INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
Georgia District Approves Pilot of Student Tracking,
Parental Notification System Today’s consumer wants to try out new technology before buying it,
and school officials are no different. Recently, the Gordon County school system in northern Georgia signed an agreement to launch a pilot pro- gram of StudentConnect notification technology and, if successful, will deploy the student transportation management system district-wide. StudentConnect’s technology provides real-time alerts to parents and
school transportation officials when students fail to board their school bus and enter or exit the bus at the wrong stop, according to East Coast Diversified Corp., the parent company. Te system notifies parents with- in five minutes of bus arrival and alerts them of any anomaly. Andre Fluellen, NFL defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions,
recently became a spokesperson for StudentConnect. “I know people with kids who go to school in Gordon County and
are not home when the kids leave or return from school, so I’m glad to see the kids will be a bit safer, and the parents will have peace of mind,” said Fluellen. Gordon County Transportation Director Geary Cooper added,
“Tis will also afford us a tool to monitor the pick-up and drop off times with no expense to taxpayers or parents.”
SUPERINTENDENTS ASSOCIATION PROPOSES CHANGES TO SPECIAL-ED DUE PROCESS
Te American Association of
School Administrators (AASA) released proposals this spring to offer alternatives to the present federally mandated process that parents and school personnel use to negotiate special-education services, including transportation. AASA based its recommenda-
tions on a random survey of 200 superintendents from large and small districts across the nation. It outlines steps that can be taken to resolve differences, such as when a school bus must be used to trans- port a student with disabilities. Te report addresses problems with the current statute, said AASA, as well as proposed im- provements. Te report is intended to spark “a thoughtful, new dia- logue” about the need for “critical changes” to the special-education dispute resolution system. STN learned about initial
concerns from some national spe- cial-education experts who noted
28 School Transportation News June 2013
that parent advocates may oppose many of the proposed changes. Te report contends that
modifications to the current due process system could greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the burdensome and often costly litigation that does not necessar- ily ensure measureable educa- tional gains for special education students. Te proposal also "preserves the right for parents to move forward with litigation against a district and maintains other effective dispute resolution models that were put in place in the prior re-authorizations." Key recommendations include the ability to use a state-approved, trained facilitator to help create an IEP; the use of a special-edu- cation consultant who can recom- mend an educational plan for the district to follow when agreement cannot be reached; and the ability of either party to file a lawsuit in federal court.
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