A walk past Divine Mercy School in Calgary’s Mahogany neighbourhood yielded lots of excitement on Tuesday morning — at least, before stormy weather rolled in.
Students are burning off energy with the excitement for summer break palpable in the neighbourhood.
But when they return in the fall, the way they get to and from class could look a lot different.
“I’m extremely concerned about the roads for the kids… it’s frustrating,” said Stephanie Wilson, who has two kids at the school.
She’s one of a number of parents dealing with a change in the Calgary Catholic School District’s “transportation eligibility distance” from 1 km to 1.6 km for the 2026-27 school year.
As a parent who falls between those two numbers, Wilson — and others — will no longer be able to send their kids on the bus to get to school.
Debora Cicone and Tiago Guimaraes have twins heading into Grade 2 next year, saying the 20-plus-minute walk has them thinking of their kids’ safety.
“They have to cross many streets and because of this decision, more cars are going to be driving to the school at this time,” Guimaraes explained.
Depending on new walking distance — and the age of their kids — Guimaraes says many parents, including themselves, will likely drive them instead.
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But that comes at a cost of convenience.
“We need to talk to our employers and see the flexibility to give some time during the day to pick up the kids,” Cicone said.
Cicone says they’re not the worst off, either.
She says one mom she’s been speaking with since the change was announced is in a single-parent household and her children go to school at different times of day — plus, Cicone says this woman doesn’t own a car.
“Maybe we can do carpooling and try to find a solution… but we’ll have to manage,” Cicone said.
In a statement to Global News, the Calgary Catholic School District said it was given transition funding by the provincial government to maintain existing bus service following the latest change in Alberta’s transportation regulations — which enlarged the bus exclusion zone from 1 km to 1.6 km before the 2025-26 school year.
But with that funding no longer available, and “inflationary pressures” facing the district’s transportation department, the district says it will have to revert to the new provincial minimum.
“Eligibility for provincial student transportation funding in Alberta is based on the shortest driving route between a student’s home and their designated school,” said Garret Koehler, senior press secretary for Alberta’s Ministry of Education and Childcare.
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“Students in grades 1 to 6 must live at least 1.6km away. Students in grades 7 to 12 must be at least 2km away. All boards have the option of providing enhanced busing services beyond provincial requirements.”
Koehler also mentioned several programs aimed at helping school boards offset the cost of transportation, pointing at a $139 million increase in transportation funding since 2022.
The province also pointed at the Fuel Price Contingency Program that provides roughly $15 million to school boards annually to offset high fuel prices.
While the CCSD says transportation fees won’t increase for the next school year, parents who spoke with Global News said they’d be happy to pay a little extra for the current service.
“100 per cent willing to pay a little more to be accommodated,” Wilson said.
“I feel like the cost saving is not that big considering the impact on the communities,” Guimaraes explained.
Parents are hoping the district will reverse the decision — but if not, they’ll spend a part of their summer planning the new road ahead for their kids.
We all walked that far in the 70s and no one died