This study examines the impact of a bus driver attendance incentive program implemented in a rural Mississippi school district with the aim of improving bus driver attendance rates. There is a shortage of bus drivers across Mississippi which has made bus driver attendance paramount. Bus driver absenteeism causes disruptions in student…

Despite the sizable literature on school transportation, little information exists about the social and intellectual implications of long bus rides for students and families or the possible negative consequences of school bus rides. This study examined the nature and experience of riding the school bus in rural as compared to suburban locales in…

A study comparing rural and suburban school bus rides surveyed 1,194 elementary principals in five states. Rural elementary schools were more likely than suburban schools to have bus rides of 30 minutes of more, attendance areas greater than 10 square miles, rough rides, and older students on the bus with elementary students. (Contains 41…

Discusses aspects of rural transportation for exceptional students: (1) federal requirements; (2) specialized equipment needs; (3) safety concerns; and (4) training needs of drivers and attendants concerning student characteristics, behavior management, district disciplinary policy, communication with parents, loading and unloading procedures,…

A study of bus transportation was conducted by the Department of Business at Central Michigan University to determine the feasibility of centralizing the transportation function of the seven rural schools in the COOR Intermediate School District in Michigan, who, at the time of the study, operated their own transportation systems. Investigation…

Inadequate public transportation in rural areas has long been a major impediment for rural residents' access to health care, jobs, and community activities and services. Particularly disadvantaged in transportation are the rural poor, elderly, and youth. This report highlights the benefits to be gained by passage of the Commission on Rural…

This digest summarizes information suggesting that long bus rides are part of the hidden costs of school and district consolidation. Rural school districts spend more than twice per pupil what urban districts spend on transportation. A review of studies shows that rural school children were more likely than suburban school children to have bus…

Researchers and other persons interested in promoting research about rural school busing met in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1998. Drawing on that meeting and the rural school literature, this report describes why school transportation is an important issue nationwide, explains the lack of research on rural school busing, proposes a research…

This report provides the first detailed picture of the features of the rural school bus ride. Data were provided by principals in 696 rural elementary schools in Arkansas, Georgia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington--states chosen to represent diversity in region, locale, and ethnic composition. The literature commonly cites 30 minutes as…

Initially driven by school consolidation and later augmented by the mandate to desegregate, school busing systems have grown monumentally all over the United States. Busing policy choices have been made and expanded without regard to the impact on the central enterprise of schools, which is student learning. Anecdotes from Montana, the Navajo…

Study of how busing time to school affected daily activities in 64 rural households in Eastern Townships School Board, Quebec (Canada), found that household schedules altered according to distance from school, constraints on students' and families' activities increased as travel time increased, travel time was viewed as wasted time, and farm…

A research agenda was developed to examine effects of rural school busing on rural children, families, and communities. The agenda addresses the history, politics, and financing of rural school busing; social, cultural, health, and safety considerations; geographic justice and school distribution; relationship to consolidation; influences on…

More children are riding school buses longer distances than ever before, but this review of research on busing finds a surprising shortage of information on the subject, apart from safety figures and costs and efficiencies of the buses themselves. Historically, increased student transportation has been the by-product of school consolidation, but…

Every school day, hundreds of West Virginia children ride school buses much longer than state guidelines say they should. Under those guidelines, no elementary student should be on the bus more than 30 minutes one way, middle school students 45 minutes, and high school students 1 hour. In fall 1999, public hearings about school transportation…

A 1981-82 compilation of population and school statistics from Saskatchewan provides information on the context of rural education in that province. Between 1901 and 1981 the population fluctuated, reaching a high of 991,000 estimated population in 1982. Saskatchewan schools experienced a 19.6% decline in total enrollment from 1971 to 1981, and a…