2023-24 School Year Transportation Information
The NSTS Parent Portal officially opens Monday, August 21 at 10:00 a.m. To sign in CLICK HERE
While signed into the secure NSTS Parent Portal, please note:
- The transportation information displayed in your child's record is preliminary and may change prior to back to school as we test run bus routes for safety and timing and as new students register over the summer.
- The final transportation information effective the first week of school will be posted Thursday, August 31 at 10:00 a.m.
- Verify the Opt-In status of your child and complete the Opt-In/Opt-Out Transportation Form if you need to change their status from what is displayed in your child’s transportation record. Opt-In to Transportation is required for an eligible student to be assigned to the bus.
- Verify you are subscribed to receive delay and cancellation alerts direct to your preferred email address.
- If your address or care provider is different than what is in your child's transportation record, you must contact the school when they re-open to update this information. DSBN families can begin the process by completing the Moving? form on the DSBN website CLICK HERE. You may contact NSTS over the summer so that we can ensure a bus stop is ready to assign your child when we receive the updated information from the school.
- NSTS will not accept requests for bus stop location changes or exceptions to the eligibility policy until October 2, 2023.
Opt-In or Opt-Out to Transportation
NSTS requires that parents/guardians confirm their child's intent to ride the bus when they are eligible for service. This requirement helps NSTS better plan capacity on each bus and provides drivers and schools a more accurate passenger manifest which is crucial for student safety.
Initially, all students eligible for transportation are tentatively assigned to busing.
Parents/guardians/students eligible for transportation are then required to notify NSTS of their intent whether or not to use transportation. This must be confirmed in order for the student(s) to appear on the list of approved riders if they are Opted-In.
Students that were Opted-In in the previous school year are automatically Opted-In for the current school year. Conversely, Opted-Out students remain unassigned to eligible transportation and will not appear on the approved ridership list.
Please confirm the intentions for your child(ren); sign-in to the NSTS parent portal and complete the Opt-In or Opt-Out of Transportation Form CLICK HERE. We will also receive your Opt-In or Opt-Out intention over the phone, 905-357-6787, or via email, general@nsts.ca.
If we do not receive this notification specific to a student, NSTS will work with bus drivers and schools, and we will remove transportation if a child is not using the service assigned.
To recognize families that may change their mind or have their circumstances change where they may decide to change their opt-in or opt-out status, we have created a weekly process to accommodate such changes using a form available in the NSTS parent portal.
Authorized Riders Only
Only riders authorized by NSTS are allowed to ride the bus. Bus drivers are authorized to transport only students listed by NSTS on the passenger manifest and seating plan to ride their bus.
Each Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. transportation arrangements for the following week will be available in the portal. If arrangements are not listed in the parent portal on the Wednesday, please make arrangements to get your child(ren) to and from school for the following week.
Process and Expectations for Changing Addresses or New Registrations
For those requiring address changes and to register for school, please contact your child’s school when it reopens (more information may be available on the school board website). Important deadlines for the first two weeks of school:
- FIRST WEEK: The deadline to make address changes at the school and to notify NSTS of your intention to use the service is 3:00 p.m. on Monday, August 28. For changes made by this deadline, every effort will be made by the school and NSTS to have transportation effective the first week of school.
- SECOND WEEK: The deadline to make address changes at the school and to notify NSTS of your intention to use the service is 3:00 p.m. on Friday, September 1. For changes made by this deadline, every effort will be made by the school and NSTS to have transportation effective the second week of school.
In the event that schools and NSTS experience a high volume of change requests and are not able to process all requests, parents/guardians may be required to make plans to get their child(ren) to and from school for the first two weeks of school.
Kindergarten Transportation and First Ride
Kindergarten families, or families without an Ontario Education Number (OEN), will not be able to log-in to the NSTS parent portal. We emailed and/or mailed letters with temporary PIN numbers for those families to use as the OEN to sign-in to the NSTS parent portal. If you do not receive this communication by Friday, July 21, please call or email NSTS. After completing authentication questions to verify the caller's identity to match our student record, we will supply your PIN over the phone or via email.
Reviewing basic school bus safety rules is also critical, particularly for first time riders. The First Ride Program is available virtually, CLICK HERE
Contacting NSTS
NSTS is here to support your family having a successful start to the school year. We appreciate your patience while we process a large volume of changes and family outreach.
If you need to contact NSTS, we request that you select one of the following ways:
- Sign-in to the NSTS parent portal and view the transportation arrangements made for your child(ren) is the best place to start CLICK HERE. There are tools in the portal, including forms, that are a great tool if you require help from NSTS. The forms in the portal generate a reference number.
- To reach NSTS by telephone, call 905-357-6787. NSTS has remote help from mid-August from our office this year. If they are not able to answer your question, they will generate a form to NSTS which is assigned a reference number. Please note these phone calls are recorded for quality assurance purposes.
- You may email general@nsts.ca. This is a great way to correspond with NSTS and reduces playing phone tag.
- When schools re-open, they too can support your questions. Schools are the first point of contact if you have concerns.
We strive to provide a 24-hour response time to phone calls in non-emergency situations. During back to school when volume is very-high, we make every effort to respond within 48-hours to non-emergency situations.
NSTS will not accept requests for bus stop location changes or exceptions to the eligibility policy until October 2, 2023, at the earliest.