NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – Dorothy Anaya uses a motorized chair, and she says Highway 46 is no place for it — or for a child.
“It’s just too dangerous,” Anaya said. “It’s too dangerous for an adult to walk. It’s too dangerous to have a child on there.”
Anaya moved to New Braunfels in September. At the end of 2025, she learned her grandkids would be living with her, and that’s when she tried to enroll them in the Comal Independent School District.
But she said it quickly became complicated. She lives off Highway 46, east of Interstate 35, just less than two miles from Farias-Spitzer Elementary School.
Anaya said this is where the district was going to enroll her 6-year-old granddaughter, but she said the district would not provide bus transportation.
“I was just flabbergasted,” she said. “I’m not doing this to make it more convenient for me; it’s a safety issue.”
Maps show the fastest way to walk is along Highway 46, but sidewalks are inconsistent between Anaya’s home and the elementary school.
Anaya said she reached out to the district for help but was told via email that a transfer to another school was not possible. She then posted her story to a local New Braunfels Facebook page, and that’s where KSAT heard what happened.
At the time of her post in early January, dozens of people had interacted with it.
“What was the decision for your family then?” KSAT reporter Avery Everett asked.
“We homeschooled her,” Anaya said.
KSAT reached out to a spokesperson with Comal ISD regarding these transportation concerns. A spokesperson said Comal ISD follows the guidelines established by the Texas Education Agency.
The spokesperson cited this from the TEA: “The only students that your school district is required to provide transportation to are certain students receiving special education who would be unable to attend classes without special transportation services and certain students eligible under Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act who would be unable to attend classes without special transportation services.”
The spokesperson also said the district implemented No Service Zones at each school campus in 2022 because of challenges in “recruiting and retaining bus drivers.”
Other area districts, like North East Independent School District, have hazardous transportation policies that provide buses to students who live “where no walkway is provided and students must walk along or cross a major traffic artery, an industrial or commercial area or another comparable condition.”
Comal ISD said it is currently recruiting bus drivers and bus aides. To see applications for the district, click here.
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