Two months after becoming president of NAPT, Alex Robinson began running the largest school district transportation department in the nation in December 2011. Since then, her staff at the NYC Office of Pupil Transportation has undergone more than 40 hours of training, and NAPT has grown its connections to relevant organizations around the globe.

A session at the NAPT Summit addresses ways that managers contribute to distracted driving, while a keynote presentation covers fatal school bus accidents caused by inattentive drivers. Handling problematic student behavior is the focus of a panel discussion and a joint presentation. At the trade show, Blue Bird unveils its redesigned Type D buses.

At Shelby County Schools, enhanced driver training and partnerships with school staff have led to drastic improvements in student behavior on the bus. Here, we spend a day with Director of Transportation Debbie Rike to see how she steers the operation toward success.

Clearly, the job of transportation director is not getting any easier. It takes people with a healthy supply of those “Top Traits” to lead transportation departments through these challenging times.

Today’s surveillance systems not only record students on multiple channels, many record risky driving behavior, issue alerts for specific events and track buses through GPS. Here are details on these and other specifications from eight companies’ offerings.

While surveillance cameras and assigned seating can help in addressing student behavior problems on the school bus, officials say that getting to know passengers, handling discipline issues in a positive way and acknowledging proper bus etiquette are also effective ways to keep troublesome behavior at bay. Here, we share the specifics of several programs and initiatives based on these approaches.

The Positive Behavior Intervention and Support program provides students with incentives to meet and exceed behavioral expectations. Officials who work for a Maryland middle school say they have seen a change among students since implementing the program, and that it is a useful tool for the bus environment.

A year ago, Jeff Walker became transportation director at Litchfield Elementary School District #79 in Phoenix. The department has since cut costs, reduced the number of student disciplinary incidents on its buses and improved its safety record.

Pupil transporters discuss practices they have established toward this effort, such as assigned seating. They also address the importance of creating policies on eating and drinking and transporting backpacks and instruments, as well as ways to reduce noise inside the bus.

An expert on the disorder explains the reasons behind students’ disruptive or inappropriate behavior and offers tips for how pupil transporters can respond to improve the quality of students’ lives in and outside the school bus.