BUS SAFETY Accidents Injuries Broken Bones Crashes Collisions We like to promote the fact that school buses are the safest way to get students to school.

BUS SAFETY Accidents

InjuriesBroken BonesCrashesCollisions

We like to promote the fact that school buses are the safest way to get students to school. School bus professionals know that students are safer in school buses than they are in parent’s cars, sibling’s cars, walking, or riding bicycles. But, we need to be careful not to use a definition of safety that is too limited.

Bus SafetyUnfortunately, in many ways we have failed realize that parents, children, and other stakeholders measure safety differently than we do.

In 2009 the North Carolina Center for Urban Affairs and

Community Services discovered some interesting facts

about public school transportation in the Tar Heel State

Student SafetyMany parents in North Carolina take their children to school, or find some way for their children to get to school other than the school bus. The survey put out by the Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services found that the biggest reason those parents did not want their children on was not that they felt like the bus might have an accident or collision. Instead they were concerned about the behavior of the children on the bus.

BullyingHarassment Fighting Yelling DisrespectThrowing things

Bus Drivers BUS DRIVERS

are very aware of the problem

Being a school bus driver is one of the most thankless jobs in the school system.

In November, Jennings (Kevin Jennings is the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools) told NAPT attendees that a recent survey by John Hopkins University and the National Education Association found that students who take the bus to and from school are about 18 percent more apt to report bullying than students who ride to school using another mode of transportation. And bus drivers are more likely to report bullying incidents than other school personnel. (stnonline.com)

A school bus driver on Monday accused administrators of failing to deal with what the driver said were longstanding discipline problems with students aboard district school buses.

Bus Drivers

• Bus Drivers are REQUESTING training on how to manage the behavior of the students on our buses.

• Bus drivers are blamed for behavioral problems on their buses.

Below are some quotes from a story about a father’s concerns about the bullying that his son had to endure.

"My child, when he's on that bus, it's the bus driver's responsibility," Bartley said. "And I feel like she failed my child. I feel like the school board is failing me and my child.“

But Bartley says his son has repeatedly been bullied for more than a year and a half. He says he's reported it, but the school has not put a stop to it.

REFERRALS

CONSEQUENCES

DISCIPLINE

SUSPENSION

INTERVENTION

HOW DO I GET THEM TO STOP?PUNISHMENT

PROBLEMS

BEHAVIOR

PARENTS

COMPLAINTSBULLYING

HARASSMENT

FIGHTINGYELLING HANGING OUT THE WINDOWS

THROWING THINGS

EATING AND DRINKING

BUT THE MOST DANGEROUS PART OF AN ICEBERG IS NOT PART THAT IS ABOVE THE SURFACE.

Inconvenient• Training• Communication• Review• Guidance• Information• Open House• Publicize• Disseminate• Evaluate• Plan• Stay Calm

The simple truth is that we focus on the visible part of the iceberg because it is the easiest to see… We review our referral process, our consequences, our suspensions, because we can collect and review that information. We hope that if we could just get the right consequence, then the kids would behave better, then it would be like the good old days.

The good old days were not really that good. Recent efforts at holding schools accountable are requiring schools to find ways to teach all children.

Today, our goals are loftier, harder to attain.

•That is why we pay them so much.

We do a great job of teaching school bus drivers to back up their big yellow vehicles, and we do a great job making sure they are not bringing bad driving habits into the job by checking MVRs and things like that.

We do a poor job helping them learn how to deal with children.

Sometimes, because we need drivers so desperately, we hire drivers who are not very good with children.

Driving a school bus is an insanely difficult job. No good teacher turns their back on their class for an extended period of time because they not that is a perfect recipe for disaster.

Inconvenient

PlanningTraining Policies Motivation

Procedures CommunicationEvaluations

Discussions EffectivenessRelationships

RecruitmentPreparationThe Right FitResources

Emotional Management

Likes Kids

Willing to be InconveniencedClimate

Learn the Names Avoid

Sarcasm

Model Respect

Planning• Fun Facts• Theme Songs• Crayons• Greetings• Rewards• Seating Charts• Parent Contacts• Bus Rules • Bus Procedures

Successful bus drivers will plan for their routes. They will anticipate the children that they have on the bus and they will find ways to reach them in a positive manner.

Bus drivers will develop a list of rules that can help maintain the behavior of the students – and the bus driver on the bus.

Bus drivers will establish procedures find ways to teach them to the students driving the bus. They will explain, rehearse, review and reteach.

TRAINING• Bus drivers are incredibly

well trained at driving.• As “School” bus drivers we

have to find ways to teach them to manage the particular kind of cargo they carry.

School bus drivers need to be trained how to interact with children. This training needs to be proactive in teaching them how to create a climate on the bus that is warm, respectful and welcoming

Emotional Management

• Don’t Threaten• Stay Calm• Don’t Be the Enemy• Take Care of Yourself

Numerous behavioral management documents emphasize that personal confrontations must be avoided. Bus drivers must be trained to deal with problem behaviors without becoming personally entangled in the behavior.

This involves being firm without being judgmental. Drivers must learn to limit the behaviors they want to control to behaviors they really can control, and it also means that they must be able to follow through on what they say.

ProceduresTime to line upI can’t continue the route till everyone is seatedYou need to sit in your assigned seat

Children on buses will behave better if procedures are put in place to provide them with direction. The best time to establish or change procedures is at the beginning of the year.

Typical procedures are things like assigning seats, proper line up before the bus door will be opened, what to do in case of standing or moving seats, what to do if late to the bus stop.

The real purpose of procedures is to establish a non personal approach to managing behavior. There is less to get angry about when a driver says “that is not the procedure we follow,” compared to, “I said be quiet NOW!”

Establishing and maintaining procedures is a skill.

Proactive

• The most important thing that a school bus driver, teacher or childcare worker can do is to anticipate how the children will behave.

• Make plans to promote an environment that favors getting along.

• Make plans to correct student behavior, knowing that the best plans may be inconvenient.

Two Two DriversDrivers

• CommunicationCommunication• ProactiveProactive• Calm and PatientCalm and Patient• Setting the StandardSetting the Standard• Recruiting alliesRecruiting allies

Deputizing Deputizing DriversDrivers

• Call Parents• Meet with principals• Assign SeatsJohn Farr of Oceanside California

began deputizing drivers to handle discipline themselves.

Drivers are trained to call parents and to handle meet with principals about more serious behavior.

Depends on drivers being able to disengage from escalating conversations.