Apply for 2026-2027 Senior Elementary School and High School Student Transportation
Lakehead District School Board, Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, and Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales provide school bus transportation on an opt‑in basis for:
-
Senior elementary school students who reside more than 1.6 km from their board‑designated school, and
-
Secondary school students who reside more than 3.2 km from their board‑designated school.
For transportation eligibility purposes, all distances are calculated using the shortest safe walking route to the school, as determined by STSTB’s Ministry of Education–approved routing software. Additional information is available here.
Please note:
-
Only those students planning on attending one of the following senior elementary schools or high schools are required to apply for school bus transportation every year:
|
Bishop EQ Jennings |
Bishop Gallagher |
Pope John Paul II |
|
Hammarskjöld |
Superior |
Westgate |
|
La Vérendrye |
St. Ignatius |
St. Patrick |
-
If you choose to register at a school other than your address based board-designated school, transportation will not be provided. Click here to confirm transportation eligibility for your address.
-
Group stops are utilized in urban and developed rural areas . Senior elementary students are expected to walk a maximum of 800 meters and secondary students are expected to walk a maximum of 1600 meters to access the closest group bus stop location.
-
Bus routes and schedules are planned each spring for the following school year. In order to ensure bus service is scheduled for your student, applications for school bus transportation for senior elementary school and secondary school students must be received by April 30th, 2026.
-
Transportation will only be provided for an alternate address in joint/shared custody situations which must be listed on their school record. If you wish to apply for joint custody transportation, submit two separate applications, one for the primary address and another for the alternate joint custody address. Both addresses must qualify for transportation to your child's school.
NEW for the 2026–2027 Senior Elementary and High School Student Transportation Application
Only authorized student contacts may request transportation for a student. To ensure that transportation requests for senior elementary school and secondary school students for the 2026–2027 school year are submitted by individuals authorized by the school, the 2026–2027 Senior Elementary and High School Student Transportation Application is available exclusively through the Parent Portal.
Important:
Your Parent Portal login email must match the email address listed as a contact on your child’s school record. Students are automatically linked to your Parent Portal account based on this email address and can no longer be added using an Ontario Education Number (OEN) and date of birth.
Additional details are provided in the red information box on the Parent Portal landing page.
Transportation for all other grades and schools
If you have registered an eligible new Junior Kindergarten (JK) student who will be starting school in September 2026, transportation will be arranged based on the information provided on your registration form. If you need to make any changes between now and September, please contact the school where your child was registered.
For eligible students currently enrolled in JK to Grade 5 at Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board (TBCDSB) and Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales (CSDCAB) schools, and JK to Grade 7 at Lakehead District School Board (LDSB) and Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l’Ontario (CSPGNO) schools, no transportation application is required for the next school year, provided there are no changes to the student’s transportation address.
If you wish to opt out of transportation or request a change to transportation arrangements for an eligible student returning to one of these elementary schools next year, please contact your school office directly.
