South Carolina updates aging fleet with 342 new buses

The state, which owns its school bus fleet, makes its first purchase of new school buses since 2008. They will replace models as old as 1984. State Superintendent Mick Zais calls the move “the first step in modernizing the nation’s oldest school bus fleet.”

Special-Needs Survey 2013

This survey is sent to managers and supervisors at school district transportation departments and bus companies. Survey topics covered include the proportion of special-needs students transported by respondents, challenges in busing these students, training topics and resources for training, and mainstreaming of special-needs students.

Bus, Chassis and Engine Specifications 2013

Includes such information as bus classifications for each offering from the large and small school bus manufacturers, suspension type for chassis and fuel type for available engines.

Overturned bus training an ‘eye-opener’ for staff

More than 80 people in Van Buren County, Mich., participate in an emergency training event that shows them what it feels like to be in an overturned school bus as well as one filled with smoke. Transportation Supervisor Mark Niewoonder shares details on the hands-on event and how it changed staff members’ perceptions.

Emergency Training in an Overturned Bus

7 more earn special-needs endorsement

Pupil transportation professionals from Colorado to Virginia complete the National Association for Pupil Transportation program, which is designed to increase participants’ knowledge about transporting students with disabilities.

District reviews special-needs safety following students’ deaths

One student with a neuromuscular disorder passed away in January, a day after she began choking on her school bus. The bus driver and aide reportedly tried to have the dispatch operator or transportation supervisor call 911. In the second incident, a student with Down syndrome drowned in a pond behind a middle school in October.

School van company suspended for drunken driving incident

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles suspends all of Ride-Rite Medi-Van Co.'s school pupil transportation licenses, and the company will be required to pay $100 per suspended registration for each of the vehicles. Michael Tantillo was allegedly drunk when he transported a special-needs student for four hours, and he did not have a school bus driver’s license.

Court supervision for D.C. bus service ends

The parties in the Petties v. D.C. case agree in early November to end the federal oversight, but the case will remain active until after a Dec. 19 fairness hearing on the proposed agreement. The agreement comes in the wake of a report that the city is in compliance with performance standards put in place by the court for special-needs pupil transportation services.

What to do when students act out

Expanding discipline policies to cover both transportation and campus life, providing crisis intervention training to staff and sharing relevant student information with the right personnel will help minimize student violence on the bus and in the classroom.