This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
» INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS No Matter What


THE PRIORITY FOR STUDENTS DISPLACED IN DISASTER EVENTS IS 'GET THE KIDS TO SCHOOL' WRITTEN BY ROSEANN SCHWADERER


D


iscussions with school transporters and McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act coordinators in New Jersey, Louisiana and Missouri reveal a common goal: Get the kids


to school, where some of the uncertainties in their life can be stabilized and where they can be fed. As described in the recently updated “Disaster Edition”


of the Homeless Education Advocacy Manual, connecting children to educational services is important even in times of crisis. Published by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, the report is designed “to guide advocates through the steps necessary to help homeless displaced students overcome the obstacles they face” when disaster strikes. For school transporters, severe hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters can put unprecedented strains on systems that are better able to prepare for evacuations than for an event such as Hurricane Sandy, which in the words of one New Jersey school official was “a logistical nightmare… like taking on 400 new students” at the same time. Joe Sangiovanni, director of pupil transportation for


Brick Township Public Schools in New Jersey, said the task local officials faced last October after Sandy’ assault was akin to “adding a whole other school into an existing system,” requiring additional routes, drivers and vehicles. Brick’s challenge was to comport with the vision set


by School Superintendent Dr. Walter Uszenski: To make sure that, amid a host of uncertainties the children felt, “the one thing that didn’t change is their schools.” Sangiovanni said when the electricity went back on and schools re-opened about a week after the storm, the number of students displaced was in the 350 to 400 range. At the time of this interview, 200 students had still been displaced. All those displaced, he added, were attending Brick Township Schools. Tough when school opened last month, some of the displaced found new living arrangements and, based on the options provided in McKinney-Vento, could change to other schools based on parent preference. Brick Township transports more than 1,200 students


daily, with 120 drivers on the street and 795 runs. San- giovanni’s transportation team accomplished its disaster response mission by tapping into its list of substitute bus drivers, putting them into special runs. “With nine or 10 substitute drivers, we were running 50


to 60 runs over-and-above what we normally do,” he said. For additional help, Brick tapped into the Coordi- nating Transportation Services Agency, which provides


14 School Transportation News September 2013


for contract transportation in Monmouth and Ocean counties. All of the drivers were great, he said, as they were “open-minded and accepted the changes. “Everyone pulled together to accomplish the task. And, it was no small task!” he stressed. Sangiovanni said all the planning in the world for emer-


gency evacuations pales in comparison to the real deal. “We plan for emergency evacuations and a lot of other things, but you can’t prepare enough for this kind of an event,” he said. “We’ve got it down now because we’ve done it.” Asked what he might do differently next time, Giovanni


said, “one of those things is to have a bigger, trained sub- stitute pool. With the entire substitute pool placed in the displaced child pool, when you need a sub because a regular employee is not able to work, there’s a big hole. We’re working on additional employment efforts right now.”


CONTRACTING TO TRANSPORT CHILDREN IN TRANSITION


Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission is the Coordinating Transportation Services Agency for the two New Jersey counties heavily impacted by Sandy. CTSA’s Virginia Miata said her facility was closed for about two weeks after the storm. When they re-opened they were “swamped with faxes, emails and mail.” When providing transportation to mostly smaller


districts in the counties, Miata said Monmouth-Ocean tried whenever possible to keep a child on the same bus to the same school. If a bus was available, siblings were placed on the same bus to keep them together. She said one of the frustrations centered on the delay of several days between requests for transportation and getting the contract bids back. “By the time the transportation is in place, the family


has moved from the hotel where they were, or maybe they were living with another family and that didn’t work out,” she added. In June, her records showed that 650 children were in need of temporary transportation, but she was unable to de- termine how many of those situations were related to Sandy.


£ A manual published in January by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty offers guidance to school districts on providing transportation service to students displaced by natural or man-made disasters.


TOP STORY


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76