Dear Families,

We are excited for the start of the 2023-24 school year.

MISD provides bus transportation service to all elementary students who live within their school boundaries and live 0.5 miles or more from the school they are enrolled in. To find out what schools your student attends, use this map. We provide limited bus transportation to and from each elementary school to before and after-school programs at the Stroum Jewish Community Center or the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club.

We provide bus transportation service for all Islander Middle School students who live on Mercer Island and live 0.75 miles or more from Islander Middle School. 

The District will provide bus transportation service for all Mercer Island High School students who live on Mercer Island and live 1 mile or more from MIHS. All buses for MIHS will drop off and pick up on the bus pullout on 92nd Ave SE. We have discontinued our King County Metro service.

We require all students that qualify for service to sign up for service in order to be assigned to a route. Families need to use the Parent Portal or Bus Quest App to sign up for transportation to and from school or to before and after-school programs at the Stroum Jewish Community Center or the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club. We have detailed instructions on using the Parent Portal and Bus Quest App to sign up for transportation.

We use a transportation routing system called Transact to develop our bus routes, which is a cloud based program and provides more flexibility with better ways to communicate with you about bus routes. Transact gives parents access to the Parent Portal with Bus Quest being a companion app. In the Bus Quest app, you are able to view your student’s transportation information, including updated stop location and stop time information, and you will be able to locate your student's bus location as well as set up notifications when your bus is nearby.

To receive transportation all families must also agree to accept the school board policies 6600A, 6600P, 6601BP, 6605 A & P concerning transportation. Families must also go over the rules and tips for riding the bus from our department as well as reviewing with your student the information on our School Bus Safety page and go over our normal safety procedures, and the MISD policies on Student Safety Walking, Biking & Riding Buses to School.   

For more information, contact our dispatchers at 206-236-3338 or 206-230-6335 or email us at william.gerdes@mercerislandschools.org.

Sincerely,

MISD Transportation

To determine which elementary school your student will attend, please start by opening the boundary map.  

You can enter the property address in the students' grade in the search bar.

Then click on the search bar and you will find out what school your student is assigned to.

If you are not able to find answers here, feel free to call or email us as we work together to provide the safest and most effective transportation for your students.  

If your student has not arrived at home from a school bus ride as expected, please call the district transportation office Dispatcher at 206-236-3338.

However, the transportation office typically closes by 4:30 PM (3:30 PM on Wednesdays) so if you need to get information after hours first try the above number for the Dispatcher. If your call is unanswered, call 206-236-3337.  This number will have a message with any known issues such as late running activity buses and it is monitored throughout the evening as long as school buses are running.  When possible, we will attempt to update the district website announcements too.

The 206-236-3337 number is to be used only for locating a student on a school bus when the district Transportation office is closed.

1. The front two windows and the back two windows on every bus must be opened to at least the first stop (approx. 1”) to create a good amount of ventilation on the bus.
2. If your student is feeling ill, please do not send them to school.