• Bus and Cab Rider Code of Conduct

    Purpose

    Develop a bus and cab rider code of conduct that supports a safe and orderly ride to and from school and supports drivers to address inappropriate student behavior.  

    Stakeholders

    Riders, Drivers, Motorists and Pedestrians, Transportation Operations Staff, School Administrators, Area Superintendents, Chief Officers, Superintendent, Board of Education and Parents

    Code of Conduct

    Rider Expectations

    District provided transportation is offered to eligible riders.  For the safety of all, students are required to follow certain rules to maintain the opportunity to use this service.

    • Keep hands to yourself

    • Sit in assigned seat

    • Use a quiet talking voice

    • Remain seated

    • Follow driver’s instructions

    • Arrive to the bus stop 10 minutes prior to the stop time

    • Wait at the bus stop in an orderly manner in a safe location

    • Follow loading, crossing rules and procedures

    • Do not bring inappropriate items on the bus or cab

    • No hitting/no fighting

    • Be totally silent at railroad crossings

    • Keep bus clean

    Transportation Intervention

    The transportation department will follow the steps below to address any infractions of bus rider expectations in an effort to work directly with the student and family to resolve rider issues.

    • 1st infraction - Driver will discuss any “rider expectations” infractions with the student and document the discussion with the student

    • 2nd infraction – Driver will discuss the infraction with the student and document the discussion with the student.  Transportation will send a letter to the parent describing the infraction

    • 3rd infraction – Transportation will make a referral to the Principal for action to rectify the student’s behavior

     

    Disciplinary Measures

    Disciplinary actions for students who are referred to school administrators for unsafe behavior on the bus will follow along the lines of how discipline is handled in the school.  The first referral from transportation is sent to school administrators after the bus rider has had two opportunities to correct the bus driver’s concerns through communication between the bus driver and student.  The exception would be any major infraction, as listed below, that presents serious safety concerns.  In these cases, the student will be immediately suspended from the bus pending a review by the school administration.

    Major Infractions

    Reporting

    • Reported to school administrators immediately via phone and email

    • Reported via Cherwell

    Types of major offenses

    • Drugs (includes alcohol, smoking devices)

    • Fighting (intentionally attempting to hurt another person)

    • Weapons or any dangerous instruments

    • Threats or bullying (physical or verbal threats)

    • Throwing objects in or out of the bus or vehicle

    • Sexual harassment

    • Profanity (verbal or physical) -in an aggressive tone or action

    • Exiting the bus through safety exits

    • Other Red Book items

     

    Vetting of Bus Rider Code of Conduct

    • Superintendent and Chief Officers

    • Board Attorney for alignment with policy

    • Transportation AP committee

      • Notes from meeting where APs were asked if they could support the process ( with fist of five scores)

        • AP1 - Likes the consistency the process offers, likes the layout of the process, Do we add write-ups to ECATS (4)

        • AP2 - It is doable, understand the reasoning but students will miss school, maybe reduce the days of suspension (4)

        • Principal - Can support, likes the process because it gets parents attention,need strong communication message to parents, students, drivers and training (3)

        • AP3 - likes the process & discipline should be different at different school levels (4)

        • AP4 - likes the steps and processes and consistency aspect, the tool page is helpful, worries about suspensions,communication needs to come from district and be county wide, must have seating charts for buses (4)

     

    Processing of Transportation Incident Report

    • Use current process via Cherwell

    • Reporting back to transportation is key in support of drivers

     

    Communication Plan

    • Public – post Rider Code of Conduct on the transportation webpage

    • Parents – school message Rider Code of Conduct to all parents of riders

    • School Administrators – work with the transportation AP committee to determine best method to share the plan with administrators

     

    Mitigation Strategies

    • Mandatory bus and cab rider education opportunities– include the Code of Conduct with the other mandatory bus rider trainings (PBIS, Positivity Project and other “Teach To’s” frameworks to encourage high expectations and winning classroom behavior. 

    • Mandatory bus and cab driver training on Code of Conduct

    • Vigorous effort to post rider rules in schools and transportation vehicles

    • Voluntary school staff ride afternoon buses and cabs for extra pay ($25 per day) – (This will be a long term strategy.)