Posted December 15, 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed a lot things about America's educational system. One of the biggest reveals was that parents need schools because they need relief from their children. The notion became an urban colloquialism, of sorts. Schools were babysitters for parents and parents desperately wanted schools to reopen.

The pseudo-babysitter here are school buses. Parents of students with behavioral concerns are quite aware of their child's behavior even if they don't admit it. And when you escalate a child's behavior problem with federal documentation stating that the child can assimilate in other social climates, then the babysitting role becomes a lot more challenging, and expressly so for the driver of the rolling babysitting bus.

A regular needs school bus is not a place to acclimate a student with documented social, emotional, or behavioral disorders. School systems have created special needs components designed specifically for students who pose potential danger or disorder while being transported.

It is the vanity of parents who insist on putting their special needs student in a general population scenario that is clearly not conducive to the safety of the student, the other students on the bus, nor the driver.

A school bus driver is trained to fully and completely operate the vehicle that they are responsible for. They are thoroughly examined on pre-tripping the vehicle before they begin their route. They are knowledgeable of every safety precaution during roadside stops or at railroad crossings. No one is allowed to transport students without meeting the rigorous criteria for obtaining an “S”-endorsement awarded to commercial drivers who wish to operate a school bus in any state in the country.

During this rigorous training, student management is discussed and reviewed. But student management is most often OJT. It is experienced and learned in real time. There is very little training to prepare a new driver for what they may be walking into. Even seasoned drivers are finding student management more challenging as students become more confrontational and schools are overwhelmed by mounting behavior concerns.

The idea of placing students with unique behavioral conditions on a regular needs school bus is counterproductive and counterintuitive to all involved, most notably the person most responsible for said students while being transported, the driver.

As stated, school systems have created special needs transportation units to address students who might pose a threat during transportation. The mere fact that special needs buses are equipped with seat belts while regular needs are not should be a huge selling point for parents. But the student’s well-being is often overshadowed by the need to fit in.

Every parent wants their student to fit in, to be normal (whatever that might be today) but allowing students with unique social disorders to ride on a bus that is not equipped to transport students with special needs is a prescription for a mishap. When a regular needs school bus driver is forced to transport students with behavioral or social challenges, student management takes priority over the safe operation of the vehicle because the driver can not properly focus due to addressing student management concerns. Then comes an incident or a mishap, and the primary perpetrator is often the driver.

Drivers are encouraged to write up any student that creates a challenging situation. Creating a paper trail is understood. It allows management and the administration the path to execute punitive actions. Great. But creating a paper trail for students with federal documentation (i.e., IEP, BIP, 504) while a regular needs driver is forced to contend with a particular student’s behavior just is not safe and extends beyond the purview of most drivers.

Drivers are expected to demonstrate behavior management skills that teachers, clinicians, and psychiatrists study years to obtain. How is it that a school bus driver should be expected to “manage” multiple personalities after only weeks of training?