In New York, over 2.3 million children ride 50,000 school buses back and forth to school every day, according to the New York State Education Department Pupil Transportation Services.   With the state’s supervision and oversight of school buses, parents naturally assume the bus is a safe and secure environment for their children.  After all, buses are a brightly colored, heavy vehicle with greater crash protection driven by professionals with extensive knowledge of the roads surrounding our schools.  
           
Parents, think again.  Long Island children riding the school bus may not be as safe as you expect.

What’s Happening on the Bus

Children who walk down the aisle while the bus is in motion, shove each other out of their seats or just jump up and down are a common site if you’ve ever sat next to a bus at a red light. In fact, most bus drivers say that it’s a challenge just to keep children in their seats. That’s in part because while seatbelts on school buses are mandatory, according to the New York Department of Transportation, students aren’t required to wear them and bus drivers aren’t mandated to enforce that.  And they wouldn’t have time to do seatbelt checks at every stop because drivers are held accountable to a tight schedule.
           
Another safety concern for children on the bus is the adult-to-student ratio.  “There’s an inappropriate number of children on the school bus with only one adult who is supposed to monitor their behavior and drive at the same time,” comments Susan Katz, the coordinator of Suffolk Safe Kids for the last eight years. “Parents expect classroom sizes to be no more than 25 students to one teacher. What makes the ratio on a moving vehicle any different?”
          
Katz, who is also a parent, says that during recess and lunch students are supervised.  Even before and after school, students are monitored by aides, teachers, coaches and security guards watching over students and their actions.  But not on the school bus. 
           
While high-backed seats are designed to offer additional crash protection for passengers, they also act as an obstruction.  Drivers can’t see what students are doing behind them, especially younger children. Kurt Roth, an administrator with Miller Place School District, says, “Anything that can happen on the bus will happen, from vandalism, like heating up a lighter to burn marks in the seats, to drug deals and bullying.” 
          
“I try not to get in trouble on the bus and stay in my seat,” says Spencer Richard, a first-grader at Indian Hollow in the Commack school district. “But sometimes I change seats if another kid is poking at me or making trouble.”
 “We’ve never had a problem on the school bus yet,” adds Denise Quinn, another parent with a child riding the school bus to Indian Hollow. “But I do know we’ll need to be more on top of it when our son starts the third grade [at a new school].”

School’s Responsibility
           
Ultimately your child’s safety is up to your school district. The New York State Education Department requires all schools conduct at least three bus drills each school year.  The purpose is to communicate the code of conduct for bus riders as well as the procedures in case of an emergency. 
“Every school year, the bus drivers talk to students about acceptable conduct, but I also discuss with my class good decision-making skills that are real life tools,” says Liz Lampert, a middle school teacher with Middle Country Central School District as well as a parent of two middle schoolers.
           
Other schools such as Miller Place School District and Levittown School District state the school bus is an extension of the school day and that riding the bus is a privilege that can be taken away if abused.  According to Levittown’s student handbook: “All students are expected to maintain good conduct while traveling to and from school.  Excessive noise, pushing, shoving and fighting will not be tolerated.”
           
Trying to enforce that behavior, Roth encourages students to share what they know.  If something happens on the bus that breaks the rules and the driver didn’t see it, a student is asked to report it, Roth says.  In fact, Miller Place offers a Safe School Helpline for students and parents to report incidents that happened either at school or on the bus.  Students and parents can report anonymously or identify themselves.  Roth says the schools are obligated to investigate and they do.
           
Even so, Roth says some students feel uncomfortable and even fearful about reporting any trouble or mishaps on the bus.  They worry about being targeted by another student or experiencing retaliation either on the bus or on campus.
           
While Katz states some school buses are equipped with video cameras, she still feels a bus monitor is needed to ensure the safety and well-being of all students.  A few Long Island schools are taking some new measures. Indian Hollow primary school, for example, has a teacher ride on a bus in the morning and afternoon the first two weeks of the new school year.  Their role is to maintain good conduct on the bus as well as help students find a seat quickly, use their seatbelts and get off the bus at the correct stop.

Parent’s Responsibility
           
Of course, when it comes to your child’s safety, parents have to speak up. Ask questions of your child, the driver, other students on the same bus, other parents at the same stop, teachers and administrators.  As one example, Spencer’s mother, Susan Richard, asks the driver once a week if her son’s behaving.  A good report earns Spencer popcorn on movie night or a dollar to spend at the school store. Spencer’s friends on the bus are also a wealth of information.  They often share who did what and to whom. 
           
Roth suggests that parents who talk with their children and even other parents at the bus stop have a good network of information.  Says Lampert:  “When moms, dads and children talk to each other, they can learn if a community neighborhood problem became a bus problem.  They can figure out a solution.”
             
Sometimes parents have to speak for their children.  In other words, their child may not feel safe or comfortable enough to tell the driver or principal about something that happened on the bus.  In that case, a parent must do it for them.  If the school doesn’t know about an incident, they’re unable to act on their child’s behalf.  Schools need parents’ eyes and ears and the students deserve it.

Susie A. Schwarz is a local writer, teacher at Long Island Academy and mother of two school bus riders.