“Unfortunately, in many of these cases,
The SafeGuard Integrated Child Seat, above and top right, features strap adjusters at the top of the seat and Velcro on the buckle strap to simplify passenger securement.
the training appears to have stopped at the doorway to the school and was not carried onto the bus,” she remarked. “In general, I’m not sure all bus staff are trained to handle the special needs of these passengers.”
STAYING CURRENT Shutrump emphasized that training
programs at the nearly two dozen districts served by Trumbull County ESC have improved “in light years” compared to when she started there in 1988. Ten, as now, it takes a coordinated, interdepartmental ef- fort to determine what each child’s specific medical needs are. She said training can run the gamut from simple CPR and first aid to more specialized courses such as NAPT’s Special Needs Training (SNT) program. “Once they realize how complex this
training is, transportation staff realize they can’t do it on their own. It’s got to be spe- cialized and utilize the expertise of special education staff,” she said. “We need to make sure that these child-specific plans are very detailed and that drivers are prepared to implement them.” Trumbull County ESC assists in providing
Ü Top 3 Challenges in Special Needs Transportation
1.
Lack of funding/limited resources
2. Need for specific training of bus drivers/aides
3.
Increasing numbers of pre-K and homeless students
Source: STN 2013 Special Needs Survey
annual refresher training for all special needs transportation staff. “Each piece of equipment on the bus and
every special procedure are covered with transport staff demonstrating their under- standing,” Shutrump continued. “When a child is new to our system and our buses, we have a meeting — the special ed. and transportation staff, parent/caregiver, student and driver trainer — where we go through all the paperwork to document what the team decides is the appropriate occupant restraint system.” Te driver trainer is involved in formulat- ing the transportation plan, initial training
66 School Transportation News February 2013
and test rides. Te test rides help participants to root out any challenges on the bus, she explained, because even though the plan may look good on paper, it might not work well in real-life situations. Anyone from the planning team is invited on the test ride. “Tere has to be a commitment to people
involved in training to truly digest the information, make it relevant to the bus environment and really think of each piece of the ride, even the bus stop,” she added. Burns noted that annual training might not be frequent enough in certain cases, as students’ needs change if they grow, lose or gain weight or experience a health decline. Some changes warrant different equipment or different uses of existing equipment. “Tere must be a needs-based review of the situation as it really exists, as often as necessary,” Burns remarked. “As far as an audit, annually is probably sufficient or when there is a catastrophic incident. I would expect a school district, after a case like the one in Florida, to know what’s really occurring.”
WEIGHING DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES First Student’s special needs operational
safety manager, Dona Beauchea, said the bus contractor remains up to date on current best practices and committed to special needs transportation training. Tis training includes equipment orientation, basic medi- cal training and interpersonal skills, sensitiv- ity and emergency procedures instruction. Beauchea took her own training a step
further when she earned her NAPT SNT certification in November 2011. “I have spent my entire career work- ing with students with disabilities, so the training was especially important to me. You need to be able to provide techniques to make the job easier for drivers and attendants. I wanted to be a resource for the
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