There are certainly pros and cons to outsourcing student transportation, and many administrators hold strong opinions on the matter. With more and more districts facing the stark reality of decreased budgets, transportation outsourcing is becoming a common practice.
In the years of the coronavirus, RSV, strep and the flu - and with most researchers suggesting these will continue to be a threat in the upcoming years - school bus safety measures now largely revolve around finding ways to prevent spread of the diseases going around our schools. 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.
Expectations are high for schools to provide transportation that is cost-efficient, safe and accountable. Schools are tasked with making the most of their resources while delivering A+ service to their students, parents and communities.
In a previous post, I talked about registered sex offenders that may live near your child’s bus stop "Are There Sex Offenders Near My Child's School Bus Stop". This is important to know, but it doesn’t mention other threats that may exist for your children.
There are many challenges involved in running and managing a school transportation system, but the issue of transporting special needs children is its own special category. Because schools are generally obligated to provide services and work around the needs of the children, it can create extremely unique challenges for each district.
How long has it been since your school district updated its bus routing and tracking policies?
As a transportation director, you have many responsibilities. Accommodating court ordered split custody school bus routing is just another one of them. While you may find this to be a nuisance, there is school transportation management software available that can help keep track of it all.
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.
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!
If you're in the business of planning a school's bus schedule, we don't have to tell you how demanding the job is. Hundreds or thousands of children rely on you to get to and from school safely, and if any of them are even a few minutes late, you'll be hearing about it from panicked parents.
With the latest in route optimization software, such as BusBoss, you can wring more efficiency and cost-savings out of your bus scheduling, while also helping ensure the children in your care always get where they need to be.
So, here are some tips for how to get the best use from top routing software packages!
Save Money and Lives With Modern Route Optimization Software:
• Keeping your map current. For far too long, route planners were locked into getting maps from payment-gated services, forcing them to keep paying or fall behind. Current software packages allow you to update your own maps, at will, while keeping a log of changes for future audits.
