Where I was sitting on the school bus just had to get a bit more complicated

In a normal year, 15 million students ride the bus to school every weekday – about a third of all K – 12 students. But precautionary measures for health and safety as a result of COVID-19 mean that far fewer children will find a seat on the bus when the new school year begins.

Children transported to school in a bus are suddenly full of danger. School districts roll out to answer a series of important questions as they open their doors: how do you socialize on a bus? Where should temperatures be screened? If masks are required, what about children with disabilities? But most importantly, how do you transport millions of children to and from school in the safest way possible every day, while accepting the least amount of risk?

The edge interviewed school bus drivers, union leaders, district transportation directors, and national experts to get a sense of how schools are responding to this enormous challenge.

As districts scramble to finalize their reopening (as well as non-opening) plans, the way children get to school will depend entirely on which schedule model they choose. States that keep schools closed and keep them for distance education for the fall semester may raise the question of transportation until later in the year. But federal law requires transportation for certain groups of students, namely people with disabilities and homeless children. And many districts divert transport personnel to essential tasks such as deliveries of flour in the meantime.

But for districts like Colorado’s 27J, which represents more than 18,000 students in some of Denver’s suburbs and begins with a hybrid model of distance learning and personal classes, the transportation demand needs to be answered right now. Wayne Scott, who manages the local union representing bus drivers, said plans remain in place. But first, it will mean fewer children per bus.

“We’re going to bus one child per seat,” Scott said The edge. ‘Normally you would have 65 passengers in a bus. And now we will have 20. ”

Of the six districts Scott represents, 27J is the only one that opens its doors to students for some person classes. He is still trying to figure out what this means for his drivers and their routes. Will they need more buses to meet social distance mandates? Fewer buses because more parents will only opt for distance learning? It is very likely that the high school students of the district will be left to find their own transportation so that the buses can serve exclusively elementary and high school children. But in the end, Scott does not know it yet. And school starts on September 1st.

“Right now, it’s hard to understand it all properly,” Scott said.

Bus drivers are one of those workers at the highest risk of becoming ill, according to an analysis of labor data by De New York Times. De The time‘Analysis was based on measures of nearsightedness and exposure to disease, but it was also published in March when we knew less about how the virus spreads. It is still being shown that school bus drivers have a higher risk of exposure than other carriers such as transit workers and ride-hail drivers, according to the The time.

Finding enough bus drivers is a majority headache for many school districts. And it could get even harder with COVID-19. Most drivers are at an age where they are at a higher risk for infection. While the federal government does not track the average age of bus drivers or other support staff at schools, AARP data suggest that, nationally, about 3 in 4 part-time school bus drivers are over the age of 55. Will they want to return?

Evalyn Parks, transportation director for Colorado’s Salida School District, is already dealing with a shortage of buses and drivers, as well as a shortage of available cash for cleaning equipment. Electrostatic spray guns, which lack electrostatic charge on surfaces and shoot objects for high-powered cleaning, have recently gone up in price, from $ 700 per device to around $ 10,000, Parks said. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not specifically recommend the use of electrostatic spray to clean surfaces, but one study suggests that it may be an effective decontaminant. It has been known to be used in school cleaners, according to News for school transport.) The choices they make are likely to be costly at a time when school budgets in the country are shrinking. She is unsure about her ability to maintain social distance or to adequately clean every day of her six school buses.

“We’re a tin can on six wheels,” Parks said. “It’s kind of hard to social distance.”

Photo by Alejandra Villa Loarca / Newsday RM via Getty Images

These are the kinds of conundrums that school leaders, bus drivers, and transportation planners face across the country. Bob Wagner, director of transportation for the Montour School District west of Pittsburgh, was so pressured at the time to finalize a plan that he did not have time to be interviewed. “Extremely busy with the constant changes in plans by various schools,” he apologizes in an email.

Other districts are less fearful. After all, they find themselves in a state of limbo based on the decisions made by state leaders. Take California, for example. Govin Gavin Newsom announced in July that the state’s schools would not reopen in the fall. That prompted school officials such as Mike Sawyer, who oversees transportation for the San Marcos Unified School District outside of San Diego, to question when he should finalize his district’s transportation plan. “It’s not known at this time,” he said The edge.

It is a challenge that extends beyond the boundaries of the school bus itself. Michael Cordiello, president of the union of school bus drivers in New York City, said the city needs to develop plans to maintain social distance not only on its buses but also on its depots.

‘Usually you get plenty of room [at the bus depot] with people getting their work cards for the day, ”Cordiello said. “It can get very full.”

Currently, New York City is experiencing a very heated debate about reopening schools. It is the largest school district in the nation to announce that it will lead some classes in person in the fall. But teachers and school administrators are urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to delay it again, and are seeking more time to develop plans that address their pressing concerns. The city was once the epicenter of coronavirus outbreaks in the US, but now has an infection rate that is among the lowest in the nation.

New York City is also unique because of its robust public transportation system, which many parents in the city use to take their children to school. The city also has a large number of students who walk or bike to school. But transitridership has been cratered recently due to fears of viral transmission in the subway, and the city has not done much to meet the incredible spike in cycling. Installing protected bike lanes could make it an easier and safer decision for parents who are considering whether to take their children to school.

At a recent press conference, the Blasio said the city’s school buses would carry 25 percent fewer children to allow social distance, and he advised parents whose children could not find a place to drive them to school. Asked what will happen if this increase in car traffic inevitably leads to an increase in fatal traffic accidents, the mayor said the city has no choice but to reduce capacity on its school buses.

“If you have more children running outside, you will have a recipe for disaster,” said Nick Sifuentes, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “If you have more traffic and more cars on the street, and people are not paying attention, especially to a child who is too short to see out of the car, then there are these ripple effects in every system you see. “

Even though the pandemic makes planning difficult and uncertain, all the leaders of the school and transportation who spoke to them The edge said the safety and well-being of the children was the utmost concern. The pandemic is still raging across the country, and the debate over how to safely reopen schools has reached new heights in recent weeks, mostly thanks to President Trump’s insistence that schools open before election day. The move was aimed at places where pro-Trump administrators could try to open schools despite rising COVID rates. Teachers’ unions are threatening ‘safety strikes’ if schools reopen under unsafe conditions. Amidst all the screaming and posting, transportation remains an important link in the chain. Perhaps the most crucial.

“The challenge is a very large chicken and a very large egg,” said Tim Ammon, co-manager of a task force of three key student transport organizations focused on safe reopening. “And no one is really sure what’s first, because schools depend on transportation to get kids there, and transportation depends on knowing what the school has to do to find out when they can get them there.”

Ammon added, “And that’s just an enormous, enormous challenge.”