Families finding new ways to get kids to school

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Families finding new ways to get kids to school

With gas prices hitting record levels, securing kids back and forth from school, extracurricular activities, sports or even school events has become more of a burden.

According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline reached a new record high of $4.43 on Friday.

It's hitting every family differently. Some families are so inundated with their schedule that they told FOX Business they rely on any pump they can. Other families are planning their schedules in order to find the cheapest pump and use some apps like GasBuddy to do it.

GAS PRICES:

Kristin Faulder and her husband, Joe, are working parents with two children living in Nashville. They have a car and a plethora of places to visit every week.

The Faulders have to drive their kids to the school because the school bus doesn't come to their rental home during the week.

She said we're doing two round trips, one in the morning to drop them off and then in the afternoon to pick them up.

The Faulders have one soccer game for their five-year-old and two games for their 11-year-old on Saturdays. One of their games was only 30 miles away, Faulder told FOX Business.

Faulder says it costs about $4.09 per gallon to fill up in Nashville.

Faulder said the van was $70 and we just filled up my tank. It used to be around $40 to fill up.

Faulder says she has to fill up where she needs to, with a busy schedule running a company and raising two kids.

She said that when I go, I just have to do it.

Colleen, a teacher in Nashville who is raising two kids, finds herself in a similar boat.

The mom of two, who preferred not to share her last name, said her children's school, where she works, is about 16 miles from her home. She said that's only 32 miles from school.

When school is finished, Colleen said her husband will usually meet them at school to take one of their kids to golf while she takes the other to soccer, which can sometimes be as far as an hour away.

She said that's two cars doing round trips to the same place in the course of like 12 hours.

Colleen says that transitioning into spring time and juggling everyone's extracurricular activities has been a challenge.

All sports started back up within the past six weeks.

It was green light, everything was back, the back of the game, and golf is back, she said.

Colleen tries to be strategic with what gas stations she uses when planning her schedule. She tries to avoid using the gas station at her school, which costs around $4.48 per gallon, in order to fuel up at her home, which varies from $4.09 to $4.29 per gallon.

It costs about $80 to fill up every time, and she fills up at least once a week.

William Big Will Dunn, who takes children without father figures fishing every weekend, says his trips are costing significantly more.

Dunn is located in Central Florida. It's costing an extra $60 to get to the other side of Orlando to fish with the kids. To get to Clearwater, Florida, it costs an extra $35 to $45 each way, according to Dunn.

Bernita Bradley, who runs a home school co-op called Engaged Detroit, says the families she works with are also struggling.

The parents will take the children to various places throughout the week to do their learning, even though they are homeschooled, according to Bradley.

Homeschooling is at the park, homeschooling is at a museum where the children's imagination takes the parents, she said.

She says prices in the Detroit area have been around $4.09 per gallon.

Bradley said they are giving families $20 a month to help pay for their gas, something they haven't done before.