School Transportation…how can you get the best service for your child?

How can you ensure that your child gets to their destination safely each day?

When I was a school principal, school transportation was one of the most challenging tasks of the day.

When I was a school principal, school transportation was one of the most challenging tasks of the day. Even though I had an Assistant Principal who was in charge of transportation, each day there were issues that needed to be addressed. The issues ranged from parent concerns to buses not arriving on time or even students not being picked up at all. In recent years transportation has become a major issue due to two major reasons, the shortage of bus drivers and the increase of the inappropriate behaviors of students.

However, if you are a Parent or Guardian who relies on bus transportation to get your child to and from school each day it is very important to do a few things to get the best transportation service for your child.

The first thing that is important to do is to ensure that your child has a way to communicate with you to ensure that they get to each destination safely.

The first thing that is important to do is to ensure that your child has a way to communicate with you to ensure that they get to each destination safely. This does not mean that you have to bur a very expensive cell phone, you can buy a very basic cell phone. They don’t need the internet, they just need the ability to call and text you. These days there are a variety of phones that are available for Parents to get for their child that are less expensive and give you the power to monitor what is happening on that phone. My daughter right now has a phone where I can see all of her calls, read all of her texts, I control the apps that she has access to and she can only call the people that I add to her phone.

The communication device is very necessary so that you can ensure that your child is where they are supposed to be at all times.

The second thing that is important is to have a backup plan with your child if there is an issue with their transportation.

The second thing that is important is to have a backup plan with your child if there is an issue with their transportation. If you aren’t available to wait with your child in the morning, it is key that they have a plan for what they should do if the bus does not come or does not come by a designated time. Whether this is the fact that they go to a neighbor’s house, or back home or you may have a relative that they can come and pick them up; whatever it is there must be a plan. The same plan must be in place in the afternoons if your child’s bus is delayed or does not come at all. This is another time when they should use their phone to let you know what is going on.

The third thing that is very important is to ensure that you are communicating your concerns to the correct people.

The third thing that is very important is to ensure that you are communicating your concerns to the correct people. Often times when I would deal with frustrated Parents I would record their concern as the school principal and relay it to the Office of Transportation. The only concerns that I could address would be if there was an issue with the behavior of a child on the bus, but as far as the timeliness of pickup or the behavior of a bus driver, all of those concerns had to be addressed by the Office of Transportation in my district. This would sometimes frustrate Parents even more because they need to be able to get to someone to express their concerns. I would totally agree with the Parents and ensure them that if I were in their shoes that I would be equally as upset however I was not the person that could do anything about their concern.

These days school transportation can be a point of contention for everyone. However, with these few steps it can be less frustrating for you each day. Not only will it be less frustrating but these steps will give you peace of mind as you go through your day and it will make your child’s day much smoother as well.