Overview

Our Special Needs Transportation team strives to ensure your child arrives at school and returns home safely with care and thought given to his/her individual needs. Our success is a result of our commitment, skill, knowledge, understanding, and ability to communicate. All drivers and monitors participate in frequent in-service training to expand and improve their skills and knowledge of helping children with special needs.

Special Needs Transportation Services are offered as a related service through the Individualized Education Program (IEP). Students will receive services that are appropriate to serve them safely in the least restrictive environment.

In most cases students will receive curb-to-curb services meaning they will be picked up and dropped off in front of their residence; however, there may be cases where the pick up / drop off point will need to be the nearest, safest location. This means that during route planning if it is determined to be unsafe for a school bus to travel down a certain road due to a narrow roadway, dead-end, low hanging obstacles, etc., the bus stop may be assigned to a safe place close to your home. Students receiving special need bus services must be met at the bus by a parent or designee for their safety unless stated otherwise.

Beginning Service and Route Changes

In our system, everyone works hard to communicate needs and changes. When changes occur, routes must be revised, and time changes communicated to all parents. Any students needing to be set up or have changes made to their service should expect a delay of up to five days for service to begin. This allows our routing department to route your child with the least amount of ride time, allow time to inform other students of possible time changes, check the bus for appropriate equipment, and for the driver to familiarize themselves with your child’s information.

Once the Transportation Department receives the paperwork from the campus after the Admissions, Review, and Dismissal Committee (ARD) meeting, we will begin working on routing and will contact you once complete.

As a parent, you can help support our mission by:

1.      Attending your child's ARD committee meetings and Annual Reviews.

2.      Making sure that all contact addresses and phone numbers are valid.

3.      Ensuring a responsible person is home when your child is picked up in the morning and brought home in the afternoon. (Drivers assume responsibility at the door of the bus in the morning and will not release the child until they see the responsible person after school unless otherwise stated.)

4.      Having your child ready to board the bus within five minutes of scheduled time each morning. In order to keep to the schedule, the bus driver will not wait more than two (2) minutes for late-arriving students.

5.      Teaching your child to follow the bus rules.

6.      Notifying the Transportation department as early as possible when your child will not be riding the bus. Failure to notify the Transportation department after three (3) consecutive days will result in termination of service until the parent/guardian calls to reinstate the service.

7.      Communicating any medical information, medication or student health status changes which would affect your child's transportation.

8.      Being open to information from the driver or monitor regarding their observations and concerns.

9.      Making sure your child goes to the restroom before boarding the bus.

10.  Remembering that students in wheelchairs should have properly operating lock brakes, footrests, armrests, and a safety belt.

For more information on our Special Needs Transportation Services, please contact:

Kristian Marshall, Special Needs Bus Supervisor

Office: (361) 578-1538

Email: kristian.marshall@visd.net