LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Elementary and middle school Jefferson County Public School students returned to the classroom Friday for their second day of school, over a week after the first day due to a major transportation fiasco that saw some young students not make it home until just before 10 p.m.

In hopes of making busing more smooth, school officials adjusted some stops and gave bus drivers with complicated routes a ride-along person to help with navigation. Officials also were using an app that shows where buses are in real time. That app will soon also be available to parents.

JCPS also plans to have buses designated to take elementary students home or back to school if there is no adult waiting for them at their stop.

High schoolers in the district, Kentucky's largest by far, will return to class on Monday.

There were notably fewer transportation issues than on the first day of school Aug. 9. There were scattered reports of buses arriving late for school, though, including for two of Keeley Finn's children. Finn said two of her three children rode the bus Friday morning, and although the buses arrived about 10 minutes late, both children arrived at school long after it had started.

Her 11-year-old son arrived at school at 9:30 a.m., she said.

“School starts at 8 a.m. and is only about a 12 minute drive from our house,” Finn said.

Her 13-year-old daughter has a longer commute, including a bus transfer, but actually arrived earlier — 44 minutes after the start of school, Finn said.

She thinks the transportation problems could be alleviated by increasing bus driver pay.

“They have a really hard job. They really do,” she said. “They put up with some very challenging behaviors. They deserve to be paid fairly for what they do.”

School officials advised parents in a note Thursday that they “expect some buses may drop children off at stops later than expected," Friday. They also encouraged parents who could make alternate transportation arrangements to do so. The district has about 65,000 bus riders.

“While this is not ideal, it is the reality right now,” the note from JCPS officials said.

Some of the blame has been heaped on a contractor the district hired to redraw its bus routes. The changes by AlphaRoute led to some students not being picked up in the morning and others not getting home until nearly 10 p.m.

The company said it sent a team to Louisville to help address problems.