Suggestions for principals to decrease school bus vandalism are presented. Guidelines are offered for the improvement of bus conditions, reorganization of the transportation system, establishment of a bus driver training program, and student involvement in an antivandalism campaign. Cooperation and regular meetings between students, parents,…

The goal of this study was to describe student transportation programs in Georgia and to identify common areas of concern and common characteristics of these programs. The report summarizes the literature regarding transportation issues and the accumulated knowledge of experienced transportation managers. The study team met with the…

Due to increasing costs for bus service, the Millard School District in Nebraska has instituted a successful plan whereby students pay partially for bus service by purchasing coupon books. While elementary students more than one mile away are still bused at district expense, junior high students more than two miles away must pay the partial cost…

Energy conservation in school transportation is a major area of concern to the educational community. School buses travel in excess of four billion miles annually consuming 900 million gallons of fuel, transporting 55 percent of the school enrollment (grades K-12). Since the fuel allocation emergency, school transportation managers have begun…

To protect special education students fully, bus drivers must be trained to respond to emergencies in an organized fashion. This article describes special equipment and procedures used in Baltimore County buses for the handicapped, along with yearly evacuation drills to hone drivers' skills. Speed was not a factor in these exercises. (MLH)

Discusses the new Federal Student Transportation Safety Standard 17. David H. Soule, designer and administrator of Standard 17, is interviewed. Topics covered are Federal aid, Federal-State-local relationship, bus driver training, and bus routing. (DN)

Historical overview considers the role of transportation in education before 1954, when school busing was used to improve education by consolidating rural schools and centralize effort in urban schools, and after the 1954 Supreme Court decision that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal. Different attitudes toward forced busing are…

"Exchange" surveyed members of the Panel of 300, their advisory board of center directors, to find out what questions they would like to address to manufacturers and bus companies for early childhood programs. They then posed these questions to the companies and have presented a representative sampling of their responses in this article.

This publication provides a summary and update of school bus-safety activities conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This report discusses Congressional mandates and NHTSA's actions to improve school-bus safety (which include programs that affect human behavior and motor-vehicle safety performance), the magnitude…

While school buses transport more passengers per trip, the rate of occupant fatalities per mile driven for school buses is one-quarter that for passenger cars. Nevertheless, the public expects school districts and other school bus operators to take all reasonable precautions to protect children as they travel to and from school. Although a variety…

Express routing, under consideration by San Diego (California) Public Schools, is a form of bus transportation that picks up and drops off students at centralized points instead of driving through residential neighborhoods. This report examines other, similar districts' experiences in applying express routing in integration and other school…

This detailed report and analysis of school bus transportation in Indiana is divided into the following topics: transportation policies; bus utilization; the bus driver and his terms of employment; bus ownership; insurance, storage, maintenance, and fuel costs; bus ownership and costs; and the transportation director. A strong case is made for…

Providing transportation to children younger than kindergarten age has become more common for public school districts, and school personnel are unsure as to the rules, guidelines, and best practices that apply to the youngest school bus passengers. This document outlines the current Illinois requirements regarding the transportation of very young…

The school bus plays a central role in helping this country achieve its social and educational goals. (Author)

Five days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, a convoy of 142 air-conditioned school buses from the 209,000-student Texas district rumbled to life. Loaded with food and bottled water, staffed by 350 school employees, and accompanied by bus-repair trucks and a phalanx of school police cars, the yellow buses traveled all night to reach the…