ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Thirty-five Orange County middle school students lost their ride to school, Thursday. The students at Union Park Middle School were kicked off their bus, even after parents said they were told they would have the bus all school year.

The parent of a Union Park middle student said she received a notice telling her that her child would be picked up by the bus. The problem, according to the Orange County Public Schools, is that a student must live at least two miles from their school to get a ride on the bus.

Orange County admitted that they have never really enforced the rule, but three weeks into the school year, parents are scrambling to work out a carpool schedule to get their kids to and from school.

Tuesday, when around 30 kids got off their buses, drivers told them they would no longer be able to ride the bus. Parents were confused because some of their children had been riding the bus to Union Park Middle School for years.

District leaders said that was because kids who lived within two miles of the school were being allowed to ride the bus as long as there was room for them. But the transportation director for OCPS said that because of anticipated budget cuts bus routes had to be cut and in the Union Park neighborhood it meant two bus stops had to be cut.

The district ran an audit of the bus system and dozens of students were kicked off their buses this week because they lived too close to their school.

"She rode the bus all last year and there was no problem. The thing is to me, as parents, we were not notified. They did not tell us at the beginning of the school year. They went ahead and assigned us a bus number and told us where she would be picked up and what time," said Patti Weston, a concerned parent.

"In years past what has happened is there has been additional seat capacity because of additional buses and that may have caused some of the issues," said Arby Creach, OCPS transportation director.

School district leaders said they were working on ways to better deal with the situation, like trying to inform parents before the school year starts.