so comfortable with a route that they think, ‘I know this road and this area,’ and they lose that really strong, sharp focus they need to have at all times,” she added. “We need to always remember who we’re carrying.


We’re not hauling boxes. We’re carrying children, peo- ple’s children, so we need to make sure that the drivers realize the importance of their job.” Franco underscored the importance of keeping “very


good, detailed records of everything” and processes in place if transportation need to access student ridership information immediately because everyone’s asking about who’s on the bus. They need to know their ages. They need to know contact information. That’s informa- tion you want to immediately get to first responders. Maintenance shops also need to keep records up to


date, including tire inspections and tread depths and “any kind of jobs that had previously been done on that bus, everything that has to do with that bus.” Another big takeaway from the Leander crash was that


a majority of children weren’t wearing seatbelts, which have been required statewide on newly purchased buses for model year 2018 and later. A number of students who were in lap/shoulder belts weren’t wearing them properly. “What that did teach me is to have really good com-


munication with parents, schools and kids. If other districts aren’t doing that, I highly suggest they put something on their websites, put it in their student handbooks, and create any kind of communication they can regarding seatbelt usage, the laws behind it,” Fran- co said, adding that bus drivers are instructed to take a couple extra seconds at each stop to make sure children have time to buckle up. Franco also recognized that her staff was shaken by the crash, especially because of the number of children on board. “A lot of my drivers really take ownership of their students and call them ‘my children’ or ‘my kids,’” she said. As a result, Leander ISD assigned a counselor to each transportation facility “for anyone who needed to come, talk and express any kind of emotions or feelings they were having about the accident,” she said. After the Mesquite ISD crash, Edwards determined that she and fellow counselors needed to debrief with outside professionals to cope with their own trauma of hearing graphic accounts of the crash. She formed debriefing groups, including one specifically for the transportation department, based on an individual’s proximity to the in- cident and its aftermath. When law enforcement officials heard about the sessions, they asked if dispatchers on duty that day could also attend. That was followed by a request from the responding fire


department. “They said, ‘There was this guy, a random citizen who pulled over to help and he was [evacuating children] on that bus. Can you talk to him, too?’ So, I did his debrief. It was a big ask for us, but I said yes.”


32 School Transportation News • FEBRUARY 2026


The intent was to underscore the value of school counseling profession and establish broader outreach that demonstrated “we really do care about our families, students and community. “Our presence matters. We are here. We’re going to


support these folks. And then there’s the longevity, the continued response. Especially when a crisis has this very traumatic aspect to it,” Edwards continued. “Peo- ple are going to step up in the most touching, amazing ways and they’re going to do some beautiful work. And people are going to suffer and feel despair in ways that you never could have predicted. ... What I would say to any educator, ‘Pray to God it never happens. Bad things are going to happen but be prepared because the more prepared you are, the smoother it’s going to go.’ A lot of things in a large-scale crisis are unpredictable, but if you have a response in place so that everyone knows their job it’s going to help everyone function better through that crisis because it’s exhausting in the best of circum- stances.” Before the crash, Edwards said she didn’t realize how


much she was going to interact with transportation, despite the district’s geographic size and number of students. “If you’re the director of transportation, you should be in touch with your director of counseling in terms of understanding mental health and understanding how it looks, even on a school bus,” she continued. “...Under- standing that [bus drivers] can do basic things to combat trauma and support mental health as simple as, ‘Hey, I’ll be the same person every day so that when my kids get on the bus, they know what to expect of me.’ That’s predictable and safe. And then working with your coun- seling department on how we’re going to respond if the bad things happen—the really big, bad things.” Rhodes offered a reminder that transportation-related


emergencies aren’t restricted to the road. He encour- aged fleet managers to share details of maintenance and storage facilities with first responders. It’s also important to share information about alternative-powered vehicles, which require different emergency responses. “Knowing where the batteries are, knowing where to


cut and not cut, those are things the firefighters need to know at their level. You’re not going to be able to get to every firefighter, so maybe you do a drill with two or three fire companies, film it and put it in a training pack- age,” Rhodes said. Hall concluded, “There’s a saying in law enforcement,


‘God loves cops.’ I think God loves bus drivers, too, be- cause sometimes we do things that that could have gotten us hurt pretty bad, and we didn’t. That happened to me a couple times. It was a huge wakeup call that I needed to stay vigilant. You need to continue to do the mental preparation and work that muscle between your ears so that when things to happen, you’re prepared.” ●


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