The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) held its annual conference in Washington, D.C., for the first time Oct. 13 to 17. Hot topics included electric buses, illegal bus passing, and safety recommendations on fire suppression systems, seat belts, and evacuation training.
PHOTOS: NASDPTS in D.C.
Mike LaRocco, the president of NASDPTS and Indiana state director (shown left), introduced Bruce Landsberg, the vice chairman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who discussed safety recommendations from the agency. Those included physical performance testing, evacuation training, and lap-shoulder belts.
Attendees had the chance to get more information from industry suppliers during a networking event.
David Cooper of the highway surface policy division at the Transportation Security Administration reviewed strategies for responding to threats such as active shooters, vehicle ramming, explosives, and ransomware attacks.
Larry Minor, an administrator and officer with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, let attendees know that the entry-level driver training certification final rule deadline has been pushed back from 2020 to 2022.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) told attendees that she added a grant program to the School Bus Safety Act of 2019 that she co-sponsored with Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09).
Kristin Rosenthal, a highway safety specialist for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, announced a new bus driver refresher training program. She added that the agency is working on a study with states that require seat belts on buses to see if they improve behavior and that the feedback period closes Nov. 15.
Jan Moore, the assistant director of the National Center for Homeless Education, detailed laws that impact transporting homeless students and students in foster care.
When discussing the Stop for School Buses Act of 2019, Blake Krapf, past president of the National School Transportation Association and Krapf School Bus's president and CEO, shared that one of his company's drivers had been illegally passed by five motorists at one stop. Fortunately, the driver hadn't let the students out of the bus, he added.
Charlie Hood, NASDPTS's executive director, shared the results of the association's annual stop arm survey, and told attendees that NASDPTS is partnering with the National School Transportation Association and the National Association for Pupil Transportation to support the Stop for School Buses Act of 2019.
Kristin Poland, a deputy director at the NTSB, went over the results of a concussion study of students in a school bus accident that showed that lap-shoulder belts can protect students from suffering concussions in crashes.
A roundtable featuring state directors (from left to right) Pat Schofill (Ga.), Susan Miller (Colo.), and Keith Dreiling (Kan.), discussed hot topics in their regions, including a recent campaign against stop-arm running (Kan.), updating driver training modules (Ga.), and specifications for electric school buses (Colo.).