School Bus Project

School systems struggle with many issues that have gained national attention: i.e., achievement gaps between majority and minority students, dropout rates, school violence, discipline, etc. School violence and discipline has garnered many headlines within the past few years and there has been a flurry of activity focused on creating a learning environment that is safe and civil. One issue that schools district have particular difficulty with does not even occur within the confines of a school building and concerns the issue of transporting large numbers of students to and from school each day safely and efficiently. Most districts have restricted their concerns about student safety to issues relating to bus driver competence, equipment dependability, and crisis management.

Katherine George (1995), in the article "Fuss on the Bus", states that:

"A school bus packed to the portals with rolling, unruly sons and daughters must sometimes seem to the hapless driver like the seething epitome of hell on wheels." (p.33)

George goes on to explain that a bus holds at least twice the number of students found in a normal classroom. Additionally, the bus driver must maintain control while trying to keep two eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel. Clearly, the task of driving a bus is more than being a competent operator of a large vehicle and while unsafe student behavior has attracted less attention than other school problems, it is certainly a factor in overall school safety.

Tucker, Petrie and Lindauer (1998) assert that schools must deal effectively with disruptive bus behavior because such disruption can produce hazardous bus rides for all students involved. Common bus infractions include fighting, kicking, pushing, tripping, being out of one's seat, throwing objects, hanging out the window, using profanity, and being disrespectful to the drive.

Two typical approaches to handling student misbehavior on buses have been to employ bus monitors and/or installation of video cameras. While both approaches may have merit, the basic philosophy is one of catching the student misbehaving and applying appropriate consequences. This then becomes the cornerstone of behavioral change.

A different tactic employed by Randall Sprick is that of teaching the behavior that you want to see. This philosophy prompted the development of CHAMPs: A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management. (Sprick, Garrison, and Howard 1990). Following successful classroom implementation of CHAMPs, Sprick and Colvin (1992) applied the same principles of classroom management and developed Bus Discipline: A Positive Approach. The five topics contained in the program include:

1. Planning that includes designing policies and procedures,
2. Training for drivers, administrators, teachers, and students,
3. Providing consistent expectations for behavior,
4. Communicating with staff, teachers and students, and
5. Problem-solving.

a. The Current Situation and Practice

The staff of the EKU Violence Prevention Project began preliminary discussions with various school districts to determine the variety of needs for the next round of interventions. Two local districts have expressed a strong need for assistance with their "bus situations". As the state demands more accountability for student suspensions, districts find that many of their district suspensions are related to misbehavior on the bus. Teachers report that student misbehavior can often be attributed to a conflict that began on the bus.

One of the counties that has been selected is a rural community in south-central Kentucky located approximately thirty minutes from EKU and one hour from Lexington. The district consists of five schools: three elementary schools, one middle school and one high school with a total enrollment of 2,373.

The other district that has been selected for participation in the school bus behavior intervention project is located in southeastern Kentucky approximately one hour from EKU. This district also consists of five schools: three elementary schools, one middle school and one high school with a total enrollment of 2,324.

Currently in both systems, elementary, middle and high school students are transported together. Some students ride the school bus more than 1¼ hours over curvy, sometimes treacherous roads, each morning and afternoon. While required to pass a Kentucky approved bus driving test, bus drivers typically have no more than a high school diploma and are not given any training in behavior management.

b. Need for the Project

The approach we propose to use in the two districts aligns with the materials from Sprick and Colvin. In the planning stage, we intend to begin by gathering and organizing data from 2001-2002 relating to discipline referrals in general and bus referrals specifically. Following that, we plan to conduct interviews with a sample of drivers from each district regarding types of misbehavior, methods that they currently employ to correct misbehavior and suggestions for revised policies and procedures.

With that information, we will assist district and school personnel in revising bus policies and procedures. During the training stage, we will utilize Bus Discipline: A Positive Approach as a model to train bus drivers, administrators, teachers, and students. The training of bus drivers, administrators, and teachers will occur during the summer of 2002 while school is out of session. Rather than using an allotted training day, we will add an additional training day to their schedule and pay them a stipend for their attendance. We feel this will decrease resistance of those who may feel that other training is more important.

Training for bus drivers will include the five basic rules for managing behavior on the bus:

1. Be positive and professional,
2. Acknowledge responsible behavior,
3. Use consequences calmly, consistently and immediately,
4. Provide continual supervision, and
5. Anticipate: think ahead.

Training for administrators and teachers will concentrate on increasing respect, support and communication with bus drivers. Teachers will be given a lesson plan to use with training students in pro-social bus behavior for the beginning of the 2002 School Year. All new policies and procedures are to be in effect at that time. To assist in promoting and monitoring consistency of expectations and consequences, drivers will attend bi-monthly follow-up sessions. During the bi-monthly meetings, drivers will be given the opportunity to celebrate their successes as well as allowing for brainstorming of solutions to on-going problems. Additionally, methods for improving and maintaining communication among all school personnel will be infused within all the training sessions.

c. Broader Study of the Problem

In addition to implementing a pilot project on a local level, EKU will engage bus drivers throughout the southeastern region of Kentucky, as well as community and state leaders involved in administering the school bus transportation system throughout the state, in a broader discussion of what areas need to be addressed to improve the safety of children in the school bus transportation system throughout the southeastern Kentucky region and the rest of the state. In order to determine areas of need related to bus driver training and improved reporting systems we propose the following:

1. Initiate individual and small group preliminary meetings with key state, academic and community leaders to determine present projects, projected needs, and willingness to serve in a Steering Committee capacity.
2. Establish a Steering Committee of community partners , school safety leaders, state and national department of transportation personnel, and researchers to engage in participatory sessions designed to identify needs for improved school bus safety and violence prevention.
3. Conduct two-2-day DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) occupational analysis process: one for community and state administrators in school and bus safety, and one for drivers. The DACUM occupational analysis process engages focus groups of expert workers in a day and a half storyboarding workshop to identify duties, tasks, knowledge, skills and traits related to a specific job or project.
4. Based on the results of the DACUM process, a summary of the needs and tasks related to this project will be developed. Two 1-day validation sessions are then needed. During the validation meetings, the original focus group members review the work and refine the document.
5. Based on the documentation generated during the 5 steps, four days of expert consultation are needed. We anticipate having two experts in school bus safety review all documentation and work with select members of the Steering Committee in preparing and designing a proposal for recommended changes in school bus policies and/or training that would enhance school bus safety across the region and state.
6. This proposal is likely to include development and piloting of a needs assessment/outcome measure including: Assess the psychometric properties of the measure and revise this as needed based on the pilot to improve psychometrics and sensitivity to change.
7. Based on district responses to needs assessment, certain districts would be selected to implement interventions as recommended by the Steering Committee. These interventions will have the ultimate goal of improving bus safety for all children throughout the Commonwealth.