From new school bus monitor training best-practices to workshopping real-life transportation and management scenarios, next month’s TSD Conference in Frisco, Texas, offers transporters of students with disabilities and special needs the latest in innovative solutions and ideas.
The agenda highlights tried-and-true topics such as the Foundations of Special Need Transportation seminar on Friday, Nov. 8, which provides both new and experienced student transporters with vital information on the Individuals with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act as well as the necessary operational considerations necessary of both school districts and vehicle contractors.
Best Practices for the Training of School Bus Monitors & Aides seminar, also on Nov. 8, is new this year. It defines the critical roles and responsibilities aides and monitors have during commutes in school buses and other vehicles, and it explores how to pull all the information together into a handbook for training and oversight.
Praesidium, a leading training organization that seeks to prevent abuse, makes its inaugural appearance at TSD Conference this year. A representative will present Preventing Sexual Abuse During Transportation. The general session, which immediately follow’s special education attorney Betsey Helfrich’s Avoiding the Bumps and Legal Hazards session, will address how abuse happens, current trends, and best practices for mitigating this risk with updated policies, training on boundaries and red-flag behaviors, and supervision strategies.
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Several sessions pinpoint the collaboration needed between school districts and contractors for either traditional school bus routes or non-traditional alternative vehicles. A general session on Monday, Nov. 11 features a discussion ahead of the National Congress on School Transportation, where state delegations will weigh standardized verbiage for guiding how student transporters weigh the different services available and provide oversight.
One of the closing general sessions on Tuesday, Nov. 12, is What’s the Worst That Could Happen? On-the-Spot Decision Making. The panel discussion will present four real-life scenarios to attendees split into groups can develop solutions in a matter of minutes with only the information they have at the time.
Meanwhile, collaboration between school districts and school bus contractors returns as a much-needed topic during breakout sessions on Sunday, Nov. 10. It will expand on information that attendees will receive during Foundations of Special Needs to start the weekend.
Another scheduled session on Sunday will look at the intricacies of transporting medically fragile students and the training that school bus drivers and aides need as well as the information sharing required with health care providers. The topic of risk management of follows, as Joanie Arnott, the risk manager for the Texas Association of School Boards, fields a panel discussion about everyday operational issues that can create headaches for student transporters.
The 2024 Transportation Director of the Year selected by School Transportation News will also be honored during a special presentation Saturday morning, Nov. 9, sponsored by Blue Bird.
A ride and drive event is joined Friday night, Nov. 8 by a technology demonstration. The TSD Trade Show opens Sunday evening and continues Monday morning following the general session panel on alternative transportation choices.
The full agenda and registration instructions are online.
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