BUS SAFETY

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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. School
  bus professionals know that students are safer in
  school buses than they are in parents cars,
  siblings cars, walking, or riding bicycles.
  But, we need to be careful not to use a
  definition of safety that is too limited.

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Bus Safety

• 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

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

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Student Safety
Bullying Harassment Fighting Yelling
Disrespect Throwing things

• Many 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.

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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.

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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
  fathers 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.

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BEHAVIOR
THROWING THINGS
INTERVENTION
REFERRALS
HARASSMENT
PROBLEMS
BULLYING
SUSPENSION
CONSEQUENCES
COMPLAINTS
EATING AND DRINKING
YELLING
DISCIPLINE
FIGHTING
HANGING OUT THE WINDOWS
HOW DO I GET THEM TO STOP?
PUNISHMENT
PARENTS
BUT THE MOST DANGEROUS PART OF AN ICEBERG IS NOT
PART THAT IS ABOVE THE SURFACE.
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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.

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Inconvenient

• 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.

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Emotional Management
Model Respect
Policies
Learn the Names
Training
Motivation
Planning
Avoid Sarcasm
Communication
Procedures
Evaluations
Willing to be Inconvenienced
Climate
Effectiveness
Discussions
Relationships
Recruitment
Preparation
The Right Fit
Resources
Likes Kids
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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.

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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

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Emotional Management

• Dont Threaten
• Stay Calm
• Dont 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.

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Procedures

• Time to line up
• I cant continue the route till everyone is
  seated
• You 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.

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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.

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Two Drivers

• Communication
• Proactive
• Calm and Patient
• Setting the Standard
• Recruiting allies

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Deputizing Drivers

• Call Parents
• Meet with principals
• Assign Seats

• John 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.