Reasonable, Reliable, Repeatable: Building a Better Bus System
Written by: Melissa Hoffman
As administrators, we face a myriad of issues. There are a few we can count on almost daily. Someone gets in trouble at recess, in the cafeteria, and on the bus. We can all acknowledge that those unstructured times often lead to office referrals. Rather than simply deal with this as it comes, we are taught to put systems and processes in place to help students be successful. Each year we grow and get better, but one thing we haven’t addressed is bus systems. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t worked on bus behavior for a lot of reasons, mostly because it feels like I’m stepping on toes if I try to put systems in place. The bus drivers and Director of Transportation are the rulers of bus land, and I don’t feel like it’s my place to make changes in how they do things. However, at the end of last year, our drivers made it clear that they were open to something new.
With that in mind, I constructed a plan to help our drivers and students be successful on the bus. Just like everything else in education, I knew that this would be just the beginning of the plan and that it would morph and go through multiple iterations before we found what works. After all, I need more than just my perspective to make a system successful.
The first thing I wanted to do was make sure that this plan met the 3 R’s. It had to be reasonable, reliable, and repeatable. Reasonable meant that it needed to be simple and not add too much to anyone’s workload. Reliable meant that it needed to be consistent across all of our buses. Repeatable meant that it needed to work for the whole year, and for years after that.
For our plan to be successful, I needed to make sure that we weren’t just focusing on punitive measures to get compliance. After all, they are elementary kids, and it is our job to teach them how to be on the bus. That helped me identify a starting point. I broke the topic up into 3 separate pieces: 1) education of students. 2) positive reinforcement. 3) interventions
Before I could figure out how to educate our students on how to ride the bus, I needed to know what being successful on the bus looked like. I needed a set of collective expectations for our kids on the bus. I left this process up to my Director of Transportation. He is great and worked with the bus drivers to develop those expectations for all buses. The next step was to figure out how to teach them.
“The first thing I wanted to do was make sure that this plan met the 3 R’s. It had to be reasonable, reliable, and repeatable.”
Education
So now I know what I need to teach the kids, but when and how? Teaching kids how to be on the bus can be tricky due to time constraints. The bus drivers are driving; they can’t stop and teach lessons. Our teachers are trying to get all of their academics in during the day, so I don’t want to take time away from that either. How do I systematically and meaningfully teach kids how to be on the bus with no time in the day? It seems like my only choice was to grab those tiny moments.
Each year, we begin by going over expectations for shared spaces with all students. We call it Expectation Stations. So, my first step would be to share these collective expectations and the new system with students as part of those expectation stations.
Then the tiny moments come in. For the first 2 weeks of school, bus drivers will review the bus expectations before they leave school each afternoon. Teachers will also review them before they dismiss students to the buses. It will take less than one minute each time, so we aren’t using too much instructional time.
Kindergarten and 1st grade are where students are learning how to be on the bus, so in those first 2 weeks, each class will also schedule a time when they can visit a bus with me to review and practice bus expectations. This session will be 15 minutes or less.
When the expectations are introduced to the students, we will also introduce visuals to go with them. These visuals will be posted in each bus as a reminder of our expectations.
So we solidly have those first 2 weeks of school covered, but what about all the rest of the weeks? It’s a long year!
One way we plan to continue to reinforce our expectations is through announcements. Each week we will choose 1 bus expectation to focus on. It will be discussed in the morning on the announcements and then reviewed again at the end of the day, as students are released from their classrooms. What exactly does that look like? What will I say? I don’t know yet, but I will circle back to this as we get to the positive reinforcement section.
We repeat expectations stations when we return from Winter break, so we would teach bus expectations again at that time.
I know you are wondering, is that all? It doesn’t seem like much. You are just teaching expectations – that won’t stop bus behaviors. Don’t worry, there are 2 more sections to go!
Positive Reinforcement
Once we have taught our expectations, we need to recognize kids for following them. This aspect often gets overlooked, but the kids doing what they are supposed to deserve some attention too.
First, I plan to distribute “Bus Champion Tickets” to the drivers. They will distribute these to students they see doing the right thing. When a student receives a “Bus Champion Ticket,” there is a spot for them to write their name and bus number. They will fill it out and then turn it in to the office. At the end of each 9 weeks, the bus with the most “Bus Champion Tickets” turned in will win a treat and the golden bus award. They will keep this award until the end of the next 9 weeks. The bus number will also be spotlighted on our Student of the Month bulletin board.
Next, each driver will submit a “Student of the Month” from their bus. We will put their picture up on a bulletin board, announce them on announcements, and post them in the parent newsletter. This is also where we circle back to the education piece. These “Students of the Month” will also be used to help do the bus announcements each morning. I will use the highlighted students to compose and perform the reminders.
“Once we have taught our expectations, we need to recognize kids for following them. This aspect often gets overlooked, but the kids doing what they are supposed to deserve some attention too.”
Intervention
So we have taught expectations and reinforced the kids who are following them, but what do we do with the kids who are not? A lot of people say, just give them a consequence and move on. Consequences will certainly be part of this section, but I want to try to help empower the drivers and build up their toolboxes, so they don’t feel like office referrals are their only option when a student isn’t following expectations.
First, we will remind drivers that if students aren’t following the expectations, their assigned seat needs to be moved. If they can’t be successful with the friends they are sitting with, then they need to sit somewhere else.
Drivers will be encouraged to reach out to parents if they are seeing behaviors that are not appropriate for the bus. Many of our drivers already do this, but we want to remind them that parent contact is an important tool when working with students. Often, when students know all of the adults are communicating and working together, behaviors will change.
If behaviors continue, we have two categories for them: minor offenses and major offenses. For minor offenses, and the driver has tried other interventions, drivers will have the option to give a student a “Walking Ticket” for 5 minutes. If a student gets 3 walking tickets for the same offense in a 9-week period, drivers can escalate that to an office referral.
Drivers will also have a QR code on their dashboard to make an office referral. If a student commits a major offense or has received 3 walking tickets for the same type of offense in a 9-week period, drivers can fill out an office referral. These referrals will come directly to us. In the past, we didn’t have a system for office referrals; drivers would sometimes tell us, but sometimes tell the Director of Transportation. Sometimes they would tell the adult at the buses, but sometimes they would text us. We need to streamline the system to ensure that all communications are being heard and addressed. Using a QR code for office referrals will help do this and ensure that we get all referrals in a timely manner.
If a driver fills out an office referral, they will also receive a follow-up. This is simply a paper with the student’s name, bus number, offense, and date of the submission. There are check boxes to show the driver what steps have been taken: consequence issued, logged in PowerSchool, and parents contacted. We will check the items that happened for that specific offense, and I will deliver them to the buses at the end of the day. This will help drivers know that we heard their issue and handled it accordingly.
One more layer of intervention is called Blackhawk Bus Camp. Blackhawk Bus Camp is an option for students who are repeatedly not meeting expectations on the bus. This camp is a small group intervention that meets 1-2 times per week for 15 minutes before students go to the bus. It will target specific behaviors that we are seeing on the bus and also help teach students replacement behaviors for when they are bored, tired, or upset on the bus. This intervention will last for 4-6 weeks depending on the student, behaviors, and progress in following bus expectations.
I didn’t really touch on consequences in this article. Of course, there will be consequences issued for behaviors that warrant it, but I know you are all experts at that because it is part of your daily lives. So this is where I will leave the intervention section.
Conclusion
Phew, that was a lot to talk about, but putting in a strong system for bus behavior is a lot of work! We covered education of students, positive reinforcement, and interventions. We made sure it was reasonable, reliable, and repeatable. Will this need to be tweaked and changed as we go along? Of course it will, but that is the beauty of systems and processes; we adjust until they fit what our school, students, and drivers need. What great ideas does your school have in place for buses? Reach out. I would love to hear from you!
Resources
Please login or register to claim PGPs.
Alternatively, you may use the PGP Request Form if you prefer to not register an account.
