Families fight to get school bus service back

More than 60 homes are affected by the change, and 23 students will be without buses, Lewis said. The community has begun a petition to bring back the bus stop.

Travilah Principal Sue Shenk said other schools have students without bus service.

"Kids walk throughout all of Montgomery County," she said. "I think any time you do anything new, it takes people time to adjust."

The school will add patrols to monitor children as they walk to school, Shenk said. Nine buses serviced the school during the 2009-2010 school year, a number that will drop to seven for the upcoming year, she said.

Of the nearly 142,000 students who attend a Montgomery public school, 96,000 are eligible for transportation, Todd Watkins, director of school transportation administration, said in an e-mail. About a dozen of the 200 county public schools are fully bused, he said.

Roughly 12 stops countywide were suspended for the 2010-2011 school year, he said.

The routes are reviewed annually, and residents can appeal the decision, Tofig said.