SPECIAL REPORT
Eagle Eye on Student Transportation Safety Written by Ruth Ashmore |
ruth@stnonline.com
O
nboard school bus cameras have changed the game when it comes to school bus driver and student safety. Combined with prop- er procedures and training, they can be a
pivotal part of an enhanced safety strategy for student transportation operations. In North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) has had cameras in place since area manager Monique Jackson joined the transportation department in 2018. Her passion for safety has been front and center throughout her career as an educator and now in stu- dent transportation. “The number one reason for us to have those camer-
as is for bus safety and, of course, to capture whatever footage is necessary for reporting and documentation purposes,” said Jackson. She noted the cameras originally used physical hard
drives for video storage. Video is now cloud-based, so transportation leadership can make requests to view certain parts of the footage and be able to access it elec- tronically in a more timely manner. At the Transporting Students with Disabilities and
Special Needs (TSD) Conference held in Frisco, Texas, keynote speaker and special education attorney Betsey Helfrich outlined common pitfalls when school districts and transportation departments don’t have clear policies and procedures for handling video footage. Lawsuits filed against the district can succeed if they prove there was insufficient training for employees and that the correct action wasn’t taken as soon as an incident is discovered. She advised timely, documented communications
with Title IX coordinators about incidents. However, there’s often a tricky balance between open record laws and FERPA, or Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, when distributing footage among staff members. She cited cases where districts used FERPA to justify not releasing footage of incidents onboard the school bus to parents of students who were involved but were later overruled in court. FERPA is also no excuse for keeping specific information from school bus drivers that per- tains to their passengers’ access and safety. Helfrich urged cautioned when sharing sensitive
footage of safety incidents to ensure transportation personnel are fully educated on what constitutes an immediate or imminent health and safety emergency. These would require footage to be shared with multiple
18 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2026
Safety Vision’s Clint Bryer demonstrates multiple video channels that capture action in and around the school bus.
parties that are trained on how to act when an incident is discovered or reported. “Reviewing footage after an incident is important, but
it is vital to randomly and periodically review footage,” said Bret Brooks, chief operating officer for school safety and security consultant Gray Ram Tactical. “Don’t wait for something bad to happen to review the recordings. There should be a written policy detailing how often recordings will be reviewed and by whom. Recordings should be kept for 30 days with the ability to retain for longer if needed.” Ron Deming, territory manager for REI’s school bus
division, said many customers praise cameras’ abilities to provide evidence for investigations. “Footage from cam- eras can serve as crucial evidence in case of accidents, injuries or misconduct, making it easier to identify causes and fault,” he said. “This reduces liability risks for districts.” STN reported on an incident in October of a parent
boarding a Ferguson-Florissant School District bus near St. Louis, Missouri. Onboard cameras captured a dis- turbing scene of the father commanding his daughter to strike her alleged bully. The faces of other students and the school bus driver were blurred, which Helfrich ad- vised districts to do, before the footage was shared. Mike Dorn, executive director of nonprofit global K-12 school security consultant Safe Havens International, noted school districts should state on school bus driver applications that cameras are recording all driver be- havior. That can serve as a deterrent to individuals who could be trying to harm students or behave inappropri- ately. It can also exonerate them if wrongly accused. He discussed a case he worked on where a student
reported they had been inappropriately touched by a driver. Pulling footage from the 30 days prior to the incident showed the veteran driver assaulting the pre-K student. He noted that the driver “knew from experience that the district only pulled camera footage when an in-
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
