RENO, Nev. — Current society cannot simply be viewed through a black and white lens since reality resides inside an obscured gray zone. Tackling problems in this vague in between demands that modern-day transportation departments think outside the box to resolve issues encountered during operations.
The general session “50 Shades of Gray: Student Transportation Issues Are Rarely Black or White” examined four issues: special education, method of transportation, student management and training through a panel discussion moderated by STN Editor-in-Chief Ryan Gray.
To transport students with disabilities, districts must find an appropriate solution that “works within a limited system,” said Peggy Burns, owner/consultant of Education Compliance Group and 2015 recipient of the Peter J. Grandolfo Memorial Award of Excellence.
School districts are federally mandated to provide transportation for students with special needs. Districts, as the panel all agreed upon, are currently restricted by tight budgets and narrow options, so inventive solutions are encouraged. The subject blended easily with the methods of transportation.
Burns listed a number of possible components transportation departments need to contemplate, such as attaining the right vehicle paired with the right driver, both being cost effective and efficient, along with offering “the least restrictive environment possible,” said Burns.
Burns admitted that none of the solutions were easy or concrete, but “doing nothing is never the right thing,” she added.
Kala Henkensiefken, transportation supervisor for Brainerd Public Schools ISD 181 in Minnesota, elaborated on the matter, saying that “knowing the students’ needs” helps districts determine the methods of transportation are necessary.
But, she stressed, what is best for the students doesn’t always align with the role of transportation departments, so districts “do what they have to do” to deliver on the necessities students require.
Overall student management, though, requires drivers who are focused with a seasoned touch and assertiveness to enforce the rules of the bus and not allow bad conduct to persist.
On top of these characteristics, drivers need to be aware of the power of alerting the proper authorities, detailing the concern in a report and following up on the behavioral infractions with students/parents/administration.
John Benish, COO of Cook-Illinois Corp., believed that the strongest tool a driver possesses is the security camera installed on the bus. “When dealing with a problem student, the incident has got to be on video. If it is not on video, it did not happen,” said Benish.
All of these issues involve a strong training program that “doesn’t short the drivers, giving them the basic tools to handling students, but not too little or too much information about all the regulations that it shoves them out the door for other positions,” said Diana Hollander, program officer of pupil transportation at the Nevada Department of Education.
Finding that balance, however, requires cross training and everyone wearing a variety of different hats. “We are not just bus drivers, we are also educators, teaching children how to ride the bus,” she added.
Wrapping up the session, Gray concluded that transportation departments needed to think through things in an abstract way to operate in the day to day in this complex world.
