Special Needs Transportation

[Mark Nylander]

There was news yesterday about a Maryville family who is suing the bus driver and the bus company for $1 million on behalf of a 7-year-old special needs student who was allegedly sexually assaulted in a school bus by a 17-year-old student. Any thoughts/experiences regarding the safety of special needs transportation in Knox County?

[cathymccaughan]

Mark - You should post this on the main site. Transportation is important to everyone. Personally, I have more transportation stories than I can count. I can sum them in two thoughts. Buses need to be owned and operated by Knox County Schools instead of private contractors and buses MUST have aides on them.

[Mark Nylander]

Cathy, I'm not sure where the main site is... I figured that posting in this forum might invoke constructive discussion rather than "why would I have to pay for your kid to have an aide on the bus". It amazes me that even though buses are run by private contractors, they have zero say into whether there should be an assistant on the bus. Per Knox County Schools Bus Manual, driver's assistants are assigned at the sole discretion of the school principal and the school system transportation department. The best I can tell, there is no chance that a SED student can get suspended from the bus if they've got an IEP. When you add the fact that spec ed kids who go to KAEC or satellite schools spend an hour or so each way on the bus being hauled across the county, it can be a real powder keg on board.

[cathymccaughan]

You are right that some people would complain, but transportation has been a thorn in my side for a very long time and it needs change. If Knox County had their own buses, they would be in control of the drivers' training, the working (always non-working) conditions of the bus cameras and the training and use of bus aides. Having a special needs bus without an aide is like a classroom without a teacher. ANY child can be suspended from the bus. Transportation is a privilege more than a right. As for the time spent on the bus, it is completely unreasonable to expect a child with behavior problems to spend so much time on the bus.

[Debi]

A seven year-old and seventeen year-old should NEVER be on the same bus together. If typical kids of this age spread were together on a bus there would be outrage. There is a reason different ages are grouped on separate buses. That said, I believe my friend who drove a sped bus had kids from kindergarten to high school on it, but I could be wrong.

It seems to me if having an aid in the classroom is an IEP issue, then having an aid on the bus should be one, too. Either that or assume all sped buses will have an aid all the time.

I think it also brings back to the question, why are children being transported across the county, rather than the intent of IDEA & renewal being that the child attend the same schools they would if non-disabled. I know the programs at KAEC, Ridgedale and others are wonderful programs, so why can they not be successfully implemented in other schools? Why does Bearden Middle have the only "autism/Asperger class" when there are middle school students with both autism and Aspergers zoned for every middle school within Knox County?

I personally support busing through private contracts if it is a savings to the tax payer, that still does not mean aids could not/should not be available on any route needed.

[Mark Nylander]

FAPE applies to transportation, so spec ed busing is automatically part of the IEP and a right under IDEA 2004 if the student is placed outside his/her home district. If a SED student misbehaves on a spec ed bus, IDEA protections for discipline apply. Hence, under the law, if the student was suspended from bus more than five times times during a school year, it would be counted as a change in placement under IDEA, and the school system would have to provide private transportation. (See case here.) I would think that if the school system refused to provide a bus aide for a student with emotional and behavioral difficulties and the student got suspended from the bus because of behaviors covered by his/her IEP, it would constitute a failure to provide reasonable accommodations per FAPE.

[cathymccaughan]

Most of our children are in their home district. Even when they are not, if they are dangerous on the bus, the police are called to the scene. Students are easily suspended from bus services just like they are easily suspended from school until you hit day six of suspensions. At that point, parents are told they will be reimbursed for transporting their child since the schools have nothing appropriate.
Many of the bus drivers won't cooperate with the aides. We had a driver who refused to return to school to drop the aide at the end of the route, so the aide quit. We had a driver who wouldn't wait extra minutes for the aide to get to the bus after spending the day working in the school. We had a bus with no space for an aide because the driver's toddler was on the bus. We have had MULTIPLE buses whose owners would call and say our child was no longer allowed on their bus.
As long as Knox County contracts out bus services, they have no control over the training, behavior or accommodations for drivers.

[Mark Nylander]

Good thing about School Matters is that it puts these kind of things on record. Per Knox County Schools Bus Manual, the bus owner has no right to tell the parents that a student is no longer allowed in their bus. I don't doubt that it has happened, but it shouldn't be acceptable.

[Mark Nylander]

According to The Tennessean, Nashville Metro officials want to add monitors to all special education buses after two separate lawsuits against the school district alleging sexual abuse of children riding spec-ed buses.

[Mark Nylander]

New school year. My son's IEP states that he's supposed to have a teacher's aide on the bus at all times. I called KCS transportation dept last Tuesday to confirm that his transportation would be set up per his IEP. I was told "Don't worry, everything is set up and someone will call you on Friday". Friday came, no phone call. Today (Monday) morning at 6:40am the bus driver calls and says she's on her way. No teacher's aide on the bus of course. The driver hasn't seen my son's IEP and has no idea that he's supposed to have an aide. I tell the driver to not bother to come pick him up. The bus shows up at 7:10am anyway, the driver says that her address lists are "all messed up", so someone else didn't get picked up. I try calling KCS transportation dept at 594-1550. The phone number is disconnected. I call the special education supervisor, get the voice mail. The principal at my son's KAEC satellite school is apologetic but can't offer any help. My son brings a note back from school saying KCS TPP special ed workers no longer have cell phones but just voice mail instead.

[Angela Wilder]

That is really different from what it used to be. In 2001 at KAEC, everyone was very receptive if there was a problem in transportation. The aides were available on cell phones the whole school day. Not just during bus times. It just seemed like there were no major problems. At least at KAEC

[Mark Nylander]

The bus came today on time with a driver's aide on the bus, so KCS got on the ball pretty quickly. How hard would've it been to give a call on Friday?

[cathymccaughan]

We always got a call and dry run the day before school started. Maybe the full day messed up a lot of things.