RENO — Policy, training and information flow are keys to reducing the inherent liability risks associated with transporting special needs students, school district transportation personnel were told Monday during a session at the 20th annual STN EXPO
Peggy Burns, president of Education Compliance Group, Inc., and Pete Meslin, transportation director for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Southern California, delivered the message during the session, “When Risk of Liability Becomes Real in Special Needs Transportation.” Attendees were told that specific written policies, training programs and providing drivers with the information they need would reduce their liability exposure by compensating for the vagueness of federal law and the potential inadequacies of state-provided training.
“If you don’t have written policies, excuses won’t work,” Meslin told the group. “We didn’t get into this business to write but you must have written policies. Then you train and retrain on those policies. Get the information (on students) that you need. If you don’t have that data, you can’t serve the student effectively.”
He continued saying that providing training is not enough. He said supervisors should make sure drivers are learning. “Make sure your training is understood,” Meslin said, and added that transportation directors should get the information they need even if they have to bypass the special education department and go to the school nurse.
Burns told attendees that to be effective, their transportation policy should allocate specific responsibilities. “Problems occur when things fall through the cracks,” Burns said. “The problem with the (federal) law is it does not say who does what.”
Burns said that while the IEP team is obligated under law to make decisions for the safety of the special needs student, transportation should pass along information concerning the bus ride so the IEP team can make more informed decisions.
The potential for problems increases, Burns said, when drivers are given information on how students should be secured but not told the reasons why. She said bus drivers are considered service-related personnel so privacy laws do not apply to them.
“Just be careful about sharing the information with all staff,” Burns said. “There is so much more risk by not sharing the information. But train your people to respect the privacy of the child.”
