Tought Leader
Much of the shared wisdom at conferences like TSD come from the attendees themselves.
TSD Conference, the Wisdom Panel and You WRITTEN BY ROSEANN SCHWADERER T C
his year’s TSD Conference opens with a general session that could be your clarion call to step up and take your place among those who largely have made transportation of students with dis- abilities what it is—and to influence what it becomes. Te session, “Ten, Now & Tomorrow: Shared
Wisdom from Special Needs Transportation Experts,” taps into the fount of knowledge, contemporary analysis and sphere of influence of five individuals who have long been a core part of the Tenured Faculty. Most of you know their names well: Linda Bluth, Peggy Burns, Pauline Gervais, Alex Robinson and Sue Shutrump. As I offer personal feelings about the important service they have brought to the special needs transportation community over the past quarter century, please consider what you could do to toward advancing best practices in special needs transportation.
TO BEGIN:
When I was writing newsletters on pupil transporta- tion in the early 1990s, Linda Bluth was an influential actor in the evolving Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. More than anyone else at that time, Linda was the voice for transportation. When I set out to plan the first National Conference on Transporting Students with Disabilities in 1992, I called on Linda for her insights and her participation. As she did in her keynote address then, Linda con- tinues to stand out, speak out and put her unique and reasoned stamp on special needs transportation policy and implementation. She’s a strong, creative, intelligent voice—a role model in our field. Listen to and learn
50 School Transportation News • MARCH 2018
from her many stories about how she boldly approaches problems that require intervention and/or solution. You will come away feeling highly motivated and more confident in your own strength and position.
AND THEN: At the close of the first conference held in Dallas, a pupil transportation contractor from Ohio sang praises of Sue Shutrump, an occupational therapist he counseled with in his company. You need her, Terry Tomas said, and he was right. Sue agreed to speak in 1993. She’s been a powerhouse ever since then, helping transport- ers, school administrators and parents understand what safe transportation for children with disabilities and preschoolers consists of, individual by individual. Sue is one of the originators, and still kingpin, of the NHT- SA curriculum for child safety restraint training. Her knowledge of and influence on wheelchair securement and occupant protection in the yellow bus is extensive. And her openness to learn from others, and to teach, is timeless and endless.
MANY HATS: A behavior specialist with Florida State Department
of Education, Alex Robinson first presented for me in 1994. After working in crisis intervention, she donned her hat as the state’s supervisor of exceptional student transportation. Over time, she moved across country to transportation director positions in San Diego and Los Angeles before making her way back East. She has chaired the NAPT Special Needs Subcommittee, co- chaired, with me, the National Special Needs Team Safe-
M Y CM MY CY
Roseann Schwaderer is the founder of the TSD Conference and continues to serve as chair.
CMY K
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