milies Access Safe Transportation to School. “Wearing masks on school buses is mandatory, per CDC.”
Safety Considerations for the Transportation of Students During COVID-19 Crisis: Offers concrete steps school districts should take to plan for and ensure safe transportation of students to and from school activities. This National Education Association [NEA] publication endorses planning based on surveyed need/demand for transportation, families’ capacities to provide transportation for some students, CDC physical distancing guidelines, EPA guidance regarding cleaning and sanitation, and particular considerations for students with special needs.
CTAA Recommended COVID-19 Safety Protocols: Provides guidance and relevant resources from the Community Transportation Association of America [CTAA] about COVID-19 safety protocols including information for masking (for passengers and drivers), at-risk drivers, driver compartment barriers, and vehicle/transit facility disinfecting.
National Association for Pupil Transportation [NAPT] - COVID-19: Provides the pupil transportation industry with timely, useful information related to COVID-19. NAPT offers general guidance, drawn from CDC lists and from the National Association of School Nurses [NASN]; and features an archive of webinars providing information to support safe and sanitary pupil transportation, including several that focus on the particular importance and challenges regarding transportation of students with special needs.
Department of Education Transportation Offices: Lists, in a single place, hyperlinks to the student transportation offices of each state education agency [SEA].
COVID-19 Resources for Student Transporters: Lists links to federal government, national association and industry websites responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. These resources are posted in Student Transportation News [STN], a monthly business-to-business news magazine serving the field of pupil transportation as part of its mission to create content, community, and commerce to support the school transportation industry in getting students to and from school safely and efficiently.
State Guidance on Reopening Schools Post-COVID-19: Shares recommendations developed by nearly every state regarding social distancing, and the need for additional cleaning, especially for high-touch areas. Most social distancing guidelines on school buses restate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] recommendations, that students should be seated one per seat, skipping rows. Many states also link to the cleaning and disinfecting guidance issued by the CDC on bus transit operators for cleaning school buses.
STARTS (Student Transportation Aligned for Return to School) Guidelines, Tactics and Templates: Offers a school reopening planning resource for school transportation professionals. The Student Transportation Aligned for Return To School (STARTS) Task Force was formed as a partnership among the National School Transportation Association [NSTA], the National Association for Pupil Transportation [NAPT], and the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services [NASDPTS]. The task force, during 2020-21, developed materials to support the school bus industry’s response to the challenges of school reopening in the context of COVID-19.
Here's One Way to Keep School Buses Safe During the Pandemic: Reports on the measured effectiveness of layered strategies of universal masking, ventilation and cleaning buses that has limited transmission of COVID-19 among students in a closely monitored study in Virginia. ““There was no evidence of COVID-19 transmission during bus transport, even at distances of 2.5 feet, with two-thirds of bus routes at full student capacity, and during the highest community incidence rates of COVID-19, which were 53.2 to 525.7 per 100,000 population,” researchers from Eastern Virginia Medical School found.
Recognizing Innovation in Student Transportation During COVID-19: Shares exemplary strategies used by two recognized school systems (Arlington Heights, IL and Detr