Student transporters weigh in on how they require drivers to check for children at the end of routes }By Shanna Thompson Zareski
of two students accidently left on buses in China and the death of a toddler in a daycare van in Massachusetts are remind- ers of the potentially dire consequences of drivers not performing a final check for lingering riders. In Massachusetts, the lapse results in
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immediate suspension of the school pupil transport certificate pending the comple- tion of investigation by the local police department, said Judith Dupille, direc- tor of vehicle safety compliance services at the state’s Registry of Motor Vehicles
o Child Left Behind takes on a whole new meaning when ensuring the school bus is empty at the end of a route. Te recent deaths
(RMV). Tere is also an automatic 30-day suspension of the certificate at the time of a RMV administrative hearing, and the Department of Public Utilities mandates a 30-day suspension for school bus drivers. “Te RMV will be mandating more
training for the school pupil transport drivers,” Dupille said. With the 2011-2012 school year well
underway, School Transportation News asked transportation directors and supervisors to weigh in on how their dis- tricts or bus companies prevent riders from accidently being left behind. All of the 161 student transporters responding to the child reminder portion of a survey conducted last spring said their depart- ments either utilize an on-board reminder
40 School Transportation News Magazine November 2011
system or require drivers to walk the aisle and scan each row and seat for sleeping or hidden children at the end of each route. Nearly 40 percent of respondents, or 60 total, said they do not utilize an on-board system. In 83 of the responding school dis-
tricts, the penalty is immediate dismissal if a child is left alone on the bus or if the driver otherwise fails to perform a post- trip inspection to look for children who missed their stops. Other consequences range from suspension with or without pay to warnings and counseling. At Winterset Community Schools in
Iowa, the Bus-Scan alarm system was put into use eight years ago after a driver failed to do a post-trip walk of the bus
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