GORHAM — The School Department adopted a new transportation policy effective with the start of school this week that requires parents to designate two pick-up points and two drop-off locations for their children riding school buses.

The measure has been implemented for safety reasons.

“We’re dealing with thousands of kids,” Norm Justice, director of the district’s Transportation Department, said Tuesday at the transportation office. “It needs to be a consistent schedule.”

In past years, Justice said the department handled daily calls from parents changing pick-up and drop-off spots for their children, and it caused a lot of work to get updated information to teachers and bus drivers. “It’s very stressful,” Justice said.

Under the new rules, parents wishing to make a change are required to file a waiver request and the department has seven days to grant a change.

The new rules represent a big change, Justice said, but still are more lenient than those in other school districts in the area.

“We have been working with parents over the summer to collect information on pick-up and drop-off points via our online survey,” Superintendent Heather Perry wrote in a back-to-school letter on Aug. 23.

The School Department posted its survey earlier in the summer. It received 1,673 responses as of Aug. 24, Justice said.

Not all parents filed a response before school started Wednesday for kindergarten and grades 6 and 9. All other Gorham students began Thursday, Aug. 30.

“Schools and bus drivers with incomplete information will utilize the primary physical address of each student as the location for pick-up and drop-off points until parents can complete the required information and have it approved by our transportation office,” Perry wrote.

Justice said this week that Judy Philbrick, assistant transportation director, and school secretaries have been calling parents and day care centers. “We’ll figure it out,” Justice said Tuesday. “I can’t say enough about her (Philbrick) and our drivers.”

Gorham bus drivers met this week and Justice said 29 attended a meeting Tuesday morning. Some drivers Tuesday were making practice runs on their routes.

The district has 30 buses and some additional spares. Justice said there are two, full-time spare drivers on the roster and he has a full contingent of drivers now. “We could use more spare drivers,” Justice said.

Parents with questions about school bus transportation could call individual schools or the transportation office at 839-8885.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or email [email protected].