School transport: father files petition

A father is campaigning to change school transport rules at the Sherbrooke Region School Service Center for divorced parents.

Hugo Raymond and the mother of his children are separated and school transport is only provided to his ex-wife’s address.

This leaves this family without school transport at their second permanent address for five weeks. Last winter, Hugo Raymond reported this situation to the TVA Nouvelles team.

The Sherbrooke Area School Service Center then explained that it would be necessary to wait until the start of the school year to see if there were spaces available, and that in this case there would be a charge of $150 per child for the second location. .

Meanwhile, Hugo Raymond has to take his two boys back to their mother’s house so they can catch the bus.

Two teenagers attend two different schools. Bus times are not the same. For three weeks it was real family gymnastics.

“There is more time in the evening. One of the boys arrives at 16:45 and the other at 17:15. We’re going there to greet Theodore, and we’ll have to wait. […] The family routine means we lose maybe an hour a day,” explained the father, who wants to change this lifestyle.

Hugo Raymond has reached out to the national student advocate and launched a petition to make school transportation free and available to all children in Quebec, regardless of whether they have one or two addresses.

The CSSRS Parents Committee acknowledges that it has been contacted on a number of occasions over the years by families who find themselves in the same situation.

For its part, the school service center declined our request for an interview and is awaiting a student advocate’s opinion before commenting.

Hugo Raymond should find out by the end of the month whether his children will have access to school transport at home. He intends to continue his efforts even if the answer is yes.