Seclusion and restraint is generally used in the classroom to protect students with special needs from injuring themselves, other students or teachers. But, as STN contributor Peggy A. Burns, Esq., owner of Education Compliance Group, has previously noted, several lawsuits have been brought on districts that allege seclusion and restraint has been used on or around the school bus. For the most part, the suits have gone in favor of the districts — so far at least.

"False imprisonment is a term we'd never think about in terms of the school bus environment, but it's a real claim," Burns told STN last May. "School districts should continue to win, but it's a stressful situation."

Specifically, the legislation would provide a federal baseline to prohibit elementary and secondary school personnel from using any mechanical, chemical or physical restraint that restricts a student's breathing. It would also require states and local educational agencies to provide school personnel with state-approved crisis intervention training and certification in first aid and other student management techniques. Schools would also be required to notify parents "in a timely manner" if physical restraint or seclusion is used on their child.

Special-needs expert Linda Bluth, the lead monitoring and quality assurance specialist with the Maryland Department of Education, told STN last year that transporters should discuss with special educators the implications for the use of child safety restraint systems (CSRS) on school buses. Additionally, educate parents on the difference between the restraint systems and restraint used for behavior intervention. Bluth added that the use of CSRS should only be made on a case-by-case basis and be included in the section documenting transportation as a related service of the student’s IEP. 

TASH, a nonprofit adovcate group for people with disabilities, is an outspoken proponent of legislation to curb what it calls "aversive interventions" to control students who sometimes cause "unncessary trauma, injury and death." The group added that it is "a moral imperative that Congress act now to keep our students safe in school." 

"This legislation upholds the right of every student to be free from harm in school, and we thank Rep. Miller for his continued leadership on the prevention of restraint and seclusion," said Barb Trader, executive director of TASH, in a statement. "We ask now for the rest of Congress to own up to its responsibility to protect our children by ensuring full passage of this legislation."

But the American Association for School Administrators said schools are doing all they can to responsibly use seclusion and restraint, and while under mounting budgetary concerns. A survey of members last summer indicated that 94 percent of school districts monitor students at all times while they are in seclusion, and 97 percent reported that school administrators end the use of seclusion and restraint as soon as the emegency or incident ends. Similarly, 97 percent responded that they do not use mechanical restraints on students under any circumstances, while eight in 10 said school staff was trained in the use of seclusion and restraint as well as in prevention techniques.

A report last April from the Autism National Committee, which also supports the legislation, found that state laws on restraint and seclusion vary widely. Thirty states have "meaningful protections" for the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, but the provisions vary. This, said Miller, leaves the safety of child largely dependent on the state they live.

TASH also pointed to data from the the Department of Education also indicates that seclusion and restraint also occurs more often to students of color than their white peers. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education published guidelines for schools when developing their own seclusion and restraint policies. 

Miller first introduced the legislation in 2010, a year after a Government Accountability Office study, Miller said children will continue to suffer injuries or worse without congressional action.Miller originally introduced the bill in December 2009, and it was passed in the House but died in the Senate. He then reintroduced the legislation in April 2011 but it never got out of committee. That December, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced a companion bill, which also died.

"This legislation would make practices such as duct-tapping children to chairs or restricting a child's breathing illegal," he said. "It makes it very clear that there is no room for torture and abuse in America's schools."

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The program includes driver training, GPS and parental notification alerts available free of charge to schools nationwide via corporate sponsorship to decrease accidents and student injuries.

"As we analyzed the causes of the fatalities and injuries to children, there are a number of areas we can address to prevent these in the future," CSN founder Ward Leber said. "Everyone involved has a role to play to make school busing safer. Our plan is to improve the safe practices of the drivers, the kids, the parents and the general public."

In addition to free GPS and parental notification alerts, CSN Safe Bus offers school districts six training modules from the School Bus Safety Company. These include advanced driver training, transporting special needs students and bullying prevention, which the company said has reduced injuries by more than 30 percent in the 2,700 districts nationwide that use the programs.

"We are proud to be working with CSN towards this goal to make school busing even safer," said Jeff Cassell, president of School Bus Safety Company. "CSN has been a leading organization in the effort to protect children for more than 23 years. They are taking action to protect the kids, not just talking about it – well done."

The program is free of charge to school districts, school boards and parents because of corporate sponsorship but, according to the CSN Safe Bus website, it is not school bus advertising. Instead, CSN said the sponsor may only receive recognition on each bus in exchange for providing specific free child safety technology, training and programs to the districts. CSN also said it discourages participation by sponsors that wish to influence the buying decisions of children. The sponsor recognition on the bus as well as in the parental alert would also be subject to approval by the school board. 

According to CSN's website, current sponsors include AT&T; Google; Nickelodeon; Proctor & Gamble; Verizon Wireless; and Walmart, among others.

As a result, districts would receive 50 percent of the revenue from the ads, and would also have the option to install video cameras on school buses to catch illegal passers. This program could add additional revenue to school coffers.

"This is an added incentive," added Ward, "but our goal is not to be a fundraiser. It's to cover the costs for the school district and the parents so kids are safer and the district has another source of income."

Meanwhile, the automated parental notification system would be an additional option for parents to opt into and receive email, text or smartphone app alerts on the arrival of the school bus. Parents could learn of delays tied to weather, traffic, emergencies or other causes. All buses at participating districts would have GPS installed for tracking. When a bus passes a certain geofence on a route, the GPS would look up contact information for parents of students in the area and transmit their child's location and time of arrival. Added benefits for districts, said CSN, are reducing operating costs and monitoring driver behavior.

CSN said the GPS would expand the reach of the federal drug-free school zone law, which doubles fines for those convicted of selling drugs near schools. The technology would extend this to include school bus stops and the 4 billion miles that school buses travel nationwide each year.

The program also includes a national television and radio ad campaign that targets motorists who illegally pass stopped school buses. A public service announcement radio spot featuring journalist Larry King is currently available. 

King begins the spot by asking motorists an important question: do they think an appointment, phone call or text message is more important than the life of a child? The answer, King says, is "no." Still, he points out that 81 million motorists illegally pass school buses each year while loading or unloading students.

"So please, if you're already running late, stay late. And if you see a big yellow bus, give the kids a break," King concludes.

CSN said more than 200 celebrities have agreed to record television and radio spots that call attention to the dangers of distracted driving around school buses. According to CSN, they include: Dustin Hoffman, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift, Kieffer Sutherland, Michael Jordan, Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell and Tony Danza. 

The CSN website says the organization began in 1989 to make the U.S. a safer place to live for kids by acting as a "network" to help implement charitable programs and services to reduce the likelihood of abuse, abduction, exploitation and injury. This includes work with the U.S. House and Senate, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Postal Service, and the United Nations.

While SRTS programs are usually associated with districts' efforts to encourage students to walk and ride bikes to and from school, both transportation directors said that promoting school bus ridership and ensuring safe routes to bus stops are also top priorities.

The free April 18 webinar, "Maximizing District-wide Impact of Safe Routes to School: Educating Student Transportation Departments," was the fourth in a series that spotlights working champions helping to achieve SRTS aims. Program manager David Cowan moderated the discussion, which featured Peter Hurst, transportation options program specialist at Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) in Colorado, and Dan Pires, director of operations, transportation and risk management at Eureka City Schools (ECS) in California.

Bob Young, the director of transportation at BVSD is scheduled to present on "Safe Routes to Bus Stops" at the STN EXPO in Reno this July. Cowan previously told STN the national partership has been promoting a new strategy that links SRTS programs with transportation departments to prioritize improvements to bus stops or move them to increase students' physical activity and overall safety.

Hurst started out as a school bus driver before working his way up to BVSD transportation specialist. With 170 days in the school year, he estimated that district parents who drive their own kids to and from school take 340 trips annually, and altogether, travel 31.6 million miles and spend $2.6 million on gas each year. The district serves about 30,000 students in 56 schools.

"Twenty percent of students actually use the school bus, so 24,000 are not riding — we estimate half of these get driven to school," he said.

Hurst, who is responsible for all Safe Routes programming, told participants the district has won 16 grants and two Oberstar awards named after former House Transportation Committee Chair James Oberstar, who was a major proponent of SRTS. Yet, Hurst was quick to credit parent "champions" and supportive principals who have worked on programs like BLAST (Bike Lesson and Safety Training) and Heads Up Students (Mind the Crosswalk).

He stressed that his department has reaped many benefits from this partnership, including greater access to data and "heightened" communication with families as well as colleagues.

"Those of you who are trying to work with transportation, you know relationships are key. I can connect with principals, administrators, etc. ... It's really the best possible place to do this kind of work. I see this as a natural alliance," Hurst said.

Currently more than 1,000 students participate in his department's innovative Trip Tracker program, in which they earn Trip Tracker dollars and rewards for riding the bus, walking, biking or carpooling to school. "They love it and it's had a big impact. We are saving over 300,000 vehicle miles a year — that's a lot of car trips," he added.

Handbooks as a Safety Tool

Pires began his student transportation journey in 1980, working in special-ed. transportation with Humboldt County before rising through the ranks to ECS transportation director. He joined the local Safe Routes task force in 2010, and the district won a grant that year to make improvements around Washington Elementary School.

"The task force is a group of diverse individuals from law enforcement, traffic engineering, the city council, city agencies and the county — all working on a common cause to make the area around the school safer for our schoolchildren," said Pires. "I would strongly urge transportation folks to get involved in SRTS, as we all know transportation isn't just school buses anymore."

He emphasized that educating both parents and students is key to minimizing hazards such as unsafe driving in school zones and along school bus routes.

"My job is to teach parents and children about safe ways to get to and from the school bus stops as well. The Safe Routes program gave me additional information to include in parent handbooks, such as maps showing best walking routes to school bus stops, showing where there were protected intersections with traffic lights and not just stop signs," he continued.

During the Q&A that closed the webinar, participants asked for more specifics on what to include in parent handbooks — and his co-presenter, Hurst, requested a copy of ECS's actual handbook. In this handbook, Pires provides information on who qualifies for busing, how to get to the bus stop safely, what to do when you get to the bus stop, rules for riding the school bus and info on walking and biking to school, such as where to buy a bike helmet.

"In addition to walking maps for schools that currently have [SRTS programs], we're making walking maps for all the other schools and giving information about how traffic flows around schools and through parking lots, tips about not double-parking, how to safely exit the pickup/drop-off lane or parking lot, where school buses will be and the list goes on," he continued. "We've shown these techniques really work by getting that info out to parents."

Pires added that the Safe Routes program has been "very successful" in his Northern California distict and, in fact, Eureka recently received another grant.

"I hope all of the people involved in school transportation see this as a benefit," he said. "The Safe Routes folks in my community have definitely made my job easier. Anything the schools need, they are there to help with."

AA Transportation President Ron Ernenwein and other management officials today commended Blanca Lugo, Hector Vazquez, Edward Bougault, William Hogan, Jose Blanco, Todd Williams, Micheal Ciesluk and Robert Amadei. They all used their school buses to shuttle spectators and runners away from the scene after the bombs exploded. In all, three spectators, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed and more than 180 were injured.

“Not one person opted to go home, complained the assignment was too hard or took a break after the 18th hour of shuttling,” Ernenwein said. “The area they were working in was complete mayhem, and with their professionalism this group brought composure and calm for the folks that they transported. I cannot say enough about how proud I am to have this group of Americans as part of my team, staff and friendship.”

AA Transportation offers contract transportation services to more than 22 public and private school districts in central Massachusetts, according to its website, as well as to various colleges, companies and businesses. It also provides charter bus services.

The company was one of a many contracted by the Boston Athletic Association to provide transportation services during the marathon activities. Ernenwein said about 75 of its school buses were used early in the morning before the marathon to transport runners to the starting line.

During the race, eight of the 75 buses were contracted to remain on-site at different medical stations to shuttle runners to a medical treatment area. 

Once the first explosion occurred, and then the next one about 12 seconds later, Ernenwein said it was difficult for his staff to keep in touch with the eight drivers since all communications in the city had been shut down. Officials were concerned that a detonator would be triggered from a cellphone. But he noted that that didn’t stop the drivers to, without hesitation, work with the authorities. 

With so many marathon runners from different states and countries, Ernenwein said the bus drivers were crucial to helping these participants contact their friends and loved ones, in addition to transporting them to meeting areas.

“Anybody would have had the instinct to go home and just get out of there, and instead these guys took the opposite direction to go into the mayhem," he added. "They could have so easily gone home.” 

Editor's note — Photo shows, from left to right: AA Transportation drivers Hector Vazquez, Micheal Ciesluk, Jose Blanco and Edward Bougault; Julie D'Ambra, director of HR and safety, and President and CEO Ron Ernenwein; drivers Blanca Lugo, Todd Williams, Robert Amadei and William Hogan.

This week, the Learning Bus is headed to an elementary school where the top 20 student readers will be rewarded with the chance to use e-readers while onboard. The sleek, blue 76-passenger was unveiled March 5 to a crowd of roughly 200 supporters. 

Though the Learning Bus has made several public appearances, it will officially "get to work" the second week of April, said BSEF Executive Director Katherine Barton. The Women Endowing Education (WEE) Group, a subgroup of the education foundation, provided the Blue Springs School District with a multi-year grant to create the Learning Bus.

"The school district donated the bus they were going to take out of service. It has a new engine, two generators, A/C and heating and 20 laptop computers that are inside," Barton began, "It had to have an electrical plan. So we started with an architectural firm that was willing to take on this project, and they actually did it for free because they said it was a lot of fun. They designed the interior and exterior of the lab, and it really looks beautiful."

The purpose of the WEE grant was to have a large impact on student achievement for more than just one classroom, she explained. Many members of WEE are retired educators who believe in the power of education, and have committed to support the bus project for at least three years.

Starting next month, the bus will roll into a different neighborhood on weekday evenings between 5 and 9 p.m., giving students direct access to the Internet and educational websites, in particular Study Island, which provides Web-based, instruction, practice, assessment and reporting.

"Mid-Continent Library is partnering with us, and their website also connects to all kinds of good educational websites. So it sets up opportunities for students to come on the bus and access materials they normally wouldn't have access to at home," Barton continued. "Mid-Continent will give out library cards and enable children to check out books on the bus, and will host story times and book clubs."

When the Learning Bus is scheduled to visit a certain area, it will travel to a local school during the day to alert teachers, parents and students that it will be in their neighborhood that evening. The Blue Springs School District is approximately 58 square miles, according to Barton, and serves 15,000 students, primarily in Blue Springs but also in Lees Summit.

"We have committees working on logistics like routing as well as design and promotion. Blue Springs' Transportation Department has been very hands-on because all the actual installation has been done by transportation and building and grounds personnel ... They would be working on that bus right alongside other buses in the shop," she noted.

Down the line, Barton said the WEE group plans to utilize the Learning Bus for GED classes and ACT test preparation courses during the school day and on weekends.

"Instructional coaches from the high schools are willing to give their time for these classes. It's really a community effort," she said. "Dr. Mirabella Carter, a member of the WEE group, suggested it could be used for ACT prep and offered to be the instructor. Dr. Bill Cowling, the district's assistant superintendent of management services, wrote the grant."

The Siemens Company donated the computers, Sprint supplied the connectivity for the Internet, another company donated the electrical plan and another designed and fabricated the posts that support the seats and countertops, Barton recalled

In addition, Brian Unger, the host of the History Channel program "How the States Got Their Shapes," was working with the Blue Springs Deputy Superintendent at a large history conference in Kansas City, and when the Learning Bus was mentioned, he made a "very healthy" contribution, Barton said, quick to add that other donors have also been generous.

"All kinds of companies, organizations and individuals stepped up to offer their support," she stressed. "The Home Team, a volunteer group, helps link parents with the school bus and with other services in the district, such as after-school tutoring or even a pair of reading glasses. Truman Medical Center volunteered as a partner, and they have a mobile unit and can do health checks, distribute information, etc.

"The library and medical center are two important connections that have made a difference."