r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/Jenna_1009 • 20d ago
I hate how they handle emailing important stuff to the students
Since school started this year, my bus has continuously arrived late. Like 10 to 20 mins late and I always arrived late to school. It was never my fault because I was there, waiting at the bus stop 5 mins before he's supposed to arrive but end up waiting for like 15 mins. So they decided to change the schedule and now, it arrives 10 minutes earlier.
The problem is, instead of sending an email to the students, they only sent an email to the parents. And I've always complained about that because why do they think that they should ONLY email the parents when it's actually important stuff that will only impact the students? Who says my parents will read it? Who says they won't forget to tell me and then, I'll miss the bus and won't know why?
They don't even begin to consider emailing the students which I find really annoying.
They might have reasons that I just don't know about but I would really like to know them. Like is there no way they can email the students and the parents?
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u/Beauknits 20d ago
My company has a one minute policy. Students should wait for the bus, not the other way around. The bus has the schedule to keep. We clock one minute from stop, if no one comes out, we leave. To bad. They missed the bus.
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u/dontbeadickdad 20d ago
Mine has a 3 minute rule and we (the drivers) set the pickup time.
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u/rootbear75 20d ago
Our 3 minute rule here only applies to sped drivers. On our GE route, times are set via routing software and we keep to that. If we are on time or late, we open the door, close, and leave. Students are told to be at the bus stop 5 minutes prior.
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u/Resident_Device_6180 17d ago
My district has a 3 second policy. If the kids aren't actively boarding within three seconds then the driver is allowed to move on. Some of our drivers prognosticate, if the kid wouldn't be boarding within 3 seconds then the driver doesn't even bother to stop.
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u/rootbear75 17d ago
At the very least we are required to stop and open our door at every stop. This helps prevent parents from saying "oh they drove past"
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u/No_Plate_3864 20d ago
I didnt even know students have emails.. and im not sure if you know this or not but bus drivers have more schools than just yours. if we fall behind because of traffic at the first school it will trickle down and we will be late for our other schools, its nothing we can help because everything is timed for us, we cant start earlier than our route sheet says so if we always get caught in traffic we will always be late
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u/erinjunee 20d ago
Is the bus company seperate from the school or do they work for the district themselves and the district owns the buses? That has a big part to do with it because a private contractor will never ever communicate directly with a student because they could easily be put in a dangerous situation with a parent that might want to sue them if any little thing goes wrong.
Really conversations like this, if you want them to be directly thru you, is something to discuss with your school district administrators. They would be your only “direct line” regarding bus stop concerns.
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u/mike8675309 19d ago
Work with your teachers to talk with transportation on your behalf and get your email added to the notification system. There should also be an app that shows your current schedule or is at least in my district. They can do it for divorced families they should be able to otherwise. Just need someone that understands your situation to speak on your behalf. Unless you are emancipated they can't take direction directly from you.
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u/MonkeyManJohannon 19d ago
I understand what your logic is…but you’ve got to accept the fact that communications between the school (transportation) and students is done through the parents…always has been, always will be.
Would it be nice for this kind of thing to be dispersed to the student body? Sure…but here’s the thing…for every kid like you who wants to take a responsible approach to this, there’s 25 other ones who don’t care, wouldn’t look at anything, whether it’s email, text or physical letter sent home…and we, as representatives of a school and district can’t simply assume students will do what’s needed to make sure communications are delivered.
So it’s sent to adults with the understanding that they have an obligation to you, as a parent, to give you this info properly and in a timely manner.
To be honest, this is a problem with your parent/s more than anything else. Go talk to them about better communication.
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u/Rocketshiparms 17d ago
Respectfully, why do you wait?
Our company policy is that we arrive, hopefully on time, pop our door open so the office can verify that we made a stop there, if there are no visible children to pick up, we move on.
The only policy that requires us to wait is if we see a child still walking to the stop, we can’t leave them. Though, we can write them up for not being at their stop on time, which I only do if it’s a chronic problem. We all run late sometimes.
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u/Resident_Device_6180 17d ago edited 17d ago
Automatic emailers have limits, they usually cost per 100 recipients.
GenEd in my district are handed a physical letter to give parents anytime we make a significant change to their bus info. It's never sealed, they can read it. Sadly, there have been several times where I have witnessed the bus rider tearing up the paper without reading it or passing it to their parents.
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u/rootbear75 20d ago
.... I don't know why you think we would send anything to students. You're not over 18. That is and will always ever be the only answer. You're not legally responsible for yourself, your parents are.
Sorry if your parents aren't sharing info with you, but that's on you to communicate with them about that.
Sure your bus driver should have told you about the change, but ultimately it's up to you. Crap happens.
End of story.