The coming school year will bring new building assignments for many elementary students in the Penn Hills School District. It may also bring transportation problems for parents whose children use day care before or after school.

A group of about 20 parents told the board at its Aug. 5 meeting that a new rule regarding bus transportation for students who attend day-care centers will have a negative impact on working families and day-care business owners.

In May, the school board voted to close Shenandoah and William Penn elementary schools, assign students in kindergarten through third grade to Dible, Forbes and Washington elementaries, and send all fourth- and fifth-graders to Penn Hebron.

When the district created new attendance areas for these schools, parents were informed that day-care transportation would be provided only to centers located within the attendance area of students' respective schools.

Parents asked the school board to revisit the new transportation plan because it leaves families with poor options: transferring children from familiar caregivers to unfamiliar ones, taking children of different ages to different centers or disrupting work schedules.

"Nobody thinks of the parents," said Deborah Younger, a single mother. "I have to be at work at 8 a.m. If I have to take my children to different day-care centers, I'll be late for work every day."

In recent years, the district has provided bus transportation to and from day-care centers, regardless of location within the district. That practice coincided with the district's "Schools of Focus" program, which gave each elementary school a special emphasis, such as Spanish or communications, and allowed families to choose where to send their children. The program was eliminated at the end of the last school year.

Many of the parents who voiced opposition to the new transportation plan use the Hugs Away from Home day-care center on Saltsburg Road.

Tammy Belohlavek, owner of Hugs Away from Home, told the board that 62 Penn Hills students in public and nonpublic schools use the center for before- and after-school care. Because the center is located within the Forbes Elementary attendance area, only the 10 students in that feeder pattern are eligible for bus transportation between the center and school.

Ms. Belohlavek used the example of Penn Hebron, a school for all of the district's fourth- and fifth-graders, to illustrate potential glitches in the new policy. She said that a morning Penn Hills school bus would be authorized to pick up seven Penn Hebron students at the day-care center because the students live in the Forbes Elementary attendance area.

However, the bus would leave behind 10 other Penn Hebron students because they reside in the attendance areas for Dible or Washington elementary schools.

School board President Erin Vecchio said the board would look into the issue, not only because of its effect on families, but also because of its impact on Penn Hills' day-care businesses. She said the board would make a decision at its meeting Tuesday.

The board also will vote at that meeting on a plan for the YMCA to offer before- and after-school programs at the four elementary schools.

Parents said they were pleased with that response but pointed out that school begins the following week, leaving little time to finalize plans.

Krystie Ireland, a single parent of two, said she does not want to send her children to two different day-care centers but may find herself in that situation. She said she will not move her 4-year-old son from the center he's gone to since infancy, even though her 8-year-old daughter is not eligible for bus transportation there.

"We don't have any idea what will be happening in a few weeks," she told the board.

District officials reported that 5,900 public and nonpublic school students received bus transportation during the 2007-08 school year. Of that number, 241 were picked up and/or dropped off at day-care centers or the YMCA.

Teresita Kolenchak, public relations director for the district, said it's difficult to estimate how many families are negatively impacted by the new transportation plan.

Transportation Director John Plazarin said he has contacted officials in six school districts that have at least three elementary schools to find out their policies regarding day-care transportation. The districts -- Butler, Franklin Regional, Gateway, Norwin, Plum and Seneca Valley -- "all have residency guidelines resembling our new guidelines," he said.

Adding transfer buses to accommodate more day-care transportation would cost about $24,000 per bus, he said. Six transfer buses were used in the last school year. In addition, aides for those buses would cost approximately $12,000 each.

Ms. Kolenchak said that, although the transportation practice is changing, the district still provides a way for students to be transported to and from day-care, as well as to and from school each day.

"While we have transported students around the district in the past without regard to home school, this has changed this school year as we attempt to more effectively and efficiently utilize our transportation resources. The board continues to look at the day-care issue to determine the best way to balance parents' needs and the district's resources."