Special Needs Children

[swift]

First of all let me preempt this by saying this topic is not meant to be argumentative but hopefully help me to get an understanding.

My questions is in regards to special needs children and transportation. I am a school bus driver. I drive not the little busses but the large 84 passenger bus for general ed. This year I have 3 special needs children on my bus. When I asked why these children were not on the smaller special needs routs I was told it was because the parents are pushing for the children to be mainstream. I can understand the desire for the least restrictive environment however, in the classroom these children have full time aids. Why would a parent insist they be put on a school bus with 70+ children with no aid available? They are on the bus for 30 min or more and often cause me to take my eyes off of the road because of behavior issues. They can not be suspended from the bus like other children for behavior because of the law that the school district must provide transportation. I am feeling very frustrated and feel that I can not be as safe of a driver. It is also not fair to the other children on the bus that are being spit on or other issues.

 

[lll1929]

Interesting topic. My son is special ed but doesn't require assistance in that manner.

Do you all have video on your busses? Perhaps your manager and the LD teacher can review the footage and the LD teacher can suggest other transportation options to the parents.

I agree that it's in the best interest for both the special ed child as well as the other kids. It not fair that the kids be spit on, but I would also have a level of concern for the other children getting upset and harming the special ed student.

Good luck

 

[pjrose]

Definitely make your concerns known to both the head of transportation and special education. Report the behavior problems, spitting as well as any teasing the special ed kids might be getting from the other students. Meanwhile, can you separate the seating, or is your bus too full?

 

[swift]

Interesting topic. My son is special ed but doesn't require assistance in that manner.

Do you all have video on your busses? Perhaps your manager and the LD teacher can review the footage and the LD teacher can suggest other transportation options to the parents.

Some of the busses have cameras and some don't it depends on what bus I am driving on that particular day. As luck would have it the bigger problems always seem to happen the day the I don't have one and no the child wouldn't know whether there is one or not these are k-1 kids the camera has never been pointed out to them.

Definitely make your concerns known to both the head of transportation and special education. Report the behavior problems, spitting as well as any teasing the special ed kids might be getting from the other students. Meanwhile, can you separate the seating, or is your bus too full?

The other kids on my bus are not teasing these kids. They usually are very patient with them. Often when they are being hit or pinched by the special needs kids they will usually tell me "it's okay he/she didn't mean to". The run that I have them on is with kids 3rd grade and under. They are much more tolerant than the older children. As far as separating them I don't have room to seat them by themselves and they definitely can not be seated together so I seat them with the best choices possible from the regular ed.

 

[Transit]

All you can really do is document and report each incident . The school district (special needs,ESE dept) will usually decide whats the least restrictive envionrment (an aide ,smaller bus).If the students actions interferes with the safe operation of the bus you transportation company/bus service should intervene immediately.

 

[pjrose]

The other kids on my bus are not teasing these kids. They usually are very patient with them. Often when they are being hit or pinched by the special needs kids they will usually tell me "it's okay he/she didn't mean to".

That's nice to hear!

 

[Karen G]

The safety of everyone on your bus is your primary concern. If any of the children are causing severe enough distractions that the safety of everyone is in jeopardy, then you should just stop the bus. Call your supervisor and refuse to operate the bus in an unsafe manner.

My husband was an airline pilot for over 25 years. He always said that safety of flight was his primary concern. I can remember one or two instances where unruly passengers on the plane before take-off threatened the safety of the flight in his opinion. He refused to fly the plane until those two passengers were removed from the plane. The passengers in question were intoxicated and were very loud in their verbal abuse of the flight attendants.

Once a passenger was causing trouble in-flight and upon arrival at the destination, he was met by police and escorted off the plane.

Maybe union rules are different for pilots and bus drivers, but I think that you, as the driver of the bus, are just as much in command of that bus as the captain is in command of the plane.

 

[Blondie]

It sounds suspicious to me, like maybe the district is cutting costs at your expense, and is not funding a small bus. Just my cynical nature but I have been around public education for a long time and it is not about what is best for the kids, but about the $ which is sad.

 

[Stefa]

It sounds suspicious to me, like maybe the district is cutting costs at your expense, and is not funding a small bus. Just my cynical nature but I have been around public education for a long time and it is not about what is best for the kids, but about the $ which is sad.

This was my thought as well. Our district does have a small bus, but only certain kids qualify to ride. One of my SE kids rides the small bus and the other rides the big bus. (There are no aids on the small bus my son rides.)

I would continue to voice my concerns to my supervisor and maybe to the school (if you won't get into trouble for doing so), but I wouldn't hold out too much hope that things will change.

 

[gateacher]

It has been my understanding that special ed students can be suspended from the regular bus. However, the school system must still provide transportation through the special education bus. It seems like the least restrictive environment is the regular bus. However, when the behavior interferes with the safety of all concerned, then this is no longer the best alternative for transporting the students. I know of students here in Georgia who have been suspended from the regular bus and put on the special ed bus. Maybe this helps......

 

[Linda74]

Can you talk to the parents and the special education teacher. As a former special education teacher, I have to believe that both would be attentive to your concerns. I have had parents who did use the law to put their children in environments which were not in their child's best interest, but they were not the norm. Is the behavior so far out of the "norm" or do you think that the knowledge of their special needs makes you more sensitive to thier actions??? Unfortunately many laws, like LRE and No Child Left Behind often hurt rather than help kids.

 

[stmartinfan]

My special needs daughter rode the regular bus despite having paraprofessional help during the school day. She got herself into trouble a couple of times when she was in lower elementary, and got written up by the bus driver. If she had received another write up, she would have been suspended from the bus.

In her case, no one had bothered to tell the bus driver about her needs. The school's excuse was that they needed our permission to do so. While she was receiving special help in school, the issue of her ability to ride a regular school bus had not been addressed in the educational plan.

After some discussion between the bus driver and her teacher, she was seated in the front seat and that seemed to help settle down the problem. We also made sure she had something, like a book, to help occupy her time on the bus. She also had her bossy older sister on the same bus, who was quick to let us know when she misbehaved.

It sounds like the students you're dealing with have more issues than my daughter does, but I did want to share that at least in our district, the bus driver was able to take action to identify the problem and could have forced her off the bus. As the parent, I was sympathetic to the bus drivers' problem because I wanted the bus ride to be safe for everyone.

 

[swift]

A blurb from the California Ed. Code regarding suspension and special needs. The answer is yes---but no. If the school is still required to provide transportation at no cost to the parent it still comes back to the bus.

Suspension from the school bus:

Occasionally pupils receiving special education services are
suspended from bus transportation (Cal. Ed. Code 48900-48900.5,
Grounds for Suspension). The suspension of a pupil receiving
special education services from California transportation can
constitute a significant change of placement if the district: 1)
has been transporting the student; 2) suspends the student from
transportation as a disciplinary measure; and 3) does not
provide another mode of transportation (Office of Civil Rights,
Letter of Finding, Complaint No. 04-89-1236, December 8, 1989).

A significant change in placement requires a meeting of the IEP
team to review the pupil's IEP. During the period of any
exclusion from bus transportation, pupils must be provided with
an alternative form of transportation at no cost to the pupil or
parent in order to be assured of having access to the required
special education instruction and services [Cal. Ed. Code
48915.5(j)]...

The guidelines do not override the general provisions of federal
law that require districts to provide transportation to special
education students when, because of distance or disability, the
transportation is necessary for the child to get to his school
program. [Cal. Ed. Code Sec. 56040, 41850(d).]

 

[swift]

do you think that the knowledge of their special needs makes you more sensitive to thier actions??? .

Absolutely not. Obviously it would not be appropiate to go into details here on the web.

 

[swift]

My special needs daughter rode the regular bus despite having paraprofessional help during the school day. She got herself into trouble a couple of times when she was in lower elementary, and got written up by the bus driver. If she had received another write up, she would have been suspended from the bus.

In her case, no one had bothered to tell the bus driver about her needs. The school's excuse was that they needed our permission to do so. While she was receiving special help in school, the issue of her ability to ride a regular school bus had not been addressed in the educational plan.

After some discussion between the bus driver and her teacher, she was seated in the front seat and that seemed to help settle down the problem. We also made sure she had something, like a book, to help occupy her time on the bus. She also had her bossy older sister on the same bus, who was quick to let us know when she misbehaved.

It sounds like the students you're dealing with have more issues than my daughter does, but I did want to share that at least in our district, the bus driver was able to take action to identify the problem and could have forced her off the bus. As the parent, I was sympathetic to the bus drivers' problem because I wanted the bus ride to be safe for everyone.

The issue of confidentiality is a huge problem with the bus drivers. Our job steward has gone to bat several times over this issue. We need to be informed about our students medical issues. As professionals we are more than capable of keeping information in confidence. Shoot we could write a book about all the things we hear kids say about what goes on in their homes.

The medical issue one time became an issue of concern with one of the other drivers. She came to a bus stop where she had a large amount of kids get off and did not notice until she left the bus stop that one child did not get off the bus. She called out to the child, who was sitting in the back of the bus, to ask her why she did not get off at her stop. The child did not respond and just continued to stare out the window. The bus driver assumed she did not hear her and radioed the child's school that the child did not get off and that she would bring her back to her bus stop when she came back around to it with the older children in 30 min. The school secretary was aware of the child's medical condition and asked over the radio a few more questions regarding the child. The bus driver pulled over and found the child had, had a seizure. Had the bus driver been informed that the child had epilepsy she would have been more aware and would have intervened sooner.

 

[swift]

It sounds suspicious to me, like maybe the district is cutting costs at your expense, and is not funding a small bus. Just my cynical nature but I have been around public education for a long time and it is not about what is best for the kids, but about the $ which is sad.

I would not be surprised that this is not a factor as well. It takes a strong parent to work with the system.

 

[Hophop4]

When my son was in school he was in Special Ed too. He was bussed by our neighboring school district for Middle School. He was picked up at home from our school district in a mini spec ed bus taken to a central Elementary School where other Spec Ed Students were brought from our district and then picked up by a large reg school bus from the neighboring school district and taken to Middle School. I remenber one time on the afternoon bus he was disruptive and the bus driver wrote him up and he was not allow to ride the bus for one week, this was from the neighboring school district. I had to go and pick him up after school every day. They had no problem kicking him off the bus for a week and no other transportation was provided for that week. He had to wait outside the school until I was able to pick him up.

 

[swift]

When my son was in school he was in Special Ed too. He was bussed by our neighboring school district for Middle School. He was picked up at home from our school district in a mini spec ed bus taken to a central Elementary School where other Spec Ed Students were brought from our district and then picked up by a large reg school bus from the neighboring school district and taken to Middle School. I remenber one time on the afternoon bus he was disruptive and the bus driver wrote him up and he was not allow to ride the bus for one week, this was from the neighboring school district. I had to go and pick him up after school every day. They had no problem kicking him off the bus for a week and no other transportation was provided for that week. He had to wait outside the school until I was able to pick him up.

You could have sued the school. Unfortunatly a lot of parents are not fully aware of all of their rights and the school districts take advantage of this.

general provisions of federal
law that require districts to provide transportation to special
education students when, because of distance or disability, the
transportation is necessary for the child to get to his school
program.

 

[applegirl]

My 5 year old kindergartner rides a school bus. I have great appreciation for his bus driver and know she has a hard job. Your biggest responsibility is the safety of the kids. You MUST address this isssue immediately if the behavior of these kids truly disctracts you to the point of not operating the bus as safely as you usually do.

If your transportation supervisor is not responsive,you must go higher.

Also, start keeping a paper trail of behavior incidents so you have something to show. Hopefully you have already done this. When I was a teacher full time, I would occasionally have to do this with kids who were real behavior problems. It gave me much more ammunition during parent conferences or with the principal.

Best of luck with this situation.

Janna

 

[gateacher]

I believe that the federal mandate that you quoted can be interpreted that these special needs children should be transported by the special education bus if there are issues that cause you to be unable to operate the regular bus safely. Here in Georgia, the special education bus has bus monitors that monitor the students while the bus driver's sole responsibility is to drive safely. I don't think I'm understanding why these students cannot be moved to the special ed bus. If the bus steward is not addressing this problem, you should contact the special education coordinator for your system. They definitely know the ins and outs of transporting these students.

 

[Hophop4]

You could have sued the school. Unfortunatly a lot of parents are not fully aware of all of their rights and the school districts take advantage of this.

general provisions of federal
law that require districts to provide transportation to special
education students when, because of distance or disability, the
transportation is necessary for the child to get to his school
program.

It wasn't worth the hassel. It was just one week. But I am fully aware of rights in regards to Special Ed Students. When my son was 3 yrs old (different school district) we had to place him in a private school, public school would not take him because of age. At age 4 they would not give him appropriate education, still in private school therefore we had to take the school district to court after starting at the bottom all the way to federal court. It took almost 4years before the case was settled and they had to backpay all his private school tuitions. It was worth it!! They had to straighten out or continue to lose their federal funding.

 

[wackymother]

Sometimes putting children on a "regular" bus is part of the attempt to mainstream. Have you spoken to your supervisor? It may be possible to get a transportation aide assigned specifically to assist these children. (Sorry if this has been suggested before, but I'm having a lot of interruptions right now!)

 

[mepiccolo]

Worst case scenario: A disruption bad enough to hurt another child or to cause the bus driver to lose control and crash. The documentation was there to show the bus driver had complained about the safety hazard of there being no aides to assist and the problems the bus driver was having = an expensive lawsuit for the school district. Sometimes penny-pinching ends up costing a lot more than having taken proper precautions so everyone on the bus is safe. My goodness I only have 2 kids in my car when I drive and they're seatbelted! I can't imagine the stress of having all these kids in a large vehicle behind me, special needs or not. Good luck, I hope things work out for you but you really need to document your complaints and then remind them of the worst case scenario mentioned above. That should get them to act - no one would want to be the person who ignored the safety concerns and be to blame for a child's injury.

 

[Gerie]

Special transportation for a student with special needs should be a consideration for the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and considered at the time of a meeting of the Committe on Special Education (CSE). It is not a decision made by the parents who want to mainstream the child. If the parents are permitted to dictate the terms of the IEP beyond the advice of all other committee members (minimally CSE chairperson, psychologist, regular and special ed. teachers, parent) then something is amiss with the system in place to provide the best education for that child. Being in trouble or being suspended is not in that child's best interest. In my experience with the committee, dollar savings has never been a consideration. Special bus provision for the few students who need it is minimal in light of the huge budget school districts administer.

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

In our district our smaller special ed buses have lifts etc., but I don't think they have aides on the bus. I never thought of that before, as many of these kids do have one to one aides in school. If this child or children needs a special one to one aide in class, my sense is that they are not really being mainstreamed, they are experiencing a regular classroom with a lot of modifications. Anything that endangers safety on a school bus goes beyond the abstract idea of mainstreaming into taking action to ensure everyone's safety. Have you tried talking to the school principal? Anyone who is a party to the IEP can request another IEP meeting as needed.
Good luck with this serious issue,
Liz