A free webinar next week will to share details on how to best utilize the school bus and transportation staff to teach day-to-day ridership skills and safe practices that can lead to successful lives for students with special needs.
Pete Meslin, transportation director for Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Southern California, is partnering with School Transportation News to produce the live Feb. 25 event, Transportation: Thinking Like an Educator. The webinar will be recorded and archived for anytime viewing.
The Bus in the Classroom program created by Meslin uses the Individual with Disabilities Education Act as a steppingstone to teach independence and life skills to special needs students through the school bus.
“My experiences working with special educators to support individual student needs showed me the extent to which we can educate students in transportation-related life skills,” said Meslin. “Some of the successes our student have experienced are truly inspirational. Our drivers involved with these students show amazing skills, care and growth.”
By bringing this training into the classroom, Meslin stated that the Bus in the Classroom program offers students with special needs the most reliable environment to learn through hands-on practice and demonstrations.
Under the guidance of special education teachers, the drivers involved with the program are making a difference in the lives of these students, and “special educators can frequently build upon the transportation-related life skills that Bus in the Classroom students acquire,” said Meslin.
“The response to this program has been amazingly positive. We have interest from places as far away as India and Belgium,” he added.
