Almost two years ago, the Walking School Bus program was initiated at Fort la Reine school in Portage la Prairie, and school staff and parents alike have been thrilled with its success. Principal Lawrence McKenzie explains the program.

Lawrence McKenzie"The walking school bus is a program that we have to help our students get to school. We run it twice a day before school and at 3:30 p.m. We have a team of staff, volunteers, teachers and E.A's. basically they walk, knocking on the doors of families of our students in those neighbourhoods, and basically we pick them up in the morning and bring them to school. And at 3:30 we do the reverse, where we take them home and drop them off, and we go right to the door."

McKenzie says they tried it out after absences became an issue.

"We were having some concerns with school attendance. Kids were either often late, or they weren't coming to school. We were having a hard time getting hold of parents using phones, and stuff like that. A couple of schools in the division started the program, and were showing some very positive success with it. So, we decided we were going to give it a try. And basically at the beginning of the year, or when any new students attend the school, we offer the program to those parents, and they sign up."

He notes it's helped more students improve their attendance by far than not.

"We don't wait for the students. If the student isn't ready, we go on to the next house, and the kids quickly catch up. But I have to say the majority of our students, we're knocking on the doors, the kids are coming out the door, if they're not already sitting on the step waiting for us. We've seen our attendance improve to consistentently--we've got over--90% attendance rate for this year. For our overall absenteeism in the school has decreased. Our lates have increased a little bit. But I like to think that's because we're waking the kids up, we're making sure they get into school. And if they're late, they're still here. But if they're not coming at all, there's no learning taking place at all.