Updating Contact Information With Your Child's School
All student profile information, including addresses and contact details, is maintained by your child's school. As such, families must contact their child's school directly with requests for new registrations, school change, address change, sitter change, email address updates, etc. Each school day, updated student profile information is securely sent to the RCJTC in order to assign busing to eligible pupils.
In addition, RCJTC Parent Portal accounts are connected to the email addresses that their family has shared with the school so keeping these up-to-date will ensure that your access to the Parent Portal is successful.
In support of our local schools and families in need, the 2026 Stuff the Bus event is aimed at collecting school supplies, personal hygiene items and non-perishable food items for students in need at local schools within the Deep River, Petawawa and Pembroke Families of Schools (Zones 1, 2 and 3) in preparation for the 2026/2027 school year.
Whether your child can ride the school bus is determined by your postal address and the school that your child attends or is looking to attend. The school's attendance boundaries and the distance of your child's home from their school also impact transportation eligibility.
School attendance boundaries are created by our partner school boards to designate where pupils should attend their primary and secondary schooling. School attendance boundaries are necessary to create school communities that are appropriately sized for the capacity of each school facility and to accommodate sustainable student enrolment as determined by the school board.
As outlined in the Transportation and Eligibility Policy, the distance of a child's address from their school is one criterion that helps to determine if a child is eligible for transportation. The maximum walk distances between a child's address and their school are listed in Table 1 below for your reference.
| Grade | Distance (in kilometres) | Distance (in miles) |
| Junior Kindergarten (JK) and Senior Kindergarten (SK) | 500 metres (0.5km) | 0.3 miles |
| Grades 1-6 | 1.6 kilometres | 1 mile |
| Grades 7-12 (Rural) | 1.6 kilometres | 1 mile |
| Grades 7-12 (Urban/Developed) | 2.5 kilometres | 1.55 miles |
Transportation eligibility depends on your school's attendance boundaries as well as the distance from your property to the school. Eligibility can be determined using the "Can I Ride The Bus?" tool; however, the example scenarios described below also provide a helpful overview of transportation eligibility.
Located Within School Boundaries but Outside of Maximum Walk Distance (Eligible)
You are eligible to receive transportation services to and from your designated school if you reside within the school's boundary or you utilize a sitter that is within the school's boundary.
If you move outside of the school boundary or cease to use an in-zone sitter, your eligibility may be impacted. Please consider with the RCJTC Team or your child's school where unsure.
Located Within Walk Distance From School (Eligible by Application)
Students who are located within the maximum walk distance outlined in the Transportation and Eligibility Policy are not eligible for transportation to and from school unless they apply for a temporary seat and are approved using the Temporary Seat Application Form.
A temporary seat is an open seat on an existing route that can be accessed by ineligible students, subject to established the criteria as outlined below. Temporary seat assignments are made on a school year basis and they are set with an end date. Temporary seats are assigned in this manner as the availability of transportation may change from year to year depending on the enrollment of eligible students and assignment of bus stops within your area.
Therefore, temporary seats are assigned on a case-by-case basis and applications must meet the following criteria to be approved:
Located Outside School Boundaries (Ineligible)
You are not eligible to receive transportation services to and from school as you do not reside within the school attendance boundary of your selected school. It is the families' responsibility to provide transportation to and from school in these circumstances.
Contact Us
Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium
999 Cecelia Street
Pembroke, ON K8B 1A4
Phone: 613-732-8419
Toll Free: 1-888-732-8419
Email RCJTC
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