As transportation managers, our most important responsibility is making sure all children get delivered to and from school safe and on time.
In our line of work, one of the worst things we can hear is, “We have a lost child.” If that does happen, the first thing I do is have the bus searched.
Since 2001, the only incident I’ve had of a sleeping student left on a school bus was by a seasoned 25-year driver. Ironically, this driver also acted as a mid-day dispatcher who did radio reminders to check for sleeping children.
I have spent many waking hours thinking about how to prevent this type of incident from happening again. Managers must provide leadership in this area by establishing clear procedures for drivers to follow, enforcing consequences for not following those procedures, and providing reminders and incentives for drivers to check their buses for sleepers.
Here are 10 recommendations for managers to consider.
Post-trip procedures
1. School bus drivers must have a predetermined checking spot, agreed on with management, to make sure that no children are left behind. This place should be reflected on the return home route sheet. It should be the nearest safe place to pull over to check the bus.
2. Do not let drivers come back to base for their initial check. It is much better to find a sleeper as close to home as possible.
3. In the morning, all post-trip bus checks should be done at school. This is a good place to find backpacks, lunches, projects, etc.
4. Although the initial child checks should be done before returning to base, it’s certainly OK to double-check at base.
Place dummies on board
5. To make sure drivers are checking their buses, consider placing a dummy on board. I use homemade “sleeper” dummies. Joey is made from old clothes from my nephew Joe, and Will is made of clothes we picked up at Goodwill. It’s pretty easy to make these sleeper dummies. Here’s how:
• Sew socks to the end of pant legs and a shirt to the pant waistband.
• Fabricate a head from an old shirt and sew on a cap.
• Fill the clothes with a filling.













