MCPS Bus Safety Program, Ride by the Rules

August 24, 2005

To PTA leaders..fyi

MCPS held a press conference on Monday, August 22  where they announced a new program to improve bus safety.  I attended on behalf of MCCPTA but this press conference was the first opportunity for hearing about the proposals and seeing the printed materials.

A quick summary of MCPS' initiative:

The MCPS program is entitled "Ride by the Rules" and is  "aimed at improving behavior on school buses".  The theme of this new initiative is "Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe".  Merle Cuttitta, President of the SEIU Local 500, which represents the bus drivers, articulated a need for respect for the "classroom on wheels".

According to MCPS, this program is designed "to clarify the responsibilities that students and parents share with school and transportation staff" in ensuring bus safety. Parents are being asked to reinforce safety rules with their children. Students are being asked to treat the bus ride as the beginning of the school day and act as if they were in the classroom. Counselors will incorporate discussions about appropriate bus behavior into the character education curriculum and bullying prevention initiatives.  Topics of school bus safety, social responsibility and respect for others are to be addressed at all grade levels. MCPS has produced videos, bookmarks, posters and brochures (translated into Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Amharic).  You will be seeing these materials appear at your school in the next weeks.

The new initiative makes reference to "Open Communication". A listed goal of the program is to "communicate guidelines for reporting disciplinary problems" (but this information is not included in the brochure).  Further, the "Parent's Role" brochure states that "parents need to encourage their children to report any harassing, bullying or other harmful behavior to the bus operator and/or principal". 

For MCCPTA:

MCCPTA began focusing additional attention on the need for improved bus safety last spring following disturbing incidents of harassment on school buses.  The Ride by the Rules program does not specifically address  these concerns except that  new buses are being equipped with video camera surveillance to give bus drivers better visual oversight of the conduct on the bus.  The Ride by the Rules program also does not address any changes or improvements to MCPS response once harmful bus behavior is reported. Specifically, many parents have asked for a clearer set of MCPS procedures delineating responsibilities of bus drivers, principals, and others in the reporting, response, and follow-up of bus incidents.  We have also heard concerns from local PTAs about inadequate training, especially for substitute bus drivers, about how to handle problems as they may arise on the bus. There is no additional information about this in the Ride by the Rules materials.

While we certainly support efforts to bring greater awareness to bus safety and to help educate students about appropriate bus behavior, the initiative needs to go further to address our concerns.  We have asked the MCCPTA Safety Committee to review the initiative in more depth and recommend any appropriate follow up advocacy.

Shirley Brandman
VP for Educational Issues