Students will be given bus rides to extracurricular activities, but parents will have to pick them up. 

Numerous complaints came into the Channel 5 News newsroom from La Joya ISD parents. Channel 5 News also saw the concerns on social media and took them to the district's transportation director.

"Door-to-door pick-ups for over 10,000 students, which is our average daily ridership, is not possible to sustain when we have 134 routes," La Joya ISD Chief Operations Officer S.B. Pierson said. "We have 128 drivers right now, and we have five vacancies to fill, and it is mathematically impossible to go door to door with 10,000 students to transition through three tiers of bus services." 

Pre-K through second grade students will continue to receive door-to-door bus service. The district says the changes are needed to keep its transportation system running with the number of drivers it currently has.

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