Sorry if this is wordy. Looking for third-party opinions or similar situations. This is in Indiana.
Current conflict between myself and co-parent (CP) regards school morning transportation. CP has three school-week overnights every two weeks; I have primary physical custody (~65/35 split time) with decision-making rights. Our child is 5 and is in the process of transitioning from preschool to kindergarten. The school bus stop in my neighborhood is being used during my parenting time. I have requested CP use the bus stop in my neighborhood for school mornings to maintain a routine for our child, but CP is opting to use parent drop-off on their mornings instead. I have asked CP to at least use the bus stop until our kiddo is acclimated with the new school, but CP is refusing.
My argument:
-consistent arrival routines should be the priority and help our child stay focused on school rather than logistics; it will be difficult for a young child to adjust to a new school on top of new, inconsistent routines
-the bus stop is the same distance form CP's residence as the school, so there is no additional travel burden on CP; CP lives nearby, but just out of the school district and cannot use the bus in their neighborhood
-the bus stop will have no traffic and have less pressure or rush on the child; the parent drop-off line can be lengthy and chaotic
-the school has suggested that children who struggle with changes in routine may have problems with differing arrival routines and should use the bus
-our child has struggled with routine changes, in particular, CP regularly took the child to preschool late or picked up early and it lead to issues with getting the child out to preschool on my mornings, among other issues
-the bus has been our child's stated "favorite part" of the new school, and was disappointed to learn CP would not be using it
-school transportation logistics fall under the purview of my legal custody regarding decisions about education
CP argument:
-transportation to school is CP's parenting time, and therefore their decision to make
-utilizing two forms of transportation (CP's car + the bus) on CP's school mornings is more disruptive than differing arrival routines and involves an unnecessary transition to the bus
-the parent drop-off line allows CP to be a more "actively involved" in the education
-we should consider the wishes of our child on the matter (which I disagreed with, and the child ultimately volunteered that the bus was the favorite part of kindergarten anyway)
-CP may have to leave 5-10 minutes earlier for the bus stop, which would mean "losing parenting time" for CP
-CP wishes to maintain a similar routine to prior preschool drop-off involving a morning car ride (which would not materially change, because CP would be driving the child somewhere either way)
The general consensus I've read and the input from the school advisor discredits CP's second point in that differing arrival routines is more disruptive that two forms of transportation once or twice a week. The third point doesn't make much sense to me, other than CP being visible to school staff managing the drop-off line, which I find to be somewhat performative.
What do others do in this type of split-household situation? My main concern is that my kiddo is quite sensitive to routine and is going to struggle with learning multiple arrival logistics in addition to learning a whole new school/class/teacher/etc. I've told CP I'm open to it after acclimation in the new school. We have mediation in a month regarding the overall decision-making process (which I'm not expecting to go well for CP as there have been much more blatant issues than this), but I'd like to avoid chaotic mornings in the meantime.