"Building a Foundation for Lifelong Learning"
Frequently Asked Questions
Download the FAQ pdf here
- How do I arrange transportation for a student?
- Why is it important to change a student’s address at the school?
- How is a bus stop established?
- Why do students have to walk to a bus stop when the bus drives past the house?
- What are acceptable Walking Conditions?
- What are the criteria to have a bus come into a development?
- I have been told that I live in the walking area and no bus service is available. Why do some students have to walk to school?
- Who do I call if I don’t like where the bus stop is located?
- Who do I contact when there is a problem at the bus stop?
- My student is having a problem with the bus driver, should I go to the bus stop to talk with the driver?
- Why did the driver not stop at my stop when my student was running late or did not wait for my student to get to the bus stop?
- What are the procedures for suspending a student’s riding privilege?
- My student has been suspended from the bus and I have some questions about why he was suspended. Who do I contact?
- How safe is bus transportation when the school bus doesn’t have seat belts?
- What kind of screening process do drivers go through to make sure they are qualified to be around children?
- How is inclement weather delay or cancellation of school determined?
- How do we find out about an inclement weather delay, early dismissal, or cancellation of school?
- I have some other transportation questions, how do I contact transportation?
Q. How do I arrange transportation for a student?
A. To arrange transportation, the student must first be
enrolled at the school. If you have moved and are still
living within the boundary for the same school, your new
address must be given to the school and proof of residence
is also required. The school will then contact the
Transportation Department with the student’s information. At
that time a bus stop will be assigned and the school will be
given the bus number, the approximate bus stop time, and the
stop location.
Q. Why is it important to change a student’s address at the
school?
A. The address that a student leaves from in the morning to
ride the bus is maintained at the school level. That
information is provided to the transportation department
electronically by the school database and is the basis of
student assignment to bus stops; therefore, any information
that has changed for the student must be changed at the
school. The student’s school is the primary record keeper
for ALL student information.
Q. How is a bus stop established?
A. Bus stops are established by using several factors, which
include walking conditions, walking distance to the stop,
and road type (public or private). We anticipate that under
acceptable walking conditions or lightly traveled roads, new
stops are ¼ mile apart. On rural county roads we expect a
student to be able to access a stop at a neighbor’s
driveway.
Q. Why do students have to walk to a bus stop when the bus
drives past the house?
A. In areas where walk conditions are acceptable, students
are required to be picked up at centralized stops for cost
and time efficiency. Two students can be loaded at one stop
faster and cheaper than the bus stopping at two separate
stops. We encourage parent supervision at the bus stop
Q. What are acceptable Walking Conditions?
A. Walking on the roadway of a dead end road, private road,
an interior development road, or lightly traveled county
road or city street. B. Walking on the shoulder of a road
with a minimum width of 5½ feet when the posted speed limit
is 40 or below and the distance is less than ¼ of a mile. C.
Walking on a sidewalk or other walking path. D. Walking on
school property or across your yard or neighbors yard. E.
Not having to cross railroad tracks or a bridge that has
frequent traffic or does not have a pedestrian walkway.
Q. What are the criteria to have a bus come into a
development?
A. The development must meet all five of the basic
requirements:
1. Are ten (10) or more students are using the bus on a
daily basis? 2. Are the development roads public roads?
(State, County, or Town owned and maintained)? 3. Can the
bus can enter and exit the development without backing up?
(loop road or 100 ft minimum diameter cul-de-sac) 4. Is the
distance that the furthest student has to walk exceeds one
mile? 5. Is the sight distance adequate for the bus to exit
the development without undue risk to the passengers?
We also consider if we can safely load on the main road
considering sight distance of traffic approaching the bus,
traffic volume, posted speed limit, and the number of
students to be loaded.
Q. I have been told that I live in the walking area and no
bus service is available. Why do some students have to walk
to school?
A. Every school has an area that transportation is not
provided and that is called the “Walk Zone”. Based on
acceptable walking conditions that distance is determined by
school type. For elementary schools, the walk zone is
extended to one mile except Pre-K and K students at Midday
only, which is 1/2 mile. For middle schools, the walk zone
is one mile, and for high schools the distance is one and ½
miles.
Q. Who do I call if I don’t like where the bus stop is
located?
A. You can contact the transportation department and the
placement of the stop will be reviewed. Stops are used by
multiple students and are not always ideal to everyone. We
expect that students will have to walk to stops and the stop
may not be in direct line of sight from your residence.
Sometimes there are numerous issues to be considered in
relocating a stop and we may not be successful in meeting
everyone’s expectations. We encourage parental supervision
at the bus stop
Q. Who do I contact when there is a problem at the bus stop?
A. Cecil County Public Schools is not responsible for
student behavior at the bus stop. We assume responsibility
when the students board the bus and it ends when they exit
the bus. If there is a problem at the bus stop then you
should contact your local law enforcement agency.
Q. My student is having a problem with the bus driver,
should I go to the bus stop to talk with the driver?
A. NO, we recommend that anytime you have a concern with
something that happens on the bus that you call or talk with
your student’s school administrators. Going to the bus stop
puts everyone in a defensive position without all the
information and it can easily turn into a confrontation,
which is inappropriate for the students to witness. Drivers
are trained to try and avoid those confrontations to the
point of closing the door and driving away. Federal law
prohibits blocking the doorway or interfering with the buses
operation.
Q. Why did the driver not stop at my stop when my student
was running late or did not wait for my student to get to
the bus stop?
A. We make a concerted effort to be consistent on the time
we start the route. After the first stop, many things can
effect the arrival time at subsequent stops, so even the
most conscientious driver will vary by no more than a few
minutes. Students are told to be at the bus stop 10 minutes
prior to normal arrival of the bus to allow for those
variances, and to be waiting where they are visible to the
bus driver as the bus approaches the stop. Drivers are
required by law to activate their yellow lights a minimum of
100 feet prior to stopping and turning on their red lights.
If drivers do not see any students present they are not
required to stop. They are also not required to wait for
tardy students. Usually, drivers will not leave students if
they are close to the stop and making an effort to get there
as fast as they can. The loading and unloading process is
the most dangerous part of the bus ride and students are the
safest when they are at the stop before the bus arrives and
not running for it after it shows up.
Q. What are the procedures for suspending a student’s riding
privilege?
A. Each bus has safety rules posted and is also provided to
parents each year in a dated pamphlet, “Parent Guide to
Student Transportation”, that is distributed to students at
the beginning of the school year. Student violation of these
safety rules can result in verbal warnings, seat
reassignment, or a loss of riding privilege. If the student
has been previously warned or the violation is serious, the
student’s riding privileges can be revoked at the end of the
afternoon run. There is a “Bus Suspension” form that the
driver must complete and that form must be turned in to the
school administration by 9:30 a.m. the following school day.
The driver should provide that form to the student when they
are dropped off, depending on circumstances, but the student
may be verbally told that afternoon that they are suspended
from the bus for the following day. Some elementary schools
have a local school procedure that the bus suspension is
delayed one school day to make sure the parents are aware
and can make arrangements. The “Bus Suspension” form that
was used last year is being replaced with a “Bus
Disciplinary Referral”. This redesigned form will be used
with the start of the 2005-2006 school year. The intent is
to provide better communication by documenting action taken
by the driver and administration. We ask all parents to
support safe bus behavior by providing consequences to
support safety when the students riding privilege has been
suspended. While at our website please review “Student
Conduct” for more detailed information.
Q. My student has been suspended from the bus and I have
some questions about why he was suspended. Who do I contact?
A. The school administration is responsible for overseeing
student bus behavior issues. The driver’s authority to
suspend a student’s riding privilege is limited to ONE DAY.
Additional consequences, including additional days of bus
suspension, are handled by the school administration.
Drivers report directly to school administrators and the
school administration is responsible for investigating the
incident by talking with other students on the bus. The
Transportation Department is involved when the driver does
not follow procedures.
Q. How safe is bus transportation when the school bus
doesn’t have seat belts?
A. School bus transportation is the safest form of travel in
the United States with over 24 million students transported
daily nationwide on 450,000 buses traveling over 4.3 billion
miles per year. Over a 10-year period, only 1/3 of 1 percent
of all fatal crashes involved a student on a school bus.
School bus safety is based on closely spaced and padded
seats on a large farmed vehicle that is mandated by Federal
Law. The State of Maryland has additional requirements
including a limit on the life of the vehicle. The National
Traffic Highway Safety Administration tests have shown that
lap belts only (which is what New York, New Jersey, and
Florida have on their buses) would kill or injure more than
they would save. Usually, when a fatality occurs on a school
bus, it is when another large vehicle (dump truck, tractor
trailer, or train) collides with a school bus and the victim
was sitting at the point of impact. Nationwide statistics
indicate that your child is 63 times safer inside the school
bus than going to school in your car.
Q. What kind of screening process do drivers go through to
make sure they are qualified to be around children?
A. You can look at “Employment Opportunities” to see all of
the steps that a bus driver goes through before they are
allowed to drive. Briefly, they are fingerprinted, a
criminal background check is initiated, their driver’s
license is reviewed, references are checked, a drug test is
conducted (including pre-employment and random testing), a
DOT Physical is obtained, and new drivers are required to go
through 30-plus hours of training.
Q. How is inclement weather delay or cancellation of school
determined?
A. Cecil County has a contract with AccuWeather to provide a
forecasting service for winter weather events that can be
accessed 24 hours a day for up-to-the minute updates. We
also temper that with forecasts from the National Weather
Service. Based on the forecast and the timing of the
inclement weather event we make a recommendation to the
Superintendent about 5:00 AM. We have to make the decision
at that time to allow communication to TV and radio stations
for the information to be on the air before 6:00 a.m. That
recommendation is based on actual observation of road
conditions by Transportation Department staff, communication
with State Highway Administration, County Roads, Maryland
State Police, and Cecil County Sheriff’s office. Decisions
to close or delay the school day can also be
determined by the forecasted start time and anticipated
precipitation of the event. We cannot drive every road in
the county, but we try and travel roads that we feel are a
good indicator of county road conditions. The easiest
decisions are made when the inclement weather event has
occurred or is occurring. When there is snow on the roads at
3:00 a.m. and it is still snowing, we have better data than
AccuWeather telling us it is scheduled to start snowing
between 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and we should see 2 to 4 inches by
5:00 p.m. Although we feel that AccuWeather is doing a
better job than other forecasters it is still an imperfect
science.
Q. How do we find out about an inclement weather delay,
early dismissal, or cancellation of school?
A. In the student calendar there is a list of TV and radio
stations that we contact after the Superintendent makes the
decision at 5:00 a.m. to close or delay the school day.
After the Superintendent makes that decision, radio and TV
stations are contacted for announcements to be made by 6
a.m. Other radio stations pick up that information off the
national wire service. We also communicate with an
organization called www.schools-out.com on the Internet. You
can logon and sign up for e-mail notification of any delay,
closure, or unscheduled early dismissal.
Q. I have some other transportation
questions, how do I contact transportation?
A. On the Home Page, below the Supervisor’s message is an email link. You can click on the link and send and email or you can call at 410-996-5420.