A shuttle service that helps transport students who are homeless to school will be extended until the end of the academic year, after parents and advocates sharply criticized D.C. officials’ plans to end the service after two months.

The District began offering the shuttle in January to families staying in two motels the city uses as homeless shelters on New York Avenue in Northeast. The bus brings students to and from nearby Metro stations on weekday mornings and afternoons.

The service was scheduled to end March 13. WAMU reported Tuesday morning that community members fought to keep the shuttle, arguing the transportation is badly needed in a part of the city largely cut off from public transit.

D.C. officials decided Tuesday afternoon to extend the service until the last day of school in June, according to a spokesman for Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn.

Jamila Larson, executive director of the Playtime Project, an organization that runs activities for young children at one of the motels, said the city must do all it can to ensure students who are homeless arrive at school on time.

“This section of New York Avenue where mostly black children experiencing homelessness reside is a far cry from a thriving neighborhood,” she said. “Getting to school should not be seen as a luxury.”

All public school children in D.C. can ride public transit in the city for free under a program that issues SmarTrip cards to students.

The city has explored additional transportation for families living in shelters, including a $120,000 pilot program that provides some families with Metro and bus passes for two weeks. Vouchers for ride-sharing apps are also provided.

City officials will evaluate if the additional transportation options improve a common problem among students who lack stable housing: classroom attendance. A 2018 report found that students in D.C. who are homeless are twice as likely to be chronically absent from school.

Nearly 7,730 D.C. students were homeless at some point in the 2018-2019 school year, according to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

Christina Gaddis and her four-year-old son, Kenneth, board the shuttle each morning outside the Days Inn where they stay. The shuttle carries them to the Stadium-Armory Metro station, where they take a train to reach Smothers Elementary School in Ward 7. Without the shuttle, Gaddis said her son was often late to class because of traffic they would encounter on the way to Stadium-Armory.

Instead of rushing to get to school on time, Gaddis said the shuttle allows her to relax and spend quality time with her son.

“We get to keep a little bit of normalcy even though we don’t have a home yet,” she said.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.