ISLA’s school day begins at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 3:50 p.m. Buses aim to arrive at ISLA by 8:45 am and buses aim to depart from ISLA at 4:00 pm. ISLA provides bus service via Pride Transportation Company.

ISLA transportation is provided for a fee to families within our Transportation Boundaries defined below. Busing is free in some situations, please check below to see if your student qualifies to receive free busing. Scholarships are also available - see the scholarship section below. Families of students who don’t ride the bus will provide their own transportation to ISLA and will not be charged the busing fee.

Transportation must be requested annually by completing the Transportation Request Form: https://forms.gle/ufV5opW7L9XEwvWy9

ISLA will notify families of their stops and approximate time of pick-up and drop-off about 2 weeks before school starts. All stops within our boundaries will be neighborhood stops, meaning within walking distance and generally within a couple of blocks from the resident student’s home. If your student's bus is running late, you may check the parent app, Here Comes the Bus, which is available in the Apple and Google app stores.

Transportation Boundary (2024-2025)

The ISLA Transportation Boundary is shown in light green shading below and includes students who live east of 169, west of 35W, north of 494, and south of Excelsior/38th Street/36th Street. All of the Edina district, shown with dark green shading, is included by this boundary. Existing 2023-2024 stops that are outside of this area will continue to get busing for at least the next 2 years if the stop is still used. Hopkins Legacy Bus Riders (defined below) rules still apply and stops that are outside the 2023-2024 ISLA Transportation Boundary will not be serviced after the Legacy Rider leaves ISLA.

Transportation Fee

The 2024-2025 fee for bus riders is $615 per student for the year with a maximum household rate of $1230 per year. This is a flat rate regardless of whether the rider lives within the ISLA Transportation Boundary or is privately transported to an established stop the rider rides to/from different stops on different days the student rides to school only, from school only, or to and from school.

Families who opt to ride the bus will be billed by the school as close to the beginning of the school year as possible. Monthly payments or lump sum payments will be available.

Please see below for financial assistance options.

Free Busing Options

Edina In-district Residents

As Edina is the public-school district within which ISLA is located, all ISLA students who reside in the Edina School District two miles or farther from the ISLA school location are eligible for free bus transportation.

Students who reside within two miles of the school’s location are eligible for fee-based bus transportation at the per student rate. The distance between a student’s home and the school will be measured by putting both the student’s address and the school address into Google maps and taking the shortest distance of routes returned.

Drive to an Established Edina District Stop Option

Any ISLA student who is privately transported to an established ISLA bus stop within the Edina School District is eligible for free bus transportation from that bus stop to the school.

Any ISLA student who is privately transported to an established ISLA bus stop that is outside of the Edina School District is eligible for fee-based bus transportation at the per student rate.

Students who Qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch

Any ISLA student who has an approved application for the current year to receive free or reduced lunch is eligible for free bus transportation from within the Transportation Boundary. If the student lives outside of the boundary, they must be privately transported to an established bus stop. In this case, the student may qualify for some mileage reimbursement for the miles from the student’s home to the bus stop (see below).

Students with Special Education Related Services

Students with disabilities, who have transportation listed as a related service on the Individualized Education Program (IEP) will be transported per the student’s IEP.

Additional Financial Assistance

Mileage Reimbursement Program

Any ISLA student who qualifies as a member of a low-income family, does not live within the ISLA Transportation Boundary, and is privately transported to an established bus stop may qualify for some mileage reimbursement for the miles from the student’s home to the established bus stop. Please contact the school for more information.

Transportation Scholarships

The caregiver of any ISLA student may apply for a transportation scholarship. The scholarship is not based on income. Scholarships will depend on available financing from the school and/or fundraising and will be applied toward the busing fee. If the student does not live within the Transportation Boundary, the student must be privately transported to an established ISLA bus stop. Use this form to request a transportation scholarship: https://forms.gle/H5S31Ss6QuF4WjPJ8

Legacy Riders

ISLA students who rode the bus in the 2019-2020 and/or 2020-2021 school years are Legacy Riders. Legacy Riders who reside outside of the 2024-2025 ISLA Transportation boundary, but within the Hopkins School District, will continue to receive a neighborhood bus stop. Younger siblings of Legacy Riders who live outside the 2024-2025 ISLA Transportation Boundary and within the Hopkins district will be permitted to use their older siblings’ Hopkins district neighborhood bus stop while such older sibling remains an ISLA student riding the bus, but after the older sibling is no longer enrolled at ISLA, the younger sibling’s busing would be from a stop within the ISLA Transportation Boundary.

Bus Behavior

Our 5th and 6th grade students are encouraged to assist our younger students on the bus. In the event that a student is acting in an inappropriate manner, the incident is reported by the bus driver to our Dean of Students, who will take necessary and timely action. If your child reports a problem to you, there are several steps you can take. If the problem affects the safety and well-being of others, it should be reported to the Dean of Students immediately by the student or parent. Otherwise, first help your child brainstorm ideas for handling the problem and offer lots of encouragement to try these ideas. If appropriate for your child’s personality, encourage them to talk to the driver about the situation. Finally, you may call the Dean of Students, and he/she will work with the appropriate parties to resolve the issue.

Please remember - bus transportation is a privilege, not a right. The privilege will be withdrawn for inappropriate behavior.

Rules for good behavior on the bus are:

Enter and leave the bus in an orderly manner.Remain seated until the bus stops.Keep hands, feet, and other body parts to yourself.Use quiet voices and speak respectfully.Follow the directions of the bus driver.

Students are required to ride to/from their assigned bus stop. If a student needs to ride a different route or get off at a different bus stop, the family must notify the school via PickUpPatrol by 2:00 pm on the day of the change for an afternoon change. If a child is riding home with a friend, the friend’s parent must also notify the school of their agreement to the student getting off the bus with their child.

Transportation Information for Families

Additional Transportation Information for Families can be found here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1INFJqSIjjlP9VTZMIBdn9ylUTu15tAdT/edit The document covers family responsibilities, the mobile applications used for transportation, and communication channels for transportation.

Transportation FAQ

Why do families have to pay for transportation?Transportation costs are significant. The actual cost to ISLA after state subsidies are subtracted is $1070 per rider. ISLA cannot subsidize the full cost of transportation.

Why is the transportation boundary changing?

The previous Transportation Boundary was drawn when the school moved to Edina in 2021 and was based on where the student body of the school lived at that point in time. The boundary was very large and encompassed parts of many school districts. A large geographic area with a dispersed student population is expensive to bus and it is challenging to cultivate community without a core centralized geographic area.

The makeup of the school has changed over the past 2 years. Fewer students from the northern and western parts of the boundary are attending ISLA and more families from the eastern and southern areas are choosing ISLA. ISLA used to draw primarily from the Hopkins school district and it now draws students primarily from the Minneapolis school district. There is also a trend in the lower grades of large numbers of Bloomington students. Due to this changing demographic and the need to control bus costs, the Transportation Committee presented a new Future Transportation Boundary to the Board. The ISLA Board approved the proposal and we are now working towards that new boundary. It will take time to fully implement the changes with the first phase removing outlying areas to the north and west where the student population is dwindling. The eventual plan is to make the school more centrally located within the transportation boundary which means that the area south of the school will slowly be added. It will include the part of the Bloomington school district that is south of 494, east of 169, west of 35W, and north of Lindstrom Dr./ 98th Street.

What happens if I was in the old boundary, but I’m not in the new boundary?

Existing stops in the old boundary will still be serviced for at least the next 2 years as long as they are being used. No new stops will be added outside of the new boundary. If you did not have a stop before you can drive to an existing stop.