portation department’s 1,400 drivers and attendants are essential workers committed to ensuring the most vulnerable students are transported daily, working diligently with staff and labor partners to set health and safety protocols, and provide training and mate- rials to ensure the essential workers, students and families served are safe each day. Still, the issue amplified the criticality of collaboration among


parents, transportation officials and special education profes- sionals, especially during the pandemic and as school districts return to full in-person education. “We’re an important service. That connection has been missing


for all districts nationwide,” said Kris Allen, transportation supervisor for the Wasatch County School District in Utah and an advocate of transportation employees participating in the IEP process. Her take on the Washington, D.C., incident is that it appeared the school bus driver had compliance concerns rather than focusing on an individual student’s needs. “We are not in the compliance business. We are in the education business. By taking kiddos off buses or out of classrooms, they are not getting an education,” she said, adding proper communications between IEP teams and transportation employees helps mitigate problems. At this report, more than half of the states now have 80 to 100


percent of its school districts open for in-person education, according to Burbio’s K-12 School Opening Tracker. But the U.S. remains a patchwork of social distancing and mask-wearing mandates, although students with breathing problems or other disabilities have been exempted from having to wear a mask since the beginning of the outbreak. Some school districts are using funds from the American


Rescue Plan, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help pay for necessary COVID-19 protocols, including those needed to transport students. Allen noted that 8,000 of her district’s 9,000 students returned to in-person learning in August. The remaining children are educated online. The district transports 6,000 students on 49 buses. As stu- dents returned to in-person learning, a hybrid half-day was added with transportation routes modified to accommodate the schedules. “Parents call and say, ‘Hey, you’re combining this route, yet we’re


about safety protocols for her child on the bus, and the parent refused to leave the vehicle,” the spokesperson told School Transportation News. “We appreciated the support from the MPD officer. OSSE was in touch with the parent on the morning of the incident and subsequently resumed transportation of the child.” The incident was followed by a rally of con- cerned parents outside the OSSE office calling upon the D.C. school system to invest in better training for staff who work with children, in- cluding those with special needs. Congressional members even got involved. The OSSE spokesperson added that the trans-


supposed to be social distancing,’” relayed Allen on the feedback she’s received. “It’s impossible to social distance on a school bus. You’re going to have to choose to have that ride or not.” Allen noted that the pandemic has affected special needs


students the most. Due to smaller class sizes, students are quar- antined after someone contracts the virus. Knowing what student is attending half-day and what student is not coming to school at all has been unpredictable for the transportation system, she added. Although Utah Gov. Spencer Cox lifted the state’s mask man-


date, Allen said masks are still required in the schools and on the buses, which also carry a supply. “I had drivers in the beginning tell me ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t see. I can’t drive,’” she explained. “Nope, you’re wearing the mask. You do the job.” With IEPs typically written at the beginning of the school year, COVID-19 forced some changes half-way through, Allen said. IEP


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