Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 19, 2024 14:09:54 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2014 3:03:52 GMT
I'll say again that the most important job of a bus driver is to safely operate the bus. Making sure children are on the right bus and get off at the right stop is a team effort and that includes work, training, and responsibility from the parents...ESPECIALLY the parents of young children.
My kids have ALWAYS ridden the bus...starting when we moved to GA half way through my oldest DD's KINDERGARTEN year. She was in KINDERGARTEN, was new to the school, new to the subdivision and did just fine on the bus.
I was at the bus stop morning and afternoon to get her on and off the bus. I know parents still do this because I still drive DS in on occasion and see the elementary parents (at two different bus stops) standing outside with their kids.
Bus drivers do the best they can and I think it takes a special person to be a school bus driver. But they are one person, responsible for 60+ kids (and it could easily be more) and their safe transport to school.
If OP is still so upset about the procedures, she can either change schools so that her kids can walk, or she can make phone calls and perhaps try to work to make the system better for all the students in her district. (I love the hat idea) The bus driver is not able to hold the hand of every young student on their bus.
|
|
Dani-Mani
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,706
Jun 28, 2014 17:36:35 GMT
|
Post by Dani-Mani on Sept 3, 2014 3:08:07 GMT
I've never heard of actual attendance being taken on the bus or in line. Our bus drivers do tend to know their riders, though, and will check if they are missing someone. And they certainly try very hard to know who should get off where, and not to let the littlest kids off unless someone is there meeting them. Our district buses 90,000 students daily; we at the school, personally, try to take attendance before the kids even get on the bus so that if we get a call, we have a general idea of why that child wasn't on the bus. But our drivers almost all do more than 1 run. I graduated from a district that bused nearly all 8,000 students; they also did more than 1 run. It just isn't plausible for them to spend time on something totally unnecessary. They're so incredibly strapped for time that it wouldn't even be fair to ask them to do this. Short of a bus driver just leaving a child at a stop (and it happens), most problems with the bus are on the school and on the parent. Blaming the bus driver for the crappy system is just misdirected. Sorry, Ashley--but they have done something that's absolutely negligent--you're anger/frustration is misplaced.
|
|
|
Post by delilahtwo on Sept 3, 2014 4:40:31 GMT
That is normal. Sorry but I've only read a couple of posts. In my opinion not a big deal to have a mix of ages on the bus. I rode from grade 1-12 and there were k-12 on the bus. No biggie. Granted I was a farm kid. I don't think it's too much to expect for a 6 year old to figure it out within the first week. My kids have ridden the bus the whole way. The driver will get to know them but it takes a bit.
I think you are over reacting a bit. Within a week it will all settle down.
|
|
|
Post by delilahtwo on Sept 3, 2014 4:44:23 GMT
I don't think it's too much at all to expect that a bus driver would help 5 year olds get off at the right stop on the first DAY of school. And how is the driver to know which 5 year old belongs to which stop? You are helicoptering. You need to let it go.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 19, 2024 14:09:54 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2014 15:15:39 GMT
Bump with update in OP.
|
|
|
Post by tuva42 on Sept 3, 2014 15:58:33 GMT
Our elementary school kids have color coded tags on their backpacks. Each tag has their name and the stop they are supposed to get off on. The bus monitor has to stand there and check every single tag as the kids get off. This happened after little kids got off the bus with friends at stops that weren't there own and then were missing for several hours. It does make the bus ride home very, very long for some kids.
|
|
MerryMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,534
Jul 24, 2014 19:51:57 GMT
|
Post by MerryMom on Sept 3, 2014 16:12:04 GMT
Ahemmm, well in our mostly rural school district, all the kiddoes ride the same bus. It's a campus setting with the elementary, middle, and high schools all located in the same field. The three schools are in a semi-circle surrounding a huge parking lot. The school bus drops off the high school first, then the middle, then the elementary.
Elementary kids are in the front, middle school kids are in the ...well...middle, and the high school kids are in the back of the bus.
Geesh, do people think the high schoolers beat up on the little kids? Most of them are the older siblings to the younger kids.
I agree that it is the school's responsibility to get the kids on the correct bus. And the parents should teach the kids which stop is theirs. The bus driver cannot be expected to roll call, check id;s or whatever for every single bus stop.
|
|
|
Post by melanell on Sept 3, 2014 16:46:39 GMT
I realize it's the drivers first day... but I was asking if it's normal to have a roll call/name list/something?? I find the bus system between many of the US Refupeas and us Canadians is very different. But here in my neck of Ontario, no - no roll call/name list/nothing. Our school board has a "find my bus" system and you use that online to check time & stop location. That's exactly how things work for this US refupea.
|
|
MaryMary
Pearl Clutcher
Lazy
Posts: 2,975
Jun 25, 2014 21:56:13 GMT
|
Post by MaryMary on Sept 3, 2014 18:17:26 GMT
Geesh, do people think the high schoolers beat up on the little kids? Most of them are the older siblings to the younger kids. I don't think people are worried about the older kids bullying the younger ones so much as the difference in, uh... Vocabulary and conversation, not to mention inappropriate behavior. For instance, there was a high schooler on my daughter's bus that was showing the kids porn on his phone.
|
|
cakediva
Drama Llama
Making the world a sweeter place one cake at a time!
Posts: 7,393
Location: Fergus, Ontario
Jun 26, 2014 11:53:40 GMT
|
Post by cakediva on Sept 3, 2014 19:04:35 GMT
I find the bus system between many of the US Refupeas and us Canadians is very different. But here in my neck of Ontario, no - no roll call/name list/nothing. Our school board has a "find my bus" system and you use that online to check time & stop location. That's exactly how things work for this US refupea. Sorry - I should have specified. Here in Ontario - the school bus system is part of the whole part and parcel. You are either a bus student or a walker. No fee for the bus. From some of the US posters, I've come to understand that some pay separately for the bus? That was my understanding anyway. Forgive me if I've gotten it wrong.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
Apr 19, 2024 14:09:54 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2014 2:42:27 GMT
That's exactly how things work for this US refupea. Sorry - I should have specified. Here in Ontario - the school bus system is part of the whole part and parcel. You are either a bus student or a walker. No fee for the bus. From some of the US posters, I've come to understand that some pay separately for the bus? That was my understanding anyway. Forgive me if I've gotten it wrong. That is not the norm in the US. Never heard of a fee except on here.
|
|
cakediva
Drama Llama
Making the world a sweeter place one cake at a time!
Posts: 7,393
Location: Fergus, Ontario
Jun 26, 2014 11:53:40 GMT
|
Post by cakediva on Sept 4, 2014 12:06:32 GMT
Sorry - I should have specified. Here in Ontario - the school bus system is part of the whole part and parcel. You are either a bus student or a walker. No fee for the bus. From some of the US posters, I've come to understand that some pay separately for the bus? That was my understanding anyway. Forgive me if I've gotten it wrong. That is not the norm in the US. Never heard of a fee except on here. Thanks Scrappower - I've only heard of bus fees here as well, so I just assumed (and wrongly) that it was the norm for the US.
|
|
|
Post by melanell on Sept 4, 2014 12:29:45 GMT
That's exactly how things work for this US refupea. Sorry - I should have specified. Here in Ontario - the school bus system is part of the whole part and parcel. You are either a bus student or a walker. No fee for the bus. From some of the US posters, I've come to understand that some pay separately for the bus? That was my understanding anyway. Forgive me if I've gotten it wrong. There may be, but I was just saying that for me, in *my area* of the US, things work just as described in that post. No fee here either. It's just part of the public school system for us.
|
|