respected individuals,” she added. “Background checks are required in all states and driving records must be on file. Drug testing is required as well.”
Risk Related to Pupil Behavior Much of the actual risk on school buses is introduced by the students.
Bullying, poor behavior, or mischievous acts that are harmful or danger- ous, occur on school buses every single day. Who is accountable for these examples of risk? That’s a tough question to answer, admitted Leetch. “Kids are more empowered today. They are well aware of what an adult
Smallville Independent School District *011068*
CLARK KENT
can say and do to them,” he explained. “Bus drivers have limitations on what he or she can do to discipline a child. There should be a very clear code- of-conduct that a school district administers [for] riding on school buses. Parents and students should be made aware of this code-of-conduct, and it must be adhered to. The key is to have a well-defined code-of-conduct and zero tolerance for any violations of that code-of-conduct.”
SMART tag is the premier student ridership
management solution. Our rugged driver tablet and use of RFID cards help ensure students get on the right bus, get off at the right stop and are not left on the bus. Our state-of-the-art solution provides many features including:
• Patented Guardian Release • Pre/Post-trip Inspections • Reimbursement reports including Special Education and State Headcount Reports
• Real-time fleet and student visibility through our secure web portals for transportation, campuses, and parents
• Messaging system for driver and parent communication
Give us a call to find out all that SMART tag can do for you!
“SMART tag truly is a magnificent leap in student transportation… the tablet does so much it's actually unbelievable.”
Is There Coverage? It would seem to be an obvious conclusion that a school district couldn’t
operate school buses without extensive liability coverage for the driver, students and school district. That’s the case for most traditional home-to- school transportation of public-school students. But private schools and charter schools have muddied the waters of compliance. Take the example of Scholars First, a private school bus company that transported students to and from nine New Orleans charter schools. The company was presumed to have adequate liability coverage. This was until the state of Louisiana alleged that Scholars First submitted falsified liabil- ity insurance documents for four of the schools it serviced. The Orleans Parish School Board said in April 2019 that four of its schools have since verified Scholars First has active and valid insurance. That begs the question of how deep the audit trail must go to ensure that
contracted providers have legitimate liability insurance. Attorney Robert Maloney highlighted the enormous problem of insurance fraud across the U.S. “The Insurance Information Institute estimates that property, casual- ty and auto insurance fraud alone total in excess of $30 billion a year,” he said. “There is not a great deal of data on whether fraud is prevalent in the school transportation industry. With that said, school districts that contract with transportation contractors can avoid the issues that we have seen in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, where there was an apparent falsification of insurance forms by the bus operator.” A working solution may be for school districts to add a requirement
Josh Rice
Dir. of Transportation New Caney ISD, TX
smart-tag.net 512.686.2360
sales@smart-tag.net 42 School Transportation News • JUNE 2019
for insurance into any agreements with outside vendors, according to Maloney. “School districts can require in their contract with the school bus operator that copies of the operator’s current policies be provided to the school district, so that coverage can be verified,” he said. Maloney explained that, “School districts can also require by contract
that the bus operator provide the school district with copies of all renew- al policies as well. Aside from receiving copies of the actual policies, the school district could require that it be provided with any notice of cancel- lation by the school bus operator’s insurance carriers.” According to Maloney, “Many insurers will provide a notice of cancella-
tion to a third-party where it is required by contract. Being supplied with copies of the school bus operator’s policies, so the school district can inde-
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