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Parents, daycare owners tell Riverhead board district transportation changes are hurting providers; board approves transportation contracts and county grant MOA
Summary
Parents and daycare operators told the Riverhead Central School District board that recent transportation practices are cutting off bus service to licensed daycares and harming businesses, while the board voted to approve Eastern Suffolk BOCES transportation contracts and a Suffolk County MOA for a school-bus stop arm demonstration program.
Riverhead Central School District trustees heard multiple public comments Tuesday from daycare operators and parents who said the district is no longer transporting students to licensed daycares outside their assigned schools, a change they say has hurt small providers and working families. The board separately approved transportation contracts with Eastern Suffolk BOCES and extended a memorandum of agreement with Suffolk County to participate in a school-bus stop arm demonstration program covering July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026.
The public-comment speakers asked the board to reverse or clarify the practice. Frank Ford, who identified himself as a day-care owner in Flanders, said the district’s move “is hurting our daycare and it's ... been going on for 35 years.” Parent Joanne Barto said district transportation told her the restriction “has been a rule since 1993,” and called the current practice “a discrimination” because her…
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