FROM DEEP N
early 300 spe- cial-education transporters, some of whom were on
their spring break, arrived in Frisco, Texas, last month desperately seeking answers at the 22nd Transporting Students with Disabilities and Pre- schoolers National Conference. In this age of budget cuts, pro- viding that all-important service is growing even harder, but transporters from across the nation were in atten- dance because of their deep, caring feelings for their students, who are among the most vulnerable of the some 26 million who rely on school- bus service each day. As the National Special Needs
Team Safety Roadeo was in full swing on Saturday, March 9, several intense conference sessions were underway. In one of those, school attorney Peggy A. Burns and human resources expert Mark Hinson of Education Compliance Group shared insights into the types of
questions stu- dent transport- ers must ask when preparing to launch investigations. Hinson, the assis- tant superintendent of HR at Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Tornton, Colo., who holds a seat on conference’s board of advisors, said the “cardinal rule” in investigations is to be unbiased and objective. Whether a school district, Head Start agency, bus company or other child-care provider, objective inves- tigations should also be immediately launched to determined all the facts of the case before proceeding, a process known in legal terms as discovery, said Burns, the owner of Education Compliance Group and editor of the newsletter Legal Routes as well as a member of the confer- ence’s tenured faculty. Tis process allows the entity to learn what really happened before
40 School Transportation News April 2013
the plaintiff does and to, if necessary, re-evaluate the defense position. For example, all employee emails regard- ing an incident or a case should be gathered and reviewed. Burns said it is more important
The TSD conference welcomed a range of attendees, from routing specialists and trainers to dispatchers and monitors.
than ever to fully grasp this concept in light of what she termed a “rash” of student fatalities this school year, many of which were related to behavioral management issues rather than vehicle crashes. Meanwhile, Mark Deschaine, a
teacher consultant for students with autism at Genesee Intermediate School District in Flint, Mich., provided details on how to support students with emotional disabilities on the bus. He presented background information on the types of emo- tional disabilities and ways student transporters can apply scientific, research-based interventions on the school bus. He first reviewed IDEA’s eligibili-
ty definition of an emotional impair- ment and explained where a “mal-ad-
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