I usually walked; it was about 4 blocks. If the weather was particularly bad, I got a ride from a friend’s mom.
I took the school bus, and because it was a rural area, there were no bus stops. The bus went directly to every house and picked each kid up in their driveway.
barefoot
The poll needs to allow for multiple answers.
Grades K-8 walked or rode bike. 2/3 - 1 mile
Grades 9-12 parents dropped me off on way to work, took bus home.
You should have allowed for multiple replies/choices. Until high school I walked; at that point I had moved and had a district that provided bus transportation. I still walked sometimes (it was like a mile or so) but not daily.
Elementary school was only 4 blocks away, so I walked.
Junior high school was a bit further, but since the Long Island Expressway was between us and it, the closest bus stop going that way to our house was in front of the school. So I walked there also.
In high school we had bus passes which let us ride for a nickel, I think, so I usually took the bus, but often walked the mile and a half or so to it. Anyhow, since the poll doesn’t allow multiple answers, I put down walked.
When I was a child growing up in, I actually used to trudge 3 miles through 3 feet of Lake Erie snow, with hills both ways!
Although actually going through and tracking my route on Google Maps, it turns out it was only about .6 miles. I’m also thinking that I wasn’t 5’11" in second grade…so it might have been less than 3 feet of snow. And Google Maps doesn’t really capture the sheer terrifying steepness of the hills.
I walked, for the most part, even in Alaskan winters, up until I got my driver’s license. Even in high school, which was a couple of miles away and had a serious hill climb at the end.
I lived across the block from my elementary school, so I walked there for seven years, alone, starting in kindergarten. After that, I took the bus.
It was a combination. Most days we walked some of the way at the very least. Some days my mom had to be at work early so she would drop us at the grands’ and we’d have breakfast and walk from there, but they lived less than half a block from the school. We only lived about four blocks from the school so it was never a long trip.
Walked. 1954 through 1967. Elementary school was a bit under 1/2 mile away. High school was about 1-1/4 mile away. In both cases there was a steep uphill on the way home. Mild climate, frequent rain but seldom any snow or ice.
eta: this was in an urban environment, and there were no public school buses.
I chose walk, but the real answer was run. I could run home faster than the bus could get there, what with all the stops it had to make along the way.
As an added bonus, I didn’t have to put up with the bus bullies.
My elementary school (which was torn down and replaced with houses that fetch seven, count them, seven figures on a good day, about 20 years ago) was only about 1/4 mile from my house, so I walked. My middle school was two miles away, so most of the time I took the bus, although I rode my bike every now and then when it wasn’t raining. I didn’t have access to a car in high school, so somebody drove me there and back, although I occasionally walked or rode my bike when there was nobody available to drive me.
I walked 2nd-12th. We didn’t use backpacks that I can remember, wth? I remember book bands and making book covers but still had to walk home carrying a ton of books, wearing levi cords and sueded desert boots in south florida. Hot mess.
Rode my bike sometimes too, elementary and middle school,until it was stolen out of my front yard. Learned later there was a ring of juvies commanded by someone’s Dad who was also a little league coach who drove boys around looking for stuff to steal. High School could usually grab a ride home in someone’s car, but still walked a lot.
Bus, all twelve years. For kindergarten, since it was half days, and I had a small class, we took the bus home, but go taken to school in a 57 Chevy.
And since I lived next to the bus driver, I was the second one on and penultimate off, and had nearly an hour ride each way, though it was only 8 miles. “Afterschool Specials” were never a thing I could watch, because they were done before I ever got close to home.
I chose public transportation, because that’s what I used most years growing up in the cities of Montreal and Los Angeles. But some years I walked to school and there were even a couple of years in Pennsylvania when I rode a school bus. I moved a lot when I was a kid.
Another “need multiple answers”. I chose “walked”. But until about fifth grade, my mother drove us both ways. I walked home from about 5th to 8th. High school, I took public transportation since in my city , you had to be 17 ( and then only with drivers ed- otherwise 18) to drive and it would have been impossible to park anywhere near the school .
I walked. It was only about a half-mile if I cut through the woods, but a lot longer when it rained or snowed and I had to stay on the streets.
Why was I expecting it to be uphill both ways in the snow? 
my first 2 years I mostly walked although I almost killed my self twice
But since the 4th grade I was sp.ed and classified disabled so I was bussed to and from school
I tried to walk to and fro in hs but I couldn’t make it there on time and then I was tired one afternoon and sat down in the gas station after getting a soda and fell asleep …
Why didn’t anyone wake me up ? it wasn’t the first time id done so and they knew I lived near by so they just called mom after an hour or two … after that I was back on the small bus again