Transportation To and From School

Carpool Expectations

Carpool Expectations

Carpool doors open at 9:10. Please enter campus from the Fern Creek Road entrance, through Champion's Way. This will take you by Fern Creek High School (Arnold Gymnasium and the Green House). When you reach the second stop sign, you will turn left. You will drop off your child at entrance 9.  There will be a staff member there to welcome your child in the morning to Fern Creek Elementary! Please make sure that you have said your goodbyes and your child is ready to disembark from the car at this time to keep the morning drop off moving, as many of our parents are on their way to work. 

If you know you have to unbuckle your child from a car seat, please move up past exit 9, where you can safely perform this action, and your child can be escorted from your car to the entrance, while other cars can still drop off their children. 

All students should exit from the passenger's side of the card to avoid moving traffic!

The carpool door closes promptly at 9:40 a.m. After this time, students are tardy. Any students arriving after 9:40 a.m. will be required to enter through the front entrance, with a parent, who must sign them in. 

Expectations for Riding a Bus to and From School

Parents are encouraged to allow their child to ride the bus, if applicable, the first day of school rather than bringing them to school. This will allow for proper tagging and identification as a bus rider. Students who are dropped off at school with no transportation instructions will be retained at the school following dismissal, and parents will be notified to pick them up. 

During the first two weeks of school, your child may experience a 30-60 minute delay. This is to assure that all students are assigned to and loaded on the appropriate buses. All students riding a bus will receive a backpack tag displaying bus information. This backpack tag must be placed and kept on the backpack for your child's safety. 

RESPONSIBILITIES OF KINDERGARTEN GUARDIANS:

  • You must be present at the bus stop to receive your child when the bus arrives. This is a daily requirement, unless a note is provided to the school and bus driver giving different instructions.

  • When a guardian is not present at the stop, your child will be brought back to school. The guardian will be required to pick up their child from school.

  • If you wish to have your kindergarten student let off at the bus stop with an older sibling, a note must be sent to the school and given to the bus driver.


The safety of our students is TOP priority. Misbehavior on a school bus will not be tolerated. The pictured BUS behavior exist for the safety of all bus riders.  Bus drivers address misconduct on the bus in various ways prior to a bus referral to a school administrator. When a referral becomes necessary, the driver submits a written referral to the school administrator. Each time a referral is written for misconduct, the parent will receive a copy of that form and it will be entered into the district system. 

Each referral will be addressed usingthe guidance of the JCPS Student Support and Behavior Intervention Handbook. Each student is dealt with fairly, and discipline will be consistent and appropriate. 

When a student is suspended from the bus, they may not ride any JCPS bus during the suspension. Parents will be responsible for getting students to and from school. Suspension from the bus is not suspension from school.

State regulation 702 KAR 5:080 states that helium balloons, as well as live animals and preserved specimens, are expressly prohibited on school buses. 

Expectations for Walking to and From School

Students can only be a walker if they live within the district's specified distance from the school, a mile and a half, and do not cross any major highways (ex: Bardstown Road). 

Students who are walkers are to enter the building through the front entrance. The doors open at 9:05 a.m. to accept our walkers. Students are permitted to ride bicycles to school, but due to safety reasons, only if they are wearing a helmet. Bikes may be chained to the outside of the playground fence during school hours. 

Students will also be dismissed from the main entrance. For parents who wish to meet their child and escort them home, we request that you wait at the flagpole, in front of the digital school sign. THIS IS FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE WALKING HOME ONLY! If you park in the parking lot and come to the walker pick-up area, you will be directed to go to the carpool pick-up line. 

All students are dismissed from the school grounds after dismissal, upon exiting the building. 

walking kid and parent

Carpool Map 1 (above) Carpool Map 2 (below)

Carpool Map 1 (above) Carpool Map 2 (below)

carpool map

For the safety of all staff, students and their families, all drivers must obey the traffic patterns. You may be redirected by Fern Creek Elementary staff. For those who make the choice to repeatedly not adhere to our carpool procedures, carpool privileges will be revoked.

Map for Carpool Dismissal

Enter from Bardstown Road, by the Speedwash Car Wash , toward the Fern Creek High School student parking lot. Turn left and drive toward the Arnold gymnasium, make a u-turn around the attached cones in the parking lot, back toward where you entered, make a left at the fence, and proceed toward the Fern Creek High School Baseball stadium. Two lines will form here coming toward the FCHS green house, toward Champion's Way. The two lines will merge prior to coming up the hill and turning right on Champion's Way. At the stop sign, you will turn left into the back parking lot of  Fern Creek Elementary.  (See Carpool Map 1)

Starting with the first day, we will use the school's car tag number system to release the student to their pick-up partners. Please display your tag in your car's front window, with the number facing the windshield. Please help your child memorize their tag number as soon as possible.

 Staff members will be there to direct you to several colored cones where students will be waiting to be picked up by their numbers. Please do not call your child to the car, as this may pull them into moving traffic. Pull up to the colored cone where your child has been assigned by a staff member. (See Carpool Map 2) Thank you. 

Carpool line will close at 4:50pm. After that, you will be required to drive around the building, park and come into the building to sign your child out from the front office. During the first few weeks of school, it will be opened later due to students learning the process. After that time, we will adjust our closing time in accordance with the number of students that are in carpool and will share the new time on our website as well as through email/SMS messagings. Please ensure you have opted into school communications through JCPS.

If a child has repeated late pickups from school, it will be necessary for you to make arrangements other than carpool for transportation.