Lee County high school bus routes change to save time, resources

LEE COUNTY, Fla. — In the 2026 - 2027 academic school year, changes will be made to the Lee County School District bus routes for high school students. 

The school district made a post to Facebook Monday morning, stating that they will reduce the areas students will be transported from to increase efficiency and on-time arrivals. 

The district emphasizes that students can still attend a high school outside their transportation zone, but will have to provide their own rides. 

"Our entire choice system remains the same, our access to special programming remains the same. It's just which subzones will provide transportation. Nine out of our 15 high schools have been reduced from three to two sub zones, and then the rest of the six high schools, they keep transportation access for all three sub zones. So it is minimal, minimally disruptive, but it'll be huge in terms of tier savings and efficiency savings," says Adam Molloy,  the Assistant Director of Planning for Lee County School District. 

On average, a high school bus route is 90 minutes long, with the earliest student pickup at 3:43 a.m. and the latest drop-off home at 5:33 p.m., according to the district. They say that this is one of the main reasons for delays in the afternoon, and need to change. 

"In the early 2000s, when we had about 15,000 high school students, right? And we were operating that same system for about 25 years. Now we have 28,000 high school students, and we can our systems can really no longer support without proper adjustments," says Molloy.

The schools affected in this change are Bonita Springs High, Cape Coral High, Cypress Lake High, East Lee County High, Estero High, Fort Myers High, Gateway High, Ida S. Baker High, and Lehigh Senior High. 

For more information, visit leeschools.net.