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.

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.

School districts across the country are struggling to determine how to best utilize the limited number of dollars that are available to them. As these districts face sharp increases in expenses, revenue is decreasing, forcing them to be tight with resources in order to keep budgets balanced.

For some districts, this means cutting necessary services including student transportation. Along with reducing transportation for field trips and extracurricular programs, many districts are reducing the number of buses in their fleets and drivers on their payrolls. So what solutions are available to districts feeling the crunch?

It's no secret that many school districts around the country are looking for creative new ways to make up budget deficits, but some ideas are going down easier than others.

The Dallastown Area School District (DASD) in Pennsylvania has made headlines recently for its latest budget-boosting move: Beginning in January 2017, it will be charging $2 per student, per day, for school bus transportation to or from daycare centers rather than to the students' homes.

Unsurprisingly, this is not going down well with parents or daycare administrators.

There is no denying that technology advances are affecting the way we work and live our lives. This is especially true when it comes to student transportation.

Advances to the transportation industry in general are mind-boggling. Many cars and buses now come equipped with WiFi, satellite radio and a host of integrations. One study even suggests that there will be 10 million self-driving cars on the road by 2020!

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.