AUSTIN, Texas — Cedar Park High School student Nalia Boudray lives just under two miles from campus – a distance she walks to and from home. But when she isn't walking, she uses the rideshare apps Uber and Lyft.
Boudray said these are her only options because no bus route comes to her complex, and her mother doesn't have the means to fix their broken car.
"Not having a car and then not having like any nearby bus transportation ... Just kind of makes it harder," Boudray said.
Boudray's mother, Naree Dilworth – who is deaf – explained through sign language that she doesn't want her daughter to walk the roughly 40-minute walk alone and she wishes there was an alternative option.
"It's risky, and she worries a lot," Boudray said.
KVUE decided to take the route Nalia takes to school and discovered that the 40-minute journey is down a busy Lakeline Boulevard that intersects with streets and entries to businesses where vehicles don't always stop. It's a major reason the mother and daughter have opted for Uber or Lyft more frequently.
But it puts a financial strain on the family.
"It's just like, that money that we could spend on trying to get a car back, we're spending on this instead," Dilworth said through translation. "So it's not really like helping the situation."
Erin Kelp was Boudray's fifth grade teacher. She said she's an advocate for the family and has stayed in touch over the years, going as far as helping the family move from South Austin to Cedar Park so Boudray can attend the high school.
Kelp said she has been trying to get in contact with Leander ISD to find out if there are any transportation services offered to families in certain circumstances.
"I reached out to the [administration], thinking it would be just kind of a quick fix of like, 'Hey, this family's gone through a lot. This girl has unbelievable potential. Is there any way we could just add her on to a bus route.' It was just kind of a quick shrug off like, 'Sorry, we don't do that,'" Kelp said.
Kelp added that there are likely many families in Boudray's and Dilworth's situation, and the district should offer some sort of assistance.
"There comes a point ... As a single mom for her who doesn't have a car, there's only so much that she can do and only so many ways she can help her daughter," Kelp said.
Boudray explained she learned to deal with the situation, but at times, it does affect her.
"It's kind of like still trying to catch up on everything, but then trying to figure out what my next class is. But then trying to figure out how am I getting home today," Boudray said. "I kind of taught myself how to work with what I have. But it does kind of get tiring."
Dilworth and Boudray explained taking rideshare everywhere is not ideal, but if there was some method of transportation to get to and from school, it would lift some of the weight off of their shoulders.
KVUE reached out to Leander ISD multiple times since Friday. On Thursday, the district provided this statement:
"The district provides a webpage resource on Hazardous Routes. The LISD Board annually approves hazardous routes and decides to discontinue bus service in non-hazardous areas. For one month, the district sought feedback from families about their routes to and from school. With the continued growth in the area, the district assesses hazardous routes on an annual basis. The feedback is collected at the same time each year. The district is currently looking at the recent feedback submissions and, subsequently, evaluating each route. Administration will make a recommendation to the Board in the Spring for the 2024-25 school year.
Specifically regarding Nalia Boudray, Nalia lives 1.6 miles from the apartment complex to the school which is in the Not Eligible for Transportation (NET) zone. There is an alternative route to using Lakeline to Cypress Creek, which takes students on a pedestrian path along Old Mill Rd to El Salido Pkwy. We have many students who live in that apartment complex and none of them receive or have received transportation to Cedar Park HS or any other of the neighboring schools that feed into the high school."
The district's hazardous routes webpage can be viewed here.
If you would like to help the family, a GoFundMe has been set up to assist with travel expenses and can be found here.