Transition
for hours. A seat belt being on or off is the last thing on their mind,” said Fields. In Toni Weaver Floyd’s experience, the
transition is easier for the children than it is for the parents. Te Watauga County Schools transportation director explained that since many children follow different rules depending on whether mom, dad or grandma is driving, they easily adapt to the school bus environment. “Adapting to having seat belts in pas-
senger cars and not in buses is just another part of the way that children separate their different environmental standards,” added Floyd, who informs the parents of the Boone, N.C., school district that the child safety seats pre-K children normally use are sometimes used for kin- dergartners to teach them to remain in their seats during the bus ride. To quell any immediate fears, some dis-
tricts make sure the incoming tots take up the first few rows of seats of the bus. Tis, along with some lessons from the bus driver, can help the students feel more at ease during their first few trips, whether seat belts are onboard with them or not. “As a rule the drivers work very close- students
ly with the to teach them
safety,” said Ruth Ann Francis, driver/ safety supervisor for Lee’s Summit R-7 School District in western Missouri. “We have had several instances when a child may have unusual difficulty staying seat- ed and have had to install a seat belt or vest for that specific student.” Francis also works with parents by
providing training to help prepare their children to develop safe riding habits.
be awaiting them on the first day. School bus contractor First Student takes this op- portunity to bring along a school bus in many instances to give the new students and their parents an idea of how the bus works, who their driver might be and the kind of behavior that is expected during every bus ride. “Parents
should understand and ex-
plain to their students that school buses are the safest way to get to and from school,” said First Student spokesperson Maureen Richmond. “Te design and size of the school bus helps to keep each pas-
senger safe, much like the design of an egg carton. Tough the bus may not be equipped with seat belts, it is designed for maximum safety.” Others feel that seat belts will be the
last thing on their minds. For Gene Fields, transportation supervisor of Elkhorn Val- ley Schools in Tilden, Neb., preparing preschoolers and kindergartners to ride to school without seat belts has never been a problem. “Tey are going to a big building in a
big bus with kids they don’t know, and they’re not going to be with Mom or Dad
STARTINGTHE CONVERSATION For some Head Start agencies, the idea
of transitioning their students for the possibility of an elementary school bus without seat belts is a new concept, but it is a training opportunity they may begin to develop. Angie Ramos, a compliance officer
for Nueces County Community
Action Agency in Corpus Christi, Texas, works closely with partnering school dis- tricts to make sure there are always seat belts on any bus used to transport Head Start children, including for field trips, to meet the requirements of the Head Start seat belt rule, also known as 1310.
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