If student transporters are to be looked upon as educators, then they need to act like it, says Pete Meslin, who is presenting the new concept of “Bus in the Classroom” exclusively to TSD Conference attendees in March.
He will chronicle a program recently implemented at Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Southern California that uses school bus drivers to actively teach school bus safety, ridership rules and life skills to students with special needs, with the result being a true path to transportation independence.
What’s unique about this program is that school bus drivers and attendants teach students in the classroom and then practice the lessons with students in an actual school bus. The easy-to-use, hands-on curriculum includes lesson plans to help students start performing such routine skills as carrying their own backpacks, safely walking to and waiting at the bus stop, boarding the bus, buckling seat belts, learning expected behaviors for the ride and more. In addition to teaching safety and independence life skills, this program helps build mutual understanding between transporters and special educators.
Meslin, the district’s director of transportation and a member of TSD’s National Board of Advisors, developed the program with the help of curriculum experts and special educators. This curriculum is now being rolled out nationally with a blueprint available for conference attendees in Louisville, Kentucky.
Read more about the concept in the November edition of School Transportation News magazine.
