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About 1,500 Fairfax County elementary and middle school students may have to change schools or find their own transportation this fall following a divided school board vote.

The board voted 7-4 Thursday to approve Superintendent Michelle Reid’s recommendation to provide free transportation only to 69 high school students who chose to remain at their current schools after recent boundary changes.

The district’s boundary overhaul rezones 1,637 of Fairfax County Public Schools’ 177,000 current students. Under a phase-in policy, students in the final two grades of elementary, middle and high school may attend their newly assigned school or stay at their current one.

Students attending their newly assigned schools remain eligible for free bus service. Younger students who choose to stay, however, will need transportation from their families.

Reid said transporting every student who remains at a current school would cost FCPS $3.1 million. Providing buses only for the 69 affected high school students will cost $241,386.

At-large board member Ryan McElveen opposed prioritizing older students, arguing that younger children have a greater need for the safety provided by school transportation.

Mason District member Ricardy Anderson said the district should place transportation ahead of other projects. She compared offering students the option to remain without providing a way to get there to placing food 20 feet up a tree beyond a hungry person’s reach.

Hunter Mill District representative Melanie Meren warned that denying transportation would harm trust in both the board and the school division. She urged members to find enough money to cover every affected student and said the uncertainty was “unnecessarily stressful.”

School Board Vice Chair Robyn Lady, who represents the Dranesville District, supported Reid’s proposal. She said high school students face more complicated transitions involving academic credits and graduation.

Lady also pointed to a projected $43 million gap between the district’s needs and anticipated funding from Virginia and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, saying the financial pressure requires difficult priorities.

Reid acknowledged that some students may have to leave familiar schools near their homes, while other families will face the inconvenience of arranging transportation.

“All of the ideas are outstanding ideas,” Reid said. “We just are not going to be able to fund all of them.”