Photo by Teresa Ochoa, Mountain View (Calif.) Whisman School District

SCHOOL BUS FLEET’s February 2011 issue — which should be reaching your operation soon, if it hasn’t already — features our annual Special-Needs Survey.

This year, we asked recipients about a variety of topics, including mainstreaming students on regular-education routes, training resources, length-of-ride policies and evacuation drills.

There was some information that we couldn’t fit in the survey for the print issue, so I’ll share it with you here. One question we asked was whether survey recipients’ operations provide door-to-door service for special-needs students. The majority of respondents (85.3 percent) answered in the affirmative.

We also asked respondents who in transportation attends IEP meetings. A breakdown of responses is as follows:

• No one: 49.1%
• Transportation director/manager/supervisor: 20.5%
• Unspecified transportation representative: 15%
• Several people in the transportation department: 12.4%
• Bus driver: 2%
• Aide: 1%
 
What are your thoughts on providing door-to-door service for special-needs students, and do you feel that it’s important for pupil transportation personnel to attend IEP meetings? If so, why? Send an e-mail to info@schoolbusfleet.com or post a comment below.

Also, to see the statistics that made it in to this year’s survey, turn to pg. 28 of the February issue. If you don’t receive a hard copy of SBF, you can view the digital edition of the February issue here. You can view the survey in the research section of the SBF website as well. You must be a premium member to access the data in this section. To register, click here.  

Until next time,

Kelly Roher
Senior Editor