A student passenger and HopSkipDrive CareDriver wear personal protective equipment to help mitigate risk of COVID-19.
What Questions Should You Be Asking? Robinson noted that as school district’s embark into uncharted territory, they could save money and ensure students get where they need to go by contracting with alternative transportation providers. She said one pos- sibility is to include alternative transportation as part of a district’s bus pass option. She provided an example of how the pass would work for a school district in Califor- nia, if the buses aren’t running. “However, my pass will be honored by the following,” she added. “It can almost be used like a voucher for these companies. These are the ones that we’ve vetted, these are the ones that we know meet our safety standards.” However, the biggest questions school districts should be asking alternative transportation providers, Anderson and Robinson agreed, is about company training pro- grams and safety protocols. Anderson, the Region 5 director for the National Asso-
ciation for Pupil Transportation as well as a member of the Safety Advisory Council for transportation network company HopSkipDrive, said companies should have a verification process in place to ensure drivers are adher- ing to company protocol. Aylin Cook, director of content for HopSkipDrive, said the company built health checks into its app for CareDrivers to report their temperatures and answer questions regarding their recent where- abouts. She noted a vehicle disinfection process was also added into the app. Drivers must answer in the affirmative that they’ve cleaned and disinfected.
26 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2020 Cook noted that CareDrivers won’t be checking stu-
dent temperatures and instead are relying on parents or guardians to keep sick students at home. In addition, the company also required all of its drivers to install a barrier between the driver area and passenger seats to help mitigate the exposure of COVID-19. Cook said there is a three-inch space at the top of the barrier to ensure the passenger is able to get airflow and for drivers and students to be able to hear each other. Cook added that in addition to CareDriver’s regular onboarding courses, they are now required to take a comprehensive COVID- Safe Ride Standards course that covers updates, policies, guidelines and recommendations. Kango, another transportation network company, is
also looking at installing barriers between the driver and students. The custom-designed material was still being crash tested at this writing, so the company was unable to share additional information. However, Sara Schaer, co-founder and CEO for Kango, said the business is taking proactive measures to protect its drivers and stu- dents being transported. “One of the first things that we did was to communi-
cate to our drivers and parents that following CDC health and safety related protocols was paramount,” Schaer said. “And so that was effective back in March. Obviously, we enhanced our procedures in general to require that drivers and parents of riders alike need to certify in ad- vance, that on the one hand the driver and on the other hand the passenger were healthy and had no exposure
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