Report Spurs School Bus Safety Plans

Prompted by the death of an 8‑year-old, New Haven’s alders have urged the creation of a specific radio frequency and the hiring of more dispatchers to handle school bus medical emergencies. At least one parent advocate said more needs to be done.

The Board of Alders Education Committee voted Sept. 8 on recommendations for the district to update the protocol its bus drivers follow during medical emergencies, after months of discussion. Newhallville Alders Alfreda Edwards and Brenda Foskey-Cyrus called for the hearings after the 8‑year-old Lincoln-Bassett School student died on bus in March, likely due to a heart attack, and it was unclear whether 911 had been notified. The full board subsequently approved the recommendations.

Teddi Barra, the district’s director of transportation, Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow (pictured above), and parent advocate Megan Ifill joined me on the latest episode of ​“In Transit” on WNHH Community Radio to discuss these changes to school bus regulations and to brainstorm alternatives to getting more bus monitors. (Listen to the show in the audio file below.)

Before the recent recommendations, bus drivers were required to call dispatch during medical emergencies, and dispatchers would decide whether to call 911. But alders said that process could be slow, especially if dispatch was dealing with other calls.

“The recommendation from the Education Committee was that there would be either a simple frequency for drivers who would be able to call directly in on a specific channel for emergencies, or dedicated operators just for emergencies so that when there is something that goes on, they won’t have to perhaps be put on hold,” Alder Furlow explained.

About 319 buses transport more than 19,000 students in the district, Barra said.

That will not cost the district more money, Barra said, and ​“will not require a big investment. … We certainly take the recommendations seriously and are putting some of them in place.”

But is that enough? Ifill is one of many parents who has been calling for the district to invest in hiring bus monitors to oversee students while the vehicles are in motion.

“The district’s responsibility starts with the school bus. A child’s school day starts with the bus, not at the building. So having those monitors, someone that can sit in the middle of the bus so they can monitor behind and in front. … How can a school bus driver manage that whole population?” she said.

Barra said the cost of putting a monitor on each bus would cost an additional $2.3 million. Right now, 60 monitors are on buses with children who have special needs and on certain elementary school buses.

The only alternative to bus monitors would involve placing video cameras on each bus that ​“takes a picture of what’s happening on the bus,” but that does not assist during emergencies, she said.

Furlow agreed that $2.3 million is an ​“astronomical number,” but suggested the district research the feasibility of having monitors on buses traveling outside of New Haven.

And Ifill (pictured) said the district should use some of the $54 million state TIF grant to address transportation, since the atmosphere on the bus has an effect in the classroom on students’ attendance and emotional health. ​“What is the teacher burnout rate because of these low-level things that don’t require police interaction?” she said.

Barra said it was also important for any financial plan for getting monitors to be ​“sustainable,” so students did not get accustomed to the extra support and then have it taken away.

A cheaper way to improve the environment on school buses: extending restorative practices to school transportation and getting drivers and students to repair the harm done by any misconduct.

Most bus drivers — 78 percent — live in New Haven, and at least half have children in the school system, Barra said. ​“It’s very important to them that they do a good job and that they’re safe.”

Furlow said some drivers ​“take control of the bus as soon as kids are boarding. Other bus drivers don’t have that demeanor and the kids are a little more challenging with them. Maybe these are the buses that need a little more help with the students.”

The Board of Education voted on a budget that cut $400,000 from transportation by minimizing the number of stops school buses make and prompting students to walk a few blocks to get home.

Mayor Toni Harp has touted that as a public health policy to help decrease childhood obesity and get kids moving. Ifill and Furlow pushed back against that, arguing that certain students do benefit from being dropped off at their doors.

“We need to know our surroundings,” Barra said. Once she argued with a parent who wanted her high school student to be dropped off closer to home. When Barra went out to see the surrounding neighborhood, she realized the parent was right. This should be decided on an individual basis, she said.

“We can’t have cookie cutter policies. It has to be case-by-case,” Furlow said. ​“We have to have safety and prevention, not maintenance where we’re trying to pick up the pieces afterward.”