Few semesters have ever been under such a cloud of uncertainty as back to school 2021 will be. In many places, this is the first time that regular school will happen in over a year, and a lot of people are still worried about it happening smoothly.

A lot of that uncertainty is going to revolve around your school bus transportation. With the risk of COVID-19 infections still a concern, especially the new Delta variant, everyone in your district - including parents, students, and staff - needs to know that your transportation system will be ready to do its job while keeping students safe.

School Transportation News recently posted an in-depth article talking about new challenges facing the student bus transportation industry. The various economic upheavals of 2020, spearheaded by the COVID-19 outbreak, have disrupted supply chains around the world. This is affecting manufacturers in every industry, including those involved in the creation and maintenance of school buses.

Despite all the economic hurdles of the last year, districts are still finding ways to upgrade their school busses to better, cleaner options. School Bus Fleet recently reported on a California district, Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District in Napa County, which received a state grant allowing them to purchase two propane-powered buses.

At this point, it's almost inarguable that diesel-powered buses need to go away. The questions are, how to make it happen, and which alt-fuel to switch to? Currently, the major contenders for eco-friendly school buses are either propane or electric.

Is your district still doing everything possible to keep your school buses safe from COVID-19? Even though vaccination rates are rising, and infections are dropping, it's still a threat. Worse, new mutations like the Delta variant are creating new threats, and forms that transmit more easily than the original COVID-19.

We recently came across a fascinating article on School Bus Fleet, interviewing Johana Vicente. Vicente is the national director of a socio-environmental activist group called Chispa, dedicated to looking at the impact of fossil fuels on people of color. They speak out against both the exploitative ways fossil fuels are obtained and processed, as well as how low-income minority communities are often disproportionately affected by pollution.

For the past year or more, during the COVID-19 outbreak, most schools have been relying on remote learning to supplement or replace in-class learning. However, as vaccination rates rise around the country, and overall infection and death rates fall, schools are beginning to look forward to resuming normal in-person classes.

Most recently, New York City (NYC) announced that it will end all remote learning for Fall 2021, and resume normal schooling. Since NYC was hit hard by COVID-19, this is a big sign that things truly are returning to normal.

Well-trained bus drivers are the foundation of school bus safety. It doesn't matter what kinds of buses you drive or the routes you create if you don't have drivers who are always putting passenger safety first in their thinking. That's why it's vital to occasionally put your drivers through refresher courses, such as defensive driving training.

These may feel like basic suggestions, but even good drivers can get lazy after too many years on the road. An occasional bit of re-training helps remind them of how to maintain school bus safety.

Every year, more pressure is put on school districts to move away from older gasoline/diesel school buses, and to deploy electric vehicles (EVs) instead. EVs have become entirely viable for bus fleets while bringing numerous advantages. EVs require less maintenance, are cheaper to run, and produce effectively no pollution.

School Transportation News recently reported on a nice bit of local news: a 23-year veteran Virginia school bus driver who won $10,000 for her excellent service. Beyond simply being a great driver, she was constantly looking for ways to help her students and her community.

Near the end of 2020, Congress and President Trump passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which contained provisions for $2 billion in economic relief for transportation companies negatively impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.  These provisions are known as the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services (CERTS) grants. This was excellent news for school bus contractors, who have been suffering under the ongoing restrictions and lockdowns, along with schools being slow to reopen.

When a bus stops and children are loading or unloading, you'd want to think the driver is in full control of the situation - but they aren't. Buses, by their nature, have massive blind spots which impact the driver's visibility. This is a school bus safety issue when the bus is stopped or moving, but it's a particular hazard when children are nearby or in those blind spots.

When the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak hit, properly disinfecting school buses became a top priority for school districts. At a minimum, districts stepped up the use of disinfecting chemicals and products like hand sanitizer. Many even upgraded their buses, installing systems such as intense UV light systems or disinfectant sprayers which would facilitate easier cleaning.

What's going to happen to the traditional yellow school bus in the years ahead?

Given how much the COVID-19 outbreak has shaken up industries and economies around the world, a lot of people are wondering what it means for the future of school bus transportation. Assuming that schools will eventually fully reopen and resume 'business as usual,' will there be any long term impacts on the transportation systems?

It's harder than ever for school districts to find enough drivers for their school bus routes. The driver shortage was a problem even before the COVID-19 outbreak, and now it's only gotten worse. An estimated 80% of schools are having trouble finding enough drivers, and that's a big problem when schools are legally mandated to provide transportation to their students.

It's been well-known for generations that pollution within cities is a problem, but it's only in recent years that we've started to realize just how bad the problem is. Pollution doesn't just poison the air and environment, but it can directly harm people as well. This has been dramatically illustrated by many recent studies which show a strong link between pollution and declining academic performance among schoolchildren.

There was a recent feature on STN about Tim Cribley, a Michigan school bus driver who was declared a “Bus Guardian Hero.” Cribley got a well-deserved moment in the sun. It was a chance for the school to highlight the great work he’d done for the district. 

So, why doesn’t this happen more often?

These are chaotic times for school districts and school bus transportation managers. Between the ongoing driver shortage and all the disruption caused by COVID-19, it's easy to feel like things are getting a bit out of control.

Well, take heart, because you're not alone. Recently, HopSkipDrive conducted an extensive survey (PDF) of school districts across the country. The questions were centered on the problems they're facing, and what they consider to be the most pressing issues at the moment.

When school districts want to - or need to - reduce the costs of their transportation system, one of the best options is to optimize their bus routes. It's rare for a district to have perfect route optimization, and just about any updates they can make will result in cost savings down the road. In best cases, they may even be able to entirely eliminate one or more routes, drastically reducing costs as well as reducing the harm done by the ongoing school bus driver shortage.

We recently came across a short article from School Transportation News discussing Indiana's plans to expand usage, penalties, and enforcement of stop-arm cameras on their school buses.

There's no doubt that illegal passing is one of the biggest threats to school bus safety, as well as the safety of its passengers. Children are most at risk when entering or leaving the bus, so it makes sense that this would be a focus. But are stop-arm cameras the best solution

How do we protect students from cars passing illegally, while they're entering or exiting the bus? This is probably one of the biggest questions in the field of school bus safety, and one that continues to be studied intently. For many states, the popular answer is to install stop-arm cameras, but there are other alternatives - and Montana is set to explore those alternatives.

Their plan could potentially be more effective than stop-arm cameras while costing less. 

If your school district is in need of school bus transportation upgrades to help you deal with COVID-19 or to otherwise upgrade your school, there's good news. Congress has passed several bills recently aimed at providing COVID-19 funding to schools, and there is currently a lot of money to be claimed.

In this article, we'll briefly go over what was passed, how much funding is available, and what it can be used for.

For decades, the traditional wisdom said that young children should be 'eased into' full-time schooling. This meant having preschool and kindergarten programs that were only part-time. However, recently, there's been a growing call for a shift to full-day kindergarten - and it's bringing a lot of heated debate from both sides.

There's no simple answer to the question, but here is a quick rundown of the arguments on both sides.

Is simple equality enough to provide a good education, or should educational institutions be aiming for equity instead?

The concept of educational equity has been in circulation for decades and has been steadily gaining traction in schools and the larger teaching community. Simply put, the idea of educational equity means taking active measures to give every student in the classroom the best chance of success, overcoming barriers - such as racial discrimination or socioeconomic status - that might hold them back.

Students need to learn with technology! Schools have been discovering this since the first big push to put computers into classrooms, in the 1980s, and student technology programs continue to expand and grow to this day. Unfortunately, even if educators understand their importance, technology can often be a hard sell at a budgetary level. If you're trying to talk parents into approving a technology funding bill or property tax, for example, you'll need convincing arguments!

Few school districts have ever struggled with having "too much" money, and budgets are tight most of the time. However, things are particularly bad now. With the coronavirus outbreak continuing to create challenges, schools are having to spend a lot of money on health and safety features - money that probably has to be taken away from other initiatives. This makes it absolutely critical that a district be fiscally responsible, and that is something that every district employee should participate in.

How can schools be more fiscally responsible? Here are some ideas.

It's fairly well-known that the 'modern' school system as we know it in America came into being in the first half of the 20th Century - and there have been surprisingly few updates to its structure and content since. Specific subjects are periodically updated according to new findings, but on the whole, the focus of current education is still largely based on last-century issues. Can we really prepare students for the future when the school system lacks a curriculum focused on 21st century topics?

Are charter schools a good way to create better outcomes for children in school? For a long time, many have said so. Privately owned charter schools, funded from the same coffers as public schools, were supposed to offer competition and alternatives for parents looking for the best learning environment for their children.

However, now, roughly 30 years after the beginning of the movement, charter schools are starting to lose their luster. Many are calling for charter school reform, or even their de-funding. It's a complicated issue, but let's take a look at some of the basic matters under debate.

More than 20 states in the United States allow school districts to install stop-arm cameras on their buses - and Kentucky may be the next to join them. House Bill 189 recently passed the state House, and it seems likely to go on to become law in the near future.

Stop-arm cameras are a popular measure for increasing school bus safety, by penalizing drivers who illegally pass school buses while they are stopped. Children are endangered every time a driver ignores the stop sign, so cutting down on illegal passing is a priority for districts.  

One major school bus safety issue that perhaps doesn't receive enough attention is the problem of overcrowding. When districts are low on buses or drivers, they may end up running their buses with more students onboard than is safe for the vehicle. This is definitely a problem, but it's a problem with complicated causes.

In response, the Maryland House of Reps recently passed a bill explicitly making it illegal to run overcrowded buses. While its creator touts the bill as "common sense," it doesn't seem to actually do much to combat the core problem.

Texas recently made headlines for stepping down its COVID-19 mask requirements. Businesses around the lone star state are no longer mandated to enforce mask-wearing on their premises - but they are still allowed to voluntarily require masks, if they choose.

Electric school buses may be one of the most misunderstood types of alt-fuel buses.  In many ways, they're the safest and cleanest of all the ways you could power a bus, but there is a lot of misinformation out there. Some of the myths used to be true, and some are outright fabrications, but they all may hold districts back from investing in a viable alt-energy system.

If your school district is interested in upgrading to electric school buses, you may get some help in the next few years. The "Clean School Bus Act" has been re-introduced in the House Of Representatives, and would provide over $1 billion dollars in funding to help districts pay for clean-energy bus upgrades.

The bill was first introduced in 2019 by several Democrats in Congress, but due to political tensions at the time, it died in a Senate committee without much action. Now, it has been reintroduced and stands a much better chance of passing. Passage isn't a sure thing - and the government has a lot on its plate at the moment - but if it does pass it could be good news for districts hoping to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

Transporting special needs students always has some additional challenges, and that's especially true during the coronavirus pandemic. School bus drivers and transportation directors need to be making concerted efforts to help special needs children maintain safety protocols.

Every student's situation will be a little different, but we have some suggestions that may help in ensuring that proper safety procedures are followed by all students.

If your school is maintaining in-person classes during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, your district should be doing everything possible to reduce the chances of disease transmission. This is a major challenge - especially on school buses! As a small enclosed space, school buses are perfect for spreading a disease that thrives through person-to-person contact.

The only good solution is to maintain social distancing rules, even on the bus. This won't be easy, but it's better than having a major outbreak at your school. Fortunately, we have a few tips to make this task a bit easier.

There's no doubt that maintaining and running a school bus fleet is one of the most expensive aspects of school budgeting. It's often the 2nd or 3rd largest line item in many school budgets. Buses are costly to run and maintain but are absolutely required in every district.

This makes it vital that districts do everything they can to keep bus transportation costs low - especially now that the coronavirus is creating new budget strains. Here are a few tips on lowering your fleet costs.

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, schools around the nation were struggling to find enough school bus drivers to keep all their routes running. The coronavirus only made things worse. It's become harder than ever for schools to find and keep drivers, particularly when many drivers in high-risk groups are unwilling to endanger themselves.

To keep your school district running, you need to be doing everything possible to maintain loyalty among your drivers. Once someone is on the payroll, you need to hang onto them. Here are some suggestions.

Shortly before leaving office, President Donald Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 into law. Part of this law includes over $54 billion in funding grants to help both public and charter schools respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

For as long as the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak lasts, it's going to be absolutely vital to keep your school buses clean and sanitized. Buses will always be a high-risk area for transmission, so they call for high levels of diligence. Parents need to feel safe when putting their children on your buses!

Here are some important tips to help ensure your buses are as sanitary as possible for every trip

If your district already utilizes tracking devices to plot your bus's location in real-time, it might be time to open up that service to more people in your community! Schools around the nation are beginning to offer smartphone apps to parents, allowing them to see the location of their child's bus while it's on route.

The value of this is obvious. Many parents are balancing tight schedules and can plan their days more efficiently if they know the bus is running on time. This can be great for parents - if you pick an app with the right features!

 We recently saw a wonderful article from School Transportation News (STN) highlighting some of the most extraordinary things done by school bus drivers in the past year.  The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak challenged service workers around the world to step up, but few outside of the healthcare industry have done more than bus drivers.

Of all the back-to-school challenges facing school districts in 2020, the problem of successfully busing students may be one of the most pressing. By law, every district must provide transportation for any student that needs it - but schools only have so many buses, and safe social distancing during an outbreak means those buses should only be 1/6 to 1/4 full. Otherwise, the students are so close that they could transmit the coronavirus simply by breathing at each other.

If your school is closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak or only operating at a reduced capacity, it may feel like you're letting your community down. Parents rely on functioning schools for everything from childcare to meal preparation, and in these challenging times, it can be difficult to know how to best help out. 

While there are no easy answers here, many schools have found a way to reduce the burden on parents who can't send their kids to school - using school buses to deliver lunches to low-income families.

During times of crisis, it's more important than ever to reach out to the public and assure them that their schools - and their school transportation systems - are safe. Fortunately, despite the chaos, the American School Bus Council (ASBC) was able to carry off its annual National School Bus Safety Week outreach program without a hitch.

No one enjoys contemplating the worst things that can go wrong, but when students' lives are on the line, it's important to consider as many scenarios as possible. That's why it's so important to supplement your regular school bus driver training with special lessons focusing on disasters, medical emergencies, criminal activity, and other low-probability/high-risk events that might potentially happen on the road.

There's no definitive list of everything which could go wrong, of course, but we have some suggestions for elements to add to your school bus driver training program.

It's hard to even list all the ways that the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is affecting communities across America. Many of these problems center on schools and school districts. On one hand, the rational response to a disease outbreak is to limit in-person school sessions, reducing disease exposure. On the other hand, many parents rely on schooling for the services it provides, including reduced-price lunches, and providing care for students while the parents are at work.

2020 was a year of crisis for many industries, and that certainly includes the student transportation industry. Schools across the nation were completely unprepared for the pandemic, leading to them having to make many blind leaps into policy changes or new technologies while looking for ways to keep students safe.

How is this affecting the industry, and what changes are likely to continue into the future? This interesting series of interviews with student transportation industry leaders from School Bus Fleet has a lot of ideas. Here are some of the key takeaways we got from it.

School bus safety is one of the foremost concerns for any school transportation program - and there is no shortage of companies trying to sell you upgrades in the name of safety. Sorting through them in terms of cost vs benefit can be difficult, particularly with so many high-tech solutions entering the market.

But, what if one of the best school bus safety measures is also among the cheapest and easiest to implement? Many districts are coming to believe that simply adding more lights to their buses can keep students safe - and there's plenty of reason to believe that's the case.

Being a bus driver is never easy, but the job has become particularly difficult with the COVID-19 coronavirus still threatening the country. On top of their other responsibilities, bus drivers are now expected to do much of the heavy lifting in protecting students' health while onboard their buses.

Is your district doing everything they can to support your drivers? Better policies and updated school bus driver training can make their lives easier while increasing safety for the students. 

Contrary to the hopes of many, there's no sign that the COVID-19 coronavirus is going away any time soon. In fact, new infections across America are at an all-time high. This means that it's vital for school districts and student transportation directors to do everything they can to protect students and staff from infection while riding on school buses.

Fortunately, with some districts now having been back in operation for two months or more, we're seeing some common strategies involved. Based on a recent series of STN interviews, we've noticed some responses and suggestions that appear repeatedly. These are some of the most common and apparently effective steps that any district could take.

While the specifics vary from state to state, school districts are universally required to provide transportation to and from school for every student. Most students are simply transported on standard school buses, but there are exceptions - particularly where special needs students are concerned.

How has your district updated school bus cleaning policies to adapt to the coronavirus outbreak?

Providing transportation to students is a must, even during a pandemic, but school buses create a significant new potential source of infection. Any student - or other riders - could theoretically be infected and contagious at any time, even if they do not yet show symptoms of COVID-19. If they are infectious, then their presence on the bus will leave plenty of contaminants behind - on the seats, the windows, the doors, the floors, even in the air within the bus.

As schools look to reopen in Fall 2020 despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, one of the biggest challenges will be in successfully adapting their student bus transportation system. When crafting safety plans, it's vital that one group not go overlooked: your bus drivers.

In the year of the coronavirus - and with most researchers suggesting it will continue to be a threat in 2021 - school bus safety measures now largely revolve around finding ways to prevent spread of the disease. Most schools are doing this with traditional disinfecting products like sanitary wipes and sprays, but this is a slow and time-consuming process that can still miss a lot of contaminated areas.

How do you maintain school bus safety, when there's a pandemic going on? Districts around the country are wrestling with how to limit the spread of COVID-19 within their buses, something which is no easy task. One proposal was to install plexiglass barriers within the bus, similar to cough guards at restaurants and checkout lines, to limit disease spread. However, there were questions as to whether this could be done legally and safely.

School buses are among the safest forms of transportation ever created, but there are still times during a bus's route that the students may be in danger - and no situation is more dangerous than when students are getting on or off the bus. One of the most critical elements of school bus safety is protecting students when they are exposed to traffic.

For better or worse, back-to-school 2020 is here around the country, despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.  Every district has their own solutions for how to continue providing education despite the coronavirus, but one thing is indisputable: drastic changes have to be made to the US school system, and those changes are likely to stay in place for at least the entire 2020-21 year.

If you want a model for how technology can be used to improve school bus safety, you could easily look to Chesapeake Public School District in Chesapeake, VA.  As highlighted in a recent School Bus Fleet article, the district has made a nearly unprecedented deal with BusPatrol, Inc, to implement top-to-bottom upgrades to their bus fleet.

Few districts will manage to arrange such an expansive upgrade deal all at once, but looking at the tech they will be implementing can point towards a strong long-term school bus safety upgrade path for districts on a budget.

When was the last time you ran a tornado drill for a school bus?

It's a simple question, but in our experience, a lot of districts get uncomfortable when you ask it. Now, if you can answer "recently!" then that's great - but too many districts tend to focus their disaster preparedness almost entirely on the school itself. This leaves a critical school bus safety gap, if the bus is ever caught in a weather disaster or other major unpredictable event.

It's impossible to foresee every eventuality, but most districts could still implement some new safety measures and help improve student safety - and usually at a low cost.

We keep waiting for the bus driver shortage to end, but it doesn't. For years now, schools have been struggling to find enough school bus drivers to keep all their routes running, and still the problem persists. According to recent studies, 24% of districts describe their shortage to be "severe" or "desperate," and another 38% report "moderate" staffing problems. Only around 10% claim to have no driver staffing issues at all.

In short, districts will have to continue to hustle if they're going to find new drivers, and keep trying new tactics. Here are some more things to try!

New innovations in school bus technology are improving student management and helping to create new learning opportunities - innovations like putting WiFi access points onto school buses. These access points run off of cellular connections, and can be tightly managed to regulate what students are allowed to access, making them a solid bus upgrade for numerous reasons.

The last few years have been rocky for the Alternative Fuel Tax Credits introduced during the Obama administration. These tax credits were intended to spur the adoption of alternative vehicle fuel sources, including alternative school bus fuels, as well as also encouraging the construction of alt-fuel refill stations.  

The credits were originally scheduled to end in 2017 but received short-term extensions to keep them going. This has happened several times since and, fortunately, another extension recently passed and was signed into law. So, the credits will now remain active until Aug 11, 2020, giving school districts and other operations more time to submit claims from 2018-19.

From the perspective of a district transportation manager, the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak came at one of the worst possible times. No time is good for an epidemic, but with schools already hurting from the shortage of school bus drivers, even minor disruptions to the workforce can cause major problems.  

So what can a school do to reduce the chances of illness? Or, if their school bus drivers do get sick, what alternatives could they set up? There are not many easy answers here, but districts still need to look into what they can do.

Schools reopening this fall are almost certainly going to be making significant changes to their buses and routing, in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus. If these changes are going to involve adding new bus stops - such as to prevent too many students from congregating at the same stop - school bus safety must be given a high priority! New stops should be chosen based on how safe they will be for students to utilize when getting on and off the bus.

The problem of finding enough school bus drivers to keep districts' bus routes running is nothing new. Districts have been facing a bus driver shortage for years, without any real sign of the situation getting better. Now, however, there's a new factor at play: the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Around the nation, one of the most pressing questions being asked over and over is "Should we be reopening schools in the fall?" Every district in America is currently faced with what seems like an impossible choice: weighing the needs of children to be educated against the chances of contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus.

For school districts planning on reopening in the fall, the next few weeks will be spent planning thoroughly on how to reduce the risks of disease spread. COVID-19 is still active throughout North America, so children need to be kept as safe as possible.  

Will your school district be reopening this fall, in the wake of the coronavirus? If so, one of the biggest challenges you're likely to face is the problem of running your school bus transportation system in a way that minimizes the chances of disease transmission.  

There has never been a more uncertain time for the school bus industry, at least in recent memory. The outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus has disrupted schools, businesses, and transportation across North America, and there are no signs of that disruption slowing much in the near future.

What do you do if you suspect a student coming to school in the fall has the COVID-19 coronavirus or may have been exposed to it? Districts across America are asking this question. Fortunately, they have some guidance. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released a series of recommendations on how to handle these situations.

Are you going to be able to maintain social distancing on your school buses? If not, your entire district will be at risk of COVID-19 outbreaks. Any districts re-opening in the fall must take all possible precautions to maintain school bus safety, and minimize the chances of disease spread.

This will not be easy, but we have suggestions culled from district recommendations from around the country to help make it possible.

For fans of electric school buses and other electric vehicle initiatives, there's big news to celebrate coming out of New York City. Recently, the mayor of NYC, Bill De Blasio, signed an executive order which mandates that all NYC government fleet vehicles be electric by 2040 - and that includes the school bus fleets.

With the rising costs of health care in the country, more and more people are turning to non-prescription products in an attempt to cure their various ailments.  Among various alternatives, the use of cannabidiol (CBD) oil is growing, due to its seeming efficacy at treating a variety of mental- and pain-related problems.

Is your district giving enough support to your school bus maintenance crews during the winter? Proper bus maintenance should always be a priority, but it's absolutely vital during the winter. Even minor breakdowns or on-road incidents become far more dangerous when the roads are icy and the temperatures are below freezing.

Be sure your maintenance crews are doing everything they can to ensure your buses are safe in the winter!

How robust is your school bus safety plan?

Of course, any school district will have safety plans in place for their buses and transportation system. However, these plans are rarely complete. Arguably, they cannot be - unexpected situations are always possible. Still, there are certain blind spots that we tend to see going unaddressed, particularly when the danger doesn't require the bus to be underway.

Distracted driving is a serious problem on America's roads.  According to compiled statistics, nine people die every day due to a distracted driver, while hundreds more are injured. Distracted driving can happen almost anywhere, at any time, to anyone - including your school bus drivers.

School bus safety is critical at all times of the year, but it's particularly crucial during the winter months. Snowy weather and icy roads present some of the biggest dangers a bus and its passengers can face, yet your drivers will be called on to drive in inclement weather day after day.

If you're looking for new ideas to help make these trips even safer, we've got plenty of tips.

For years, the education sector has been plagued by a school bus driver shortage, and there's no end yet in sight. All signs and surveys point towards districts continuing to struggle to find sufficient drivers to cover their routes. That's causing continuing problems within the district administration, as well as for huge numbers of parents and students trying to find stable transportation options.

How are you going to improve your student bus transportation system in 2020 and beyond? The previous decade has seen huge shifts in how schools handle their buses, as well as student safety. Now is the perfect time to start looking ahead, and planning how you'll improve your bus system in the next decade to come!

Here's a school bus safety violation that shouldn't happen, yet it does with surprising frequency: running buses that are overcrowded. In Texas, for example, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) was forced to step in and issue public advisories, due to receiving too many complaints of buses running with too many children onboard.

Going into 2020, there are now nine states that openly mandate school bus seat belts within their school districts, and two others offering grants or other incentives.  Numerous other states are debating the issue. While not truly decided yet, it seems that the seat belt discussion has reached a tipping point.

Without a doubt, one of the most serious threats to school bus safety is the problem of other drivers ignoring the stop arm. Every time a car blows by the stop-arm sign, they endanger students who are getting on and off the bus, with injuries or deaths occurring every year. Statistics show that there are tens of thousands of such violations every day, and each has the potential to be deadly.  

So, states are seeking solutions, passing laws to try to curb this rampant issue. Ohio has become the latest, with a bill simply called the School Bus Safety Act (SB-134). However, its impact could be far-ranging across the state, and potentially a model for legislation to come - if it passes. 

While school buses are overwhelmingly safe for passengers, accidents do happen.  No district or driver likes to think about the possibility of being in an accident, even a non-fatal one. However, when thousands of collisions involving a school bus happen every year, odds are that it will happen to many drivers during their career.

The actions of the driver and district immediately following the accident are crucial, because they will set the tone for the investigation that follows. Poor school bus crash reporting policies can increase the likelihood of lawsuits, or criminal prosecution, while good reporting policies can help protect everyone involved.

Passed in 2010, the Diesel Emissions Reductions Act (DERA) was a forward-looking piece of US legislation aimed at reducing pollution on the nation's streets and highways. At its heart, it is a loan and grant program, authorizing the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to disburse millions of dollars in funds to states, or individual organizations, for the purpose of upgrading fleets away from unclean diesel engines.

At this point, it's become commonplace to hear stories of cities and districts deciding to budget for school bus seat belts - but here's a story with a twist. The city council of Beachwood City, OH, a suburb of Cleveland, recently purchased two new belt-equipped buses, along with retrofits of their existing buses, to the tune of $250,000. They were, in fact, the first district in Ohio to do so.

Why?  Because the children asked for it!

Right now, few issues are as contentious in the school bus industry than the topic of school bus stop-arm cameras. The issue of motorists illegally passing stopped buses is undoubtedly a major problem, with millions of violations across the country every school year. However, whether stop-arm cameras are the right solution to this problem is more contentious.

Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer (D-NY) is concerned about the issue, and ultimately believes it should become a federal matter - that the federal government should pass blanket laws allowing school bus stop-arm cameras, rather than leaving it to the states. He made this clear in a recent press release, where he called upon the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to release more data on the topic.

When a parent allows their child to ride a bus, there's a lot of trust involved. They need to believe that the driver is going to protect the students, and consider school bus safety to be their top priority. Unfortunately, this is not always the case - as we see in a recent incident in which a Tennessee driver was caught texting-and-driving multiple days in a row.

Tough polices have already ensured that the driver is no longer behind the wheel, but it suggests a problem that still has yet to be fully solved.

In the field of alt-energy school bus designs, electric school buses have lagged behind many of the competitors such as propane or natural gas. Until recently, electric buses had been seen as too under-powered and too short-ranged to be effective as student transport, but now multiple viable models have begun to enter the market.

Now, Virginia has become one of the first states to make a significant push towards the adoption of electric buses within their borders with a pledge of $20 million in funding - and it's with the indirect help of Volkswagen.

Usage of school bus seat belts is growing across the country, with six states already mandating their installation, and several others contemplating similar laws. Along with helping to keep children safe during accidents, there is also growing evidence that belts can significantly improve student behavior any time they ride. This makes a very compelling argument for belts on buses.

However, there has been one major sticking point for many: how is the bus driver supposed to police usage of the belts, especially once the route has begun? An interesting new technology from the company Intermotive called Safe-T-Seat wants to make it easier.

 There are numerous threats to school bus safety any time a bus is on the road, but it's hard to argue against stop arm violators being the biggest threat. Every time a motorist ignores a stop arm, student lives are put at risk. This is not an uncommon occurrence: According to multiple governmental surveys, stop arm violations occur millions of times per year. 

School bus drivers have to do several jobs at once while on the road, and one of the most important is maintaining discipline among the passengers onboard. Keeping students quiet and well-behaved is a major safety issue, and can help contribute to safe driving as well. The question is, how? 

Slowly but surely, states and districts across the country are moving away from diesel and towards alternative fuel sources. For years, it seemed like the best choices were either compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane - but these are still forms of fossil fuels, and therefore only a mild improvement over gasoline or diesel. Now, it seems like electric school buses are finally coming to be seen as a possibility.

School districts around the nation are exploring use of stop arm cameras as a way to deter unsafe driving near their buses. However, a stop arm camera by itself won't stop bad drivers. BusBoss has some tips to help ensure the success of your camera initiative.

Across the country, one of the biggest challenges facing district transportation directors is simply one of staffing. The nationwide school bus driver shortage continues in full swing, with the majority of districts reporting that they lack all the drivers they want. 

However, School Transportation News is now reporting on a recruitment plan pioneered by Bryan ISD in Texas which is simple, straightforward and - so far - successful: Paying new workers for school bus driver training aimed at getting their Commercial Driver's License (CDL). 

The push to embrace alt-fuels in school bus fleets continues unabated, complete with both the Federal government, and many states, offering incentives to move away from gas or diesel. Previously, the conversation about alt-fuel buses mainly revolved around propane vs Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), while electric school buses rarely received much interest.

However, this is starting to change. While, in the past, electric buses were generally considered to be too under-powered to be viable, new generations of electric engines have arrived which are capable of generating more than enough horsepower. Likewise, every year sees increases in battery capacity, allowing electric buses to run all but the largest of routes.

For decades, arguments have raged over whether or not school bus seat belts were a good idea. The official stance was that school buses were already so safe that the additional protection brought by belts would be minimal, or even cause as many problems as solved. However, in recent years, this conventional wisdom has come under intense scrutiny, with experiments at various scales being conducted.

Most of them point towards school bus seat belts being a good idea after all.

Recently, social media was buzzing when a video went viral of a Denver parent forcing her way onto a stopped school bus, and getting into a physical altercation with the bus staff that ultimately required police to break up. This is definitely a worst-case scenario when it comes to problematic parent interactions, but it does illustrate the need for school bus driver training to cover disputes with parents.

Are the tires on your school bus fleet helping or harming your efforts to run a safe, cost-effective bus system? Despite seeming like a relatively minor choice, the kind of tires on your buses can have a lot of impact on both safety and performance. Likewise, proper care and maintenance of the tires can help keep safety standards high, while reducing long-term costs.

Here are a few tips we've picked up over the years.

One difficulty when talking about school transportation management, and school bus safety, is getting a handle on the big picture. Discussions of district transportation systems are often filled with anecdotal evidence, relatively few studies trying to look at the situation on a nationwide basis. That's why it was so refreshing to see the recent study conducted by Transportation Services Co. (TSC).

The study was distributed to over 1,600 districts around the country, and over 300 were returned - a very high sample size, for a voluntary survey like this. However, that allowed TSC to construct a detailed picture of the challenges facing school bus safety programs.

Here are some of the more interesting findings.

Whenever the news reports on a major incident involving a school bus, it's hard not to think "What if that happened to us?" News of a bus emergency is excellent for reflecting on the district's own training and response policies. Would the bus driver know how to handle the situation on their own? How long would it even take for the transportation office to know there was a problem at all?

Do all the vehicles in your school bus fleet include air conditioning? In many districts, this is already the case - yet there are still plenty of districts playing catch-up. A/C comes standard on most new buses, but that doesn't help smaller or lower-income districts who can't afford to replace their fleet. For those districts, retrofitting is an option. 

Retrofitting can allow them to add A/C to existing buses - if they can navigate the maze of choices available. Here are a few of the most important factors to look at.

Who is responsible for school bus safety in a district? On the balance, the only rational answer to the question is "everyone." Whenever some sort of safety incident occurs, there can be a lot of finger-pointing - but at the end of the day, protecting children should be everyone's business. It's not something that can be partitioned.

At this point, most school districts are at least looking at green school buses for their fleet. The problem, of course, is that green school buses are expensive, whether you're going the upgrade route or to entirely replace your older buses. Not every district is in a position to go green, at least not yet.

However, there are still ways you can cut your fuel costs. There are a number of very effective ways that your on-road operational costs can be reduced, and your fuel costs along with. Here are a few ideas.

Just a few years ago, electric school buses were thought to be a pie-in-the-sky concept. There were numerous technical challenges to overcome, with the biggest issue being the matter of pure power. Electrical engines just weren't able to produce enough horsepower to get a bus moving at safe speeds.

Now, things are starting to change. Blue Bird buses has introduced a line of electric school buses that are turning heads - and opening up checkbooks. The latest school district to embrace electric buses is Franklin Pierce School District (FPSD) in Washington. Does their new purchase indicate a shift in attitudes?

When it comes to school bus safety, there is probably no more divisive issue than the question of whether seat belts should be mandated for school buses. After all, belts have been required in other pedestrian vehicles like cars and pickups for fifty years - but they have never been mandated in school buses. Should they be?

This is the question discussed in a new documentary funded by Montana's Public Broadcasting System, called "Safe Enough?" The new hour-long film is creating quite a stir and has already begun to win regional awards. Many are already beginning to wonder if it will tilt the conversation in favor of mandated seat belts.

In May 2018, a truly tragic school bus accident occurred in New Jersey. A bus traveling on I-80 apparently overshot its intended exit, causing the driver to attempt to pull a massive U-turn across multiple lanes. This led to a direct side-on collision from a garbage truck as the bus drove perpendicular to traffic, leading to the deaths of both a student, Miranda Vargas, as well as a teacher.

In December of 2017, a truly horrific school bus accident occurred in Oakland, Iowa. A fire broke out in the engine compartment of a bus, sending dangerous fumes into the bus interior, and ultimately taking the lives of both the driver and a 16-year-old student.

After more than a year of investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued a series of recommendations to improve school bus safety - and these are raising some eyebrows across the education sector. Their own report had 10 separate recommendations, but let's focus on the three most impactful.

Last month, a potentially very dangerous mistake occurred in Waterloo, Iowa: A school bus driver mistakenly dropped off an autistic girl at the wrong location. Unsupervised, she wandered more than a mile away and was found at a local Target. Fortunately, she was entirely unharmed.

According to the story, this happened due to multiple failures:

There is ample evidence that the sort of emissions and pollution created by gasoline and diesel vehicles - like school buses - can cause significant health problems among people exposed to the emissions. What has been harder to demonstrate is whether or not those health problems include mental health as well.

On May 17, 2018, a horrific collision occurred between a school bus and a dump truck on a New Jersey highway. It left two dead, including 10-year-old Miranda Vargas, as well as injuring everyone on the bus as well as the driver of the dump truck. Video footage showed the driver of the school bus had driven erratically, taking the bus across lanes at such an extreme angle that it was nearly perpendicular to the road. This is what caused the dump truck to hit it.

Any time a child dies on-board a school bus, it's a tragedy - but it's particularly tragic when the death would have been preventable. That is the case in the death of Terissa Gautney on Feb 28, 2018, on a school bus in Bartow, Florida. Terissa was a special needs student with medical issues, who experienced a silent seizure followed by respiratory distress.

Most of the time, when a bus driver does something that endangers students, it's due to poor judgement. Occasionally, however, it can be malicious - as we saw earlier this year in Farmington, Utah. In a deeply disturbing incident, a 14-year-old biracial child was dragged by the bus for approximately 175 feet, after the 78-year-old driver closed the door on his backpack, trapping him outside.

Maintaining a school bus fleet is one of the single most costly items in a district's budget, but it's one which is absolutely necessary. Schools must run buses and must provide transportation to any families who ask for it. This places a big burden on schools; a burden which is only growing heavier as districts struggle to find enough bus drivers for their routes.

School districts around the nation continue to suffer from the school bus driver shortage, with no relief in sight. It may even be getting worse. In a recent online poll of School Transportation News readers, an astounding eighty-four percent of districts reported that they were short of bus drivers.

All school bus drivers will spend plenty of time in training sessions throughout their career, with much of it mandated by local or state laws. However, sometimes you may have one or more drivers who need more intensive retraining to get them back on track. This can be a tricky proposition because retraining carries a stigma, and can easily be seen as punitive or threatening.

In other situations, that might not be so much of a problem - but with the school bus driver shortage still a major issue, you really need to retain the drivers you have! As such, it's important to conduct your retraining sessions in ways that maximize their potential to improve driver performance, without causing any new problems.

On June 17, 2019, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed Senate Bill 166 into law - fully legalizing the use of school bus stop arm cameras across the state. As with similar laws in other states, these cameras can be used to identify and penalize motorists who disregard the stop arm, endangering children with illegal passing maneuvers. 

Maine is the 19th state to pass such a measure. Combined with the six states who leave it up to the districts, fully half the states of the union now allow for stop arm cameras in some form. However, controversy still swirls around these laws. Will SB166 actually reduce illegal passing near school buses... or is it merely monetizing the endangerment of children?

Concerns about school bus safety are frequently a matter of intense discussion, particularly in the wake of a notable accident involving a school bus on the road. Everyone talks about wanting to make school buses safer, and understandably enough. Every child hurt or killed in a school bus accident is a tragedy.

Yet... the fact is that school buses are already incredibly safe. They have a fatalities-to-riders ratio which is so low that it genuinely becomes reasonable to question whether it can be reliably pushed much lower.

How much oversight do you have over your buses, while they're on the road? If one suddenly came to an unexpected stop or deviated from its route without warning, how long would it take you to know?

For too many districts, the answer would be "a long time." Without being able to directly track buses on their routes, they're left with little way of overseeing bus's progress aside from relying on radio reports. And if the bus driver is unable -or unwilling- to radio in, they're basically in the dark. 

The push to move school bus fleets away from traditional gasoline and diesel is stronger than ever, and it's being championed by many major groups - including the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), the EPA makes millions of dollars available to school districts which need assistance in moving away from diesel, and towards more ecologically-friendly alternatives.

Like many people, we were charmed by the recent Motherly article making the rounds about an Arkansas bus driver encouraging reading on her bus. If you missed it, a bus driver and special ed teacher named Julie Callison keeps a bucket full of books on her bus - encouraging students to take a few whenever they get on board. It was such a small thing, but it reminded us how school bus drivers can be educators as well.

While politicians may still argue over the impact of global climate change, few people on the ground still seriously doubt that climate change is real - and it's causing a lot of unpredictable weather. School districts and school bus drivers need to be prepared to deal with weather that can shift rapidly and have ways of dealing with the sudden appearance of dangerous storms.

In May 2018, New Jersey suffered a truly terrible school bus transportation accident. A school bus on a field trip collided with a dump truck, resulting in the deaths of a student and a twenty-year veteran teacher, as well as putting 43 others in the hospital.  Ultimately, it was determined the bus driver was the one at fault. Video showed him taking the bus across three lanes after missing an off-ramp, in an apparent attempt to use the official-use-only highway turnaround. In the process, he cut off a loaded-down dump truck which had no chance of stopping, causing the fatal crash.

In general, school bus safety laws across the nation have been increasingly strict and concerned with protecting child riders from other motorists - except for one strange anomaly last year. In July 2018, the state of Georgia amended its school bus passing laws in a way which seemingly increased the situations under which motorists were allowed to ignore a school bus stop arm, with wording that many criticized as being unclear.  

On January 31, 2019, a driver in Tamarac, Florida, had to deal with one of the nightmare scenarios most school bus drivers hope they never have to handle - a fire onboard the bus. For reasons still under investigation, black smoke started coming out of the engine compartment, followed shortly by an intense fire that destroyed most of the bus's front end.

In 2015, it was revealed that German car maker Volkswagen - along with all their associated subsidiaries - had been engaging in widespread fraud to cheat results of emissions testing on many of their vehicles. Ultimately, VW had been cheating going back to roughly 2008, releasing millions of cars and other vehicles that were in violation of US environmental laws.

There are many aspects of school bus safety that a district transportation manager must oversee, but one of the most critical is implementing measures to prevent onboard fires. Fires on school buses are more common than people realize. In fact, the DOT estimates that one or two fires happen every school day.  Fortunately, most of these happen when students aren't onboard, but tragedies do occasionally happen. On average, 22 people are hurt or killed every year by bus fires.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently made a significant announcement that may impact anyone attempting to manage a school bus fleet: They will be updating their standards on nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions from heavy engines, for the first time in 20 years. Those standards changes will almost undoubtedly include school bus engines and may hasten the need for engine upgrades among districts running older fleets.

When managing a school bus transportation network, there are a lot of factors to keep track of, and sometimes it's easy to let the little things slip by. However, in the case of school bus idling, it's a little thing that adds up to big problems! Your drivers should be trained to avoid idling whenever possible and driving in such a way that minimizes the need for it.

In recent years, school districts around the country have had to improve security in response to ever more shootings, violence, and even terrorist activity. It's a dangerous world, and schools have to be prepared. However, all too often a district will focus all its efforts on their school buildings and other immediate property, while mostly overlooking school bus security.

When it comes to running a school bus transportation system, nothing is more important than protecting the precious cargo onboard each bus. For a long time, transportation administrators had limited options for improving bus safety, but in recent years we've seen a big boom in research and development of new bus safety features.

So in today's article, we wanted to highlight some of the new safety systems that may be coming to your school bus transportation system in the near future.

In a recent webinar, the President of ROUSH CleanTech, Todd Mouw, made a bold proclamation: "Propane [in school buses] is going to be the lead horse for the next decade," referring to its status as the most commonly used alt fuel. ROUSH CleanTech provides a variety of alt-fuel vehicles and conversion systems, so he doesn't have a horse in this race, so to speak. As one of the major players in this field, he would be in a position to know which alt-fuels were leading.

Most people in the industry - including Mouw - believe that electric vehicles will eventually become dominant in the school bus industry. However, that day is at least a decade off, possibly more. In the meantime, a fuel is needed to bridge the gap between gasoline and pure electric buses.

Is propane that bridge?

Are school bus seat belts a feature that would save lives, or are they more trouble than they're worth? For decades, the conventional wisdom was the latter: Buses are already so safe that any benefits added by belts would be minimal, and counterbalanced with new safety problems they'd create. However, more and more evidence is starting to challenge this perception.

According to School Transportation News, there have been 14 accidents near school bus stops in 2018 - with five of the accidents occurring in November alone! Of those accidents, eight resulted in student fatalities - tying the number of deaths in 2017. In every case, the accident would have been preventable.

Do your bus drivers feel well-supported by management and other employees of your school district? With the school bus driver shortage still causing problems, this is an important question! A district needs to maintain awareness of their drivers' morale. Otherwise, they could be easily poached by other districts, or decide to move into other areas of commercial driving work.

Here are a few ways your district can support your bus drivers and ensure their morale remains high.

When it comes to school bus safety, there's a tendency to focus on features that provide physical safety - and understandably enough. However, security is also a major element in bus safety, and should not be overlooked. Fortunately, companies involved in school bus technology know this, and have been putting new solutions on the market that help improve awareness and oversight of a bus fleet.

The right technological investments can help you prevent unwanted guests on your bus, keep track of your buses and riders, and keep your fleet secure when it's not in use. These are some of our favorites.

If a school district is looking to expand their bus fleet without breaking their transportation budget, buying used school buses would be an easy way to do it - at least in theory. School buses don't hold onto their value very well, so it's relatively easy to find used buses which cost a fraction of what a new bus would.

First days of school are often hard on the children, but it seems like it's becoming common for that first day to be hard on the parents as well. In this age of "helicopter parenting" it can be difficult for parents to wave goodbye to their children as they board the bus for the first time. Some parents may even resist using school bus transportation systems, specifically because they don't want to let anyone else drive their child.

Your bus routes will run a lot more smoothly if you can help parents become more comfortable with the idea of bus rides. Here are a few tips on how to ease parents' fears.

The numbers are a bit fuzzy, but somewhere between 1-2% of students are diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a developmental disorder that creates social and communicative impairments. Autistic students can be difficult to deal with - particularly for those who aren't trained in working with them.

Many school districts looking to improve their school bus safety are starting to turn to seat belts as one potential answer. However, the debate over school bus seat belts is surprisingly complicated. Plus, in any case, retrofitting an entire bus fleet with belts on every seat is a very expensive proposition.

Without wading into the question of whether school bus belts will actually save lives, we've got some suggestions for more cost-effective alternatives to improve school bus safety.

School buses are extremely expensive, and represent a huge investment for any school district which has purchased a fleet. It's entirely understandable that a district would want to get the most possible use out of their buses. However, nothing escapes the ravages of time, and at some point any school bus will outlive its usefulness.

Pitching a major fleet upgrade can be an uphill battle, but sometimes it's simply necessary. Or, at least, the cost-benefit analysis points towards old buses being too much of a liability. Here are some big warning signs that those older buses should probably be replaced.

When it comes to the costs of a school bus fleet, fuel is usually the number one line item - but school bus maintenance costs are rarely far behind. Buses can be expensive to maintain but, of course, it's absolutely necessary to keep the buses running safely and on schedule.

Maintenance costs will always be needed, but they can often be reduced. Here are some tips for getting your ongoing costs-of-ownership as low as possible.

As things stand, there are a lot of arguments in favor of embracing a school bus tracking system, and very few reasons not to. Tracking your school buses on the road gives you much better insight into your bus operations, provides plenty of data to help lower your on-road costs and, of course, substantially improves school bus safety.

Bus tracking is an investment into your fleet that easily justifies the expense, and will quickly pay for itself through lowered costs.

Insulin-dependent diabetics got a big piece of good news this month: Thanks to a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule change, it is now much easier for them to receive commercial interstate driver's licenses.

Are you having much luck hiring new school bus drivers? If you're like many districts around the country, this is a constant source of frustration. The bus driver shortage shows no signs of abating, with some outlets even referring to it as "the new norm."

To get qualified drivers into your district, you need to be creative about your recruitment techniques - but without sacrificing any quality in your hires. We've got some suggestions for how to do just that.

Is yellow the new green? It would be if more people knew the environmental benefits of school bus transportation!

School buses bring numerous benefits to a community, but all too often, the environmental aspects are overlooked. Buses can genuinely help reduce a community's reliance on automobiles, improve the local atmosphere, and prevent needless gasoline waste - among other positives.

This is a great topic to bring up with parents, or even students, whenever the matter of school bus transportation comes up. It can be especially useful when it's time to talk about funding upgrades for your bus fleet!

There is no doubt that nearby drivers are one of the biggest dangers to students riding school buses. Every year, cars ignoring bus safety lights and stop arms endanger, injure, or even kill student riders. This is a problem that should be preventable, if only there were better public education - and now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is trying to make that happen.

Sometimes it seems like people do things that we shouldn't need to say are completely inappropriate...like trespassing on school buses. Unfortunately, it happens. In fact, in recent months there have been several high-profile cases of unauthorized individuals boarding school buses to harass students or staff. Worse, some districts - such as the Escambia County School District - have discovered there aren't even laws on the books preventing it!

While not the most common threat to student bus safety, school bus trespassing is a legitimate problem that districts should be prepared to confront. Here are some of the things you and your drivers should be aware of.

When it comes to school transportation safety, few issues have been more contentious than the matter of school bus seat belts. Do they do more good than harm? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? For much of the 20th Century, the general conclusion was “No.” Seat belts, it was said, added significant costs to buses without adding substantially to physical safety, and even introduced new dangers in cases where students were wearing their seat belts incorrectly.

One might say that there are three "pillars" of a safe and successful school bus transportation system. You need great drivers, as well as safety-minded riders. However, what can occasionally be overlooked is the importance of maintenance. A bus is only as reliable as its last maintenance check, and sometimes, it becomes easy for a district to skimp on school bus maintenance - particularly if budgets are becoming tight.

However, this isn't an area where corners can be cut! So in today's article, we want to talk about elements that should be in everyone's school bus maintenance plan.

When a school district is growing, it can be difficult for their transportation system to keep up. Beyond the basic logistical challenge of procuring (or outsourcing) more buses and finding drivers for them, there will also be significant new back office challenges as well. Managing the buses, keeping them maintained, creating routes... these all become increasingly difficult as the size and complexity of the bus system grows.

Fortunately, companies developing school bus technology are well aware of these challenges! There are numerous products available which are capable of reducing the workload within large bus systems, and usually by streamlining operations to find cost savings.

All school bus drivers, at some time or another, have been frustrated by motorists ignoring the stop arm and endangering students near the bus. Stop-arm violations are one of the single biggest dangers to students during a school day, and there's relatively little a bus driver can do to stop it. However, a driver in Sutton, Massachusetts, came up with a very creative solution - unfortunately, one that was also illegal.

"Is it safe?" Every parent asks this on a nearly daily basis, and understandably so. Parents need to be reassured that their child will be protected when out of their care, such as when riding the school bus. Since any school bus crash tends to make big headlines, that tends to make people worry about school bus safety.

However, in this case, there's no reason for parents to fear: School buses are incredibly safe. In fact, they are among the safest activities of any sort that a child could engage in, and certainly the safest way for a child to get to school. This is information that parents need to know, so we wanted to discuss the topic a bit in this article.

Have you reminded your district's parents and guardians about why riding the school bus is important?

School buses have been part of American school life even before the invention of the motor engine, with the earliest "buses" being horse-drawn. It's easy for people to take them for granted. Unfortunately, sometimes this attitude is detrimental to districts - particularly if they need funds to upgrade their school bus fleet, and the community doesn't want to pitch in.

There has recently been a boom in technology designed for the school bus fleet, and that creates an interesting problem for district transportation managers. On one hand, you have so many new options for improving the safety and functionality of your fleet, but on the other, there are far too many new products to ever buy into them all.

Now, more than ever, school bus fleet managers are under pressure to find ways to lower the operating costs of their buses. Fuel costs are always a target, as they usually comprise one of the single largest line items in any bus fleet's budget. So, if a district could cut fuel use simply by changing tires, wouldn't that be a good thing?

One question a school district often hears from community members is, "Why does it matter how kids get to school?" From what we've seen, this seems especially common among people without children of their own, objecting to the idea of paying for school bus services with their tax dollars. Well, even aside from the legal requirement that districts provide transportation, the fact is that there are many reasons why riding the school bus matters.

School buses are by far the best way for children to go to and from school, for numerous reasons. If you ever find yourself in a position of defending your bus transportation system, here are some arguments to make.

There is no doubt that the most dangerous time for any student riding the bus is when they are getting on and off the bus. The entire perimeter around the bus has been dubbed the "danger zone" due to how exposed students are. So, one major focus of school bus safety initiatives has been to find ways to make that danger zone less dangerous.

Now, we may be a lot closer to that goal than ever before. One of the leading bus technology vendors, Safe Fleet, has announced a new series of products all aimed at protecting students near the bus's perimeter.

Nothing will make the danger zone 100% safe, but if Safe Fleet's new products live up to their sales pitch, they will substantially improve school bus safety.

One of the most important aspects of being a school bus transportation coordinator is also one of the most difficult: school bus routing. Creating proper routes for the school buses is absolutely essential for the semester to run smoothly, but it takes a lot of work and preparation. Automated route-creation software can significantly reduce the workload, but you still need plenty of information for the routes to be effective.

Are your bus drivers doing everything they can to look after any special needs students riding the school bus?

Of course, every student on a school bus deserves care and respect, but special needs students need a bit more care. It's vitally important that your drivers understand how to work with special needs students, and how to ensure their needs are taken care of. This helps the students directly, as well as decreasing the chances the student will cause problems on the bus ride.

More and more districts are discovering the benefits of embracing a school bus routing system. The right software can radically optimize your routes, while requiring only a fraction of the time needed to create bus routes by hand. They can even offer ongoing benefits, like tracking critical data needed to further optimize your bus operations.

However, this new push for software-based routing solutions has also invited a lot of new software companies to the table - and not all your purchasing options are equal. As one of the first companies to produce a highly effective school bus routing system, BusBoss has some tips on what to look for.

Managing buses and routes in any city can be a major challenge, but it's hard to even imagine the difficulties involved in planning school bus transportation in New York City. And there have been plenty of challenges! In the past year, parents across the five boroughs have been complaining about a high number of bus delays and other problems, to the point that the NY city council commissioned a study into the matter.

While interesting for those who follow transportation news, is there anything that other districts can learn from New York school bus delays and their causes? Let's take a look.

It seems like school districts are now being continually bombarded with new ideas and technologies for improving school bus safety. With so much technical innovation happening across the transportation industry, it's inevitable that many of these new technologies would make their way onto buses. But, which ones are actually worth the money?

One easy answer to this question is also one of the most well-established technologies available: video cameras. Camera systems are affordable, and bring a lot of benefits with very few actual drawbacks. They're among the best all-around investments you can make into your school buses.

A genuinely unique case involving a student riding the school bus recently happened in California, and it could mean districts across the country will have to re-evaluate some of their policies.

All too often, being a bus driver can feel like a thankless job. School bus drivers have to work genuinely inconvenient hours, and spend most of their time on the job getting yelled at by their passengers, district parents, or both. Not to mention the stress of being directly responsible for the lives of dozens of children every day!

It's easy for drivers to feel unappreciated, or even burn out and leave the job entirely. Often, however, all it takes is some small gestures to help them feel acknowledged and appreciated. The holidays are a perfect time for this, so let's look at some ways of improving your drivers' morale.

If a school district were looking for a single piece of software which would do the most to streamline its operations and potentially cut costs, school bus routing software is easily one of the best options. It's an affordable all-in-one package that will take a lot of burdens off your shoulders, while creating better maps that will almost certainly save you money on every bus route going forward.

Here are just a few ways that school bus routing software pays for itself.

On Tuesday, September 4, 2018, the West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, police department received a disturbing complaint. Two middle school girls were alleging that their school bus driver had committed "inappropriate actions" towards them, which were implied to be sexual in nature. Normally, an accusation of this nature - by itself - is enough to ruin careers, but the driver had the truth on their side: truth backed up by school bus video!

Various states are always trying new experiments in how to improve school bus safety, but a recent initiative in West Virginia has been raising eyebrows. According to their new Policy 4336 (PDF), all children in grades K-3 must be "supervised" at bus stops for both pickup in the morning and drop-off in the afternoon.

It's back-to-school time, and that means preparing students for their new year at school. There's a lot of information to convey - all of it important - but very little is more important than ensuring safe usage of your school bus transportation system. Any student who uses the bus needs to be prepared to board, ride, and disembark safely.

We've put together a quick list hitting the most vital elements that any bus rider should know before they start their daily trips on your bus.

As we start the new school year, one of the most important issues on the mind of every transportation director should be school bus safety. Even though school buses are already by far the safest vehicles on the road, they can always be made safer.

We've made a list of suggestions, ranging from the simple to the more complicated, that a district might consider implementing in the name of bus safety.

For many districts, onboard video camera systems represent an excellent solution to many school bus security issues. With video cameras, you can keep a close eye on the behavior of students and drivers, while always having footage available if there are disputes between drivers, students, and\or parents.

That said, video cameras can create problems of their own, particularly if students or parents are concerned about privacy. Having a clear policy outlining best practices for use of the cameras will go a long way towards preventing these problems!

It wasn't long ago that "diesel" was a dirty word when talking about fuels. However, diesel has come a long way since then. Modern diesel engines, backed by technologies to clean the fuel and prevent harmful emissions, are making a major comeback in many areas, including school bus engines. Proponents say there's no reason to embrace more experimental technologies, like propane or CNG, when diesel is already widely available.

 As a school district transportation manager you always have a lot on your plate, but that shouldn't stop you from taking time for personal development and networking. There are several major school bus trade shows around the country every year, and they are genuinely excellent opportunities to meet, greet, and learn.

If you haven't gone to any trade shows recently, here are a few reasons to think about attending at least one in the 2018-19 school year.

There are many difficult jobs associated with being the transportation director of a school district, but perhaps none are as difficult - in terms of labor - than laying out school bus routes. Doing school bus routing by hand is a time-consuming and tedious process, and one which is almost impossible for a person to optimize well. Worse, significant migration in or out of the school during the course of the year might mean having to recreate the bus routes multiple times.

Recently, we came across an interesting School Bus Fleet article about a petition proposing a change to school bus lighting systems that, according to the petitioner, would improve school bus safety. It's far from the first time such an idea was proposed. The problem of cars either ignoring or not seeing school bus warning lights consistently creates dangerous situations for student riders.

Student bus transportation safety is an all-important topic, and one which tends to become controversial whenever there's any sort of incident involving a bus accident. The tendency of the media to blow up any accident can often overshadow how incredibly safe school buses really are. Parents and other concerned people in your district should have plenty of information available, helping them understand that American school buses truly are among the safest forms of transportation anywhere in the world.

When adopting new technology in your school bus transportation processes, there's always the promise that it will help simplify your administrative life and streamline operations. In many cases, this is true. However, problems can arise when a district adopts too much new technology, too quickly. When a desire for new solutions becomes too prominent, the technology can simply become a new kind of complexity - creating as many problems as it solves.

For decades, one of the most controversial subjects involving school bus safety was the matter of seat belts: Should school bus seat belts be mandated?

The debate has been reignited this summer with the introduction of Ohio House Bill 680 on May 22, 2018. In response to a recent tragic crash which killed a student and teacher, the bill would require all buses purchased after June 1, 2019, to come with lap/shoulder belts on all passenger seats, as well as mandating an aggressive upgrade policy for existing buses.

For the past decade, many school districts have shown increasing interest in switching to alternative fuel systems. On paper, the benefits are clear: they’d see lower fuel prices and easier maintenance while also reducing the harm their fleet does to the environment. Unfortunately, these projects often seem to fall short.

These are exciting times for those in the school transportation industry! There has been so much innovation in the world of vehicles, particularly when it comes to integrating computer technology into existing systems. It may take a little while for new ideas to make it into the world of school buses, due to the much greater safety and security concerns, but there are still plenty of new options for districts to take advantage of.

 One of the cornerstones of a proper school bus safety training program is an emphasis on the "Danger Zone." That is, the area immediately surrounding the school bus where children could be in danger of being hit by other cars - or the bus itself - and are potentially hidden by the bus's blind spots. Drivers must understand the threat represented by the Danger Zone, and be thoroughly trained on how to minimize the actual danger to their students.

Will your incoming 2018-19 students be ready for their first bus rides? Summer is the perfect time to help parents prepare their children!

There's probably no more challenging time for a school bus transportation director than the first week of classes. Students are having to learn their buses and bus schedules, plus many of the younger ones may have never ridden a bus alone. That first week can go a lot more smoothly if the students are prepared in advance.

Few aspects of school bus loading and unloading are more dangerous than the appropriately-named “danger zone.” The danger zone includes areas near the bus where a student cannot be directly seen by the bus driver, and where incidents involving other vehicles are most likely to occur. The danger zone can be considered to be a rectangle stretching 10 feet from the bus in any direction, with the most dangerous areas being the immediate front of the bus as well as anywhere within arm’s reach of the back half of the bus.

 It’s well known that student bus transportation costs are a huge part of a school district’s budget and a truly unavoidable expense. It’s only natural for school districts to look for ways to minimize the costs. Now, some districts are beginning to design their bell times largely around their transportation needs, but bell times impact every aspect of a district. Any major change will cause ripples across the entire city. Even if changing bell times would allow a district to cut thousands – or millions – of dollars from their transportation budget, is it worth the disruption?

Bullying is a hot topic at the moment, with many seeing the proliferation of bullying as one of the biggest problems in modern school districts. Administrators are under pressure to cut down on bullying and, in particular, shield disabled students from attacks which they often cannot defend themselves.

Overcoming the Challenges of School Bus Fleet Management

It’s generally agreed that loading and unloading are the most dangerous times for a child riding a school bus. In fact, the loading and unloading area is even occasionally referred to “the danger zone” because of how many problems could potentially occur. The students are beyond the driver’s direct control and exposed to traffic and other hazards.

 When it comes to drawing up bus routes, most districts try to do it at the beginning of the school year and stick with it. Sometimes that’s just not possible, and circumstances beyond their control dictate that routes may have to be re-planned during the school year. This brings up a big problem – how to inform parents of school bus route changes and ensure every child still gets on the right bus home.

 The topic of school bus fuels and the environmental harm done by bus fleets is being treated with increasing concern. With the majority of school buses on the road still being powered by diesel engines, they’re responsible for a lot of pollution. Many districts would like to explore alternative school bus fuels, but the expenses involved can be daunting.

 One morning in 2015 a nonverbal, autistic high school student named Paul Lee was left behind on his Whittier, CA, school bus. Eight hours later, in temperatures approaching 100 degrees, he was dead – not discovered until it was time for the bus’s afternoon route. It was a genuine tragedy, one which highlighted how important it was to always guarantee no students were forgotten on school buses.

So let’s take a look at what might be your district’s next vehicle investment!

 When drivers endanger school bus riders thousands of times every day by ignoring stop-arm signals, it’s clearly a problem that needs solving. But how?

One of the more common solutions being adopted is the use of stop-arm cameras, which work in roughly the same fashion as traffic light cameras. The camera attempts to capture the license plate of anyone speeding by a stopped bus, and the resulting stop-arm fines are mailed to the offending driver’s address on record.

Staying on top of school bus safety is a never-ending challenge for any district transportation coordinator. There are plenty of ways that a school bus and its routes can be made safer, and never quite enough time to address them all. Undoubtedly, any bus safety plan has some "holes" in it, or areas which aren't as secure as one might like.

This will vary substantially from district to district, but there are still some common holes we see in our own consulting work. Let's talk about some of them.