The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation is urging school districts nationwide to only transport students in school buses rather than in vans that do not conform to federal standards for school bus safety.

NASDPTS issued the position on December 5th is response to an increasing number of questions asked by local schools on the legality and cost of the issue.  In 2005, Congress attempted to close a loophole by prohibiting dealerships from selling or leasing to schools newly manufactured 11- to 15- passenger vans, including the driver, that are not built to federal standards for school buses or multifunction school activity buses.

Still, school districts and especially private and charter schools are using the vehicles, which NASDPTS called “a significant issue.”  One of the biggest issues is the cost to replace the vans with school buses that adhere to standards for safety.  The paper by NASDPTS concludes that schools opting for what they consider to be less expensive non-conforming vans are doing so at risk of putting themselves in legal jeopardy.  States have different laws as what kind of vehicle they can use, what form of signage they can use, and what they can use the vehicle for.

Before you purchase a vehicle for a school, check with your state and local laws.

Have a safe and Happy New Year  !!!

Even as a growing number of student transporters view local ride share services as competition, one of the largest  school bus contractors is taking the approach that if you can’t beat them, join them, and in the process potentially taking it nationwide.

That’s the vision of Student Transportation, Inc. in announcing a “highly strategic” move.  The company’s Managed Services Group (MSG) made a minority investment in HopSkipDrive, which was started several years ago in California, by three mothers as a family-and school-friendly alternative to the Lyft and Uber.

The group’s vision is to increase the number of students who need rides to and from school or related events, but for whom the school bus is not an option.

In addition to individual rides, HopSkipDrive offers group transportation for sports teams and field trips, carpooling to schools with daily predetermined routes.   The company monitors all rides and drivers (who are put through a 15 -point certification training process) allowing parents to do the same via an app that also allows trip requests.

Thomas Built Buses has unveiled a video tribute to school bus drivers that features another kind of driver – NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  The Thomas Built video highlights school bus driver’s integral part in education.

In the video, Earnhardt surprises drivers at Cabarrus (NC) County Schools, thanking them and other school bus drivers for the service they provide for students. “Bus drives are critical. For a lot of kids, riding a school bus is the only way that they can get to school,” Earnhardt said. “Every day there are thousands and thousands of bus drivers on the road who are very serious about having a positive impact on kid’s lives. I am proud to partner with Thomas Built Buses to thank school bus drivers for their role in getting kids to school safely and everything they do.”

Earnhardt is from Kannapolis, NC,  in Cabarrus County. He retired from racing at the Cup level this past weekend in the last race of the 2017 season at Homestead Raceway in Florida.

No one can foresee the day when a school bus does not have an adult in the driver seat.  What we can foresee is advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Current OEM supplied school bus driver assist systems, such as anti-lock breaks, electronic stability control and traction control, have been around for a while.  They have been operating behind the scenes without the average driver even knowing.  Today’s  more advanced driver assist systems are found mostly in cars, SUV’s and trucks – like adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking or blind spot monitoring – are more interactive.  They provide drivers with information about their surroundings and automate repetitive tasks in the hope of an overall increase in safety.

New autonomous technologies are being developed at a blistering pace.  In just one automotive model year, advanced driver assists have gone from being offered in a minority of new vehicles to being standard in the majority,

What about the school bus?  Anyone planning  long term replacement of a school bus should ask dealers what is currently available or when they would be able to select from the latest ADAS offerings currently available in the auto and and light truck sector.  Any new technology on the school bus is one more step in increasing safety for our children.

Many operations across the nation has had a critical issue of driver shortages for several years. Finding solutions has proved to be challenging. Here are a few low-cost solutions that Shenendedowa Central School District (SCSD) in New York have implemented:

• Build your substitute driver list. SCSD found that on any given day at least 15 out of 195 drivers were out. During the fall and spring sports season 15 more were needed for sports trips.
• Advertise drivers needed on the side of a bus not running on a daily basis. A banner for the bus can can be created for less than advertising in a newspaper or online. Park it where it can be seen, alternating parking spots. Applicants told SCSD that the ad was something they spotted every day. Eventually, it caused them to stop by and inquire about the positions.
• Get support from the administration department of your school district. More people involved in recruiting, the better.
• Utilize social media. Put a recruitment letter on your districts website, Twitter and/or Facebook pages. Create an email to send to every community member you have in your district database.
• Produce a recruitment video. Interview current drivers on why they like working for your district. Details of the job and pay ranges can also be discussed here.

The lesson learned by SCSD was to not rest on your laurels, but to continue efforts looking for the best applicants to keep your driver pool healthy. It’s an ongoing project.

School Bus Safety Co. supported National School Bus Safety Week by offering a series of public safety announcements (PSA’s) and a safety poster at no charge.

The training company created five PSA’s to illustrate the dangers of illegally passing stopped school buses. The videos can be requested, viewed or downloaded on the School Bus Safety Co. website.

“Safety is everyone’s responsibility,” said Jeff Cassell, president of School Bus Safety Co., “and that is why [the National Association for Pupil Transportation’s] 2017 School Bus Safety Week campaign #StopOnRed is so important.”

In another effort to promote safety, School Bus Safety Co. is offering its “Vision, Mission & Values” poster, which details practices that drivers should follow and those that they shouldn’t. The company previously gave out 300 hard copies of the poster over a three-week period. It is now available as a free PDF at their website.

Yellow is the color most associated with school buses, but the focus of this year’s National School Bus Safety Week was red.

The 2017 edition of the annual event, held October 16th to 20th, promoted the message ‘Stop on Red’. The theme comes from last year’s National School Bus Safety Week Poster Contest. Pupil transportation and law enforcement officials across the nation took the opportunity to remind motorists about the need to stop for school buses that have their red lights flashing and stop arms extended.

Many states participated in this event. Ohio state troopers followed or rode on school buses to crack down on drivers who don’t stop on red. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, from 2014 to 2016, 4,160 drivers statewide were convicted of failing to stop for a stopped school bus.

Law enforcement in Texas also targeted stop-arm running during NSBSW. State troopers patrolled areas where school buses pick up and drop off students, watching for illegal passing. In 2016 and 2017, thus far, the Texas Highway Patrol has issued 1,100 citations and 573 warnings for passing a stopped school bus.

There is so much information out there on this subject, yet it continues to be a major problem. Is getting to your destination quicker more important than a child’s life? Something for us all to think about!

Have you ever thought that your experiences in student transportation would make for great reading material? Tom Brandon did, and he turned that thought into a collection of short stories that reveal the important connection between school bus drivers and passengers.

Brandon, now retired, worked in education for more than 30 years, mostly at a rural school in northern Alabama. Along with driving a school bus, he was a teacher and a coach.

It was his time behind the wheel that inspired Brandon to launch a blog, where he wrote about his many amusing encounters with the students that he drove back and forth to school. Now Brandon’s observations are available in print in a book called Mr. Brandon’s School Bus: What I Heard on the Way to School (New South Books).

The book includes everything from delivering discipline – stopping a passenger from discussing the details of puberty, to the kid who shows off his new sunglasses – before the sun comes up!

Throughout the book, Brandon’s anecdotes show that being a school bus driver means much more than just driving the bus. It means taking the helm of a classroom on wheels, with the potential to help shape each passenger’s education.

While listening to the radio recently, many Kentucky motorists heard a timely school bus safety message.

During the back-to-school period, the public service announcement (PSA) from the Kentucky State Police reminded drivers to watch for school buses and to stop when the bus is loading or unloading students. “It is illegal to pass a bus that has its stop sign out and red lights activated,” Trooper Corey King says in the PSA. “Remember: Stay alert so kids don’t get hurt.”

Many motorists become complacent and need to be reminded that not only will kids be standing along the roadways, but motorists will see an influx of heavier traffic now that school has started. King goes on to say that there are many distractions inside a car and one of the best ways to communicate with drivers is via the airwaves and taking the message directly to them.

Motorists in Kentucky also recently got a visual reminder about the need to stop for school buses by putting up 51 billboards across the state showing a school bus stop arm with the message: “It’s not JUST a stop sign, it’s a child’s life.”

Great messages!

We have recently discussed the nationwide problem of finding qualified school bus drivers. Here is an initiative to not only find drivers, but to help people who have served our country.

The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) and the Maine Department of Education (DOE) are partnering on a campaign to offer free training to veterans who are interesting in becoming school bus drivers. The 2017 Maine Hire-A-Vet campaign was unveiled at a job fair held by the Maine DOL on August 29.

The initiative, which is designed to help fill an anticipated shortage of school bus drivers in Maine, offers free training at school districts across the state.

According to a 2015 jointly released report of the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Transportation, and U.S. Department of Labor, school bus drivers and special-needs bus drivers hold the second highest number of job openings in the nation. The report also identifies a need for bus mechanics and diesel engine specialists.

Although the initiative is specifically geared toward veterans, the free training is available to anyone interested in becoming a school bus driver. In Maine, they are expecting to fill 50 jobs statewide.