School Bus questions

[BeachBum]

In your district, is there an adult other than the driver on the bus with the kids?

What age kids would be riding the bus with a Kindergartener?




In my area there is no other supervision on the bus. Just the driver.
My 5 yr old would be riding with all elementary kids (so below 6th grade).

[mytwosons]

No other adult and the kids can be any age of elementary school, which goes through 5th grade here.

Both of the bus drivers we've had make the Kinders sit at the very front of the bus.

[momof2girls]

In my district the elem school is K-4th so the oldest is 4th grade. However, the youngest kids are always in the front by the drive and they are then seated in grade order with the 4th graders in the back. Siblings do not sit together unless you request it. There is no addl help on the bus. The only buses that get aides are the special ed buses. DD#1 is going into 3rd grade and has had only minor probs on the bus (mean girl stuff) that could just as easily happen on a playground. Last yr DD#2 was the youngest on the bus and had no probs.

[SnuggleBuggles]

No monitors. Grades k-8 are on the bus.

Beth

[Gena]

DS rides the special ed bus, so his bus does have an aide. The regular school bus does not. Our district has half-day K, so for Kindergarten students, they ride the K bus one way and the regularelementary bus (K-5) the other way. (I remember doing this in K as well. I went to pm Kindergarten, so I rode the K bus to school and the regular bus home.)

[caleymama]

No other adult and the kids can be any age of elementary school, which goes through 5th grade here.

Both of the bus drivers we've had make the Kinders sit at the very front of the bus.

:yeahthat:

Additionally, the kids all have assigned seats on the bus.

[katydid1971]

No other adult and the kids can be any age of elementary school, which goes through 5th grade here.

Both of the bus drivers we've had make the Kinders sit at the very front of the bus.
:yeahthat: DS once told me his favorite part of Kindergarten was riding on the bus. ;) I loved the bus and DS didn't have any problems with it all year. I have to say with the amount of budget cuts my district is having I would much rather have extra supervision/help for DS in the classroom than on the school bus. JMO. FWIW I noticed that the kids kind of naturally segregated themselves by age, the youngest tended to sit up front while the older kids sat in the back.

[elliput]

My DD rides a special ed bus which has a bus aide. Her bus also services the pre-k program so there are 4yo's on her bus as well as older (up to 5th grade) kids.

[plusbellelavie]

The bus here is K-8....the middle schoolers 6-8th graders are dropped off first and have assigned seating at the back/middle of the bus. Most had their own seats.

K-5 are also in assigned seats with the Kindergarteners towards the front of the bus they are also assigned a seat with an older child so for example last year my then 4th grader was assigned a seat with a Kindergartner. She didn't mind and she says most of the other kids didn't mind "helping" with the LOs put on or take off their seat belts if they needed it or helping them with the backpack etc.

No aide on the bus.

I have to say my kids loved riding the bus mostly because the environment on the bus was so positive and supportive among all the kids.

HTH

[ShanaMama]

No adult other than the bus driver. In the morning it was primary (age 5) through 8th grade but in the afternoon the 5 year olds get dismissed much earlier, so it's just them. Our district had several incidents with rowdiness or unruliness which led to major conflict between the driver & students so they were talking about instituting a camera on every bus. I would love that! There is also talk of an outside contractor installing GPS on every bus- they may offer the option of 5 min warning texts to the parents. Wouldn't that be great?

[JBaxter]

Just the bus driver here. K-5 ride the same bus

[katydid1971]

There is also talk of an outside contractor installing GPS on every bus- they may offer the option of 5 min warning texts to the parents. Wouldn't that be great?

I would LOVE that!!! I'm always so worried that we will miss the bus that we are always out there way early waiting a long time. It's easier that than getting DD dresses and dragging her to school to get DS signed in.

[sarahsthreads]

No aides, just the bus driver. K-6 on the bus, but each grade has assigned rows to sit in (K's up front, 6's in the back) unless there are issues on a particular bus and then the kids causing trouble have actual assigned seats. For a while last year all the girls were sitting towards the back because (most of) the boys on the bus were being too rowdy and had assigned seats right up behind the bus driver.

I love our bus driver, though, he clearly does not allow nonsense on the bus, but he's still really kind to the little ones.

I'd adore the GPS/5 minute warning text thing mentioned by a PP!

Sarah :)

[lalasmama]

No other adult and the kids can be any age of elementary school, which goes through 5th grade here.

Both of the bus drivers we've had make the Kinders sit at the very front of the bus.

:yeahthat:

At DD's school, kinders ride in the front few seats of a K-5 bus.

A good friend who is a bus driver instituted a similar thing. The first 3 seats behind her were kinders, the front passenger seat was "the naughty spot" for unruly older kids, and then another 2 rows behind "the naughty spot" for kinders.

[new_mommy25]

DS rides a school bus to and from school. He goes to a private school but we live in what is considered "rural" so there is a bus service provided that we pay for. DS has been riding the bus since K. There are K-12th on the bus. In other areas they have the buses broken up by elemenatary, middle/high, but there aren't enough kids for two buses in our town.

The elementary children have assigned seats. DS has been lucky enough to have a seat to himself. K are in the very front and it goes back. Middle/high don't have assigned seats and they towards the back.

There are no other adults besides the driver. There are cameras on the bus. Whenever a parent complains or there is an issue the tapes are reviewed. Every year before school starts we have to attend a mandatory transportation meeting going over rules and expectations. They are always trying to get 11/12 graders to be bus monitors but I understand they haven't gotten much luck having kids come forward. Luckily there have been pretty much no issues with the bus for us.

[klwa]

DS will be on the bus K-5, with no additional adults.


*laughs* Now then, this just reminds me of my childhood. When I was in elementary, buses ran for K-12, with a senior in high school driving. My older brother drove a bus when I was in 6th grade. :) No adults whatsoever. :) Ah, the 80's.....

[Jen841]

No monitors. Grades k-8 are on the bus. I am not aware of any special seating, but we are at the start/end of the daily route do by the time it gets to my house it is empty.

We are at the EDGE of our district and at a private school, bus ride can be 45+ minutes which I don't like but live with. The school district was proposing not bussing K kids at all which I disagree with more.