With a new school year underway, students are finding their way to new classrooms, learning new routines, and practicing expectations in the school buildings. These students have to learn new routines and practice expectations on the school buses as well. Benton Community School District has implemented two important safety measures on the school buses. Most of the school buses have seat belts that students are required to wear. The district also installed an attendance system, as another important safety measure, on all of our school buses this year.
The bus attendance system allows the district to locate every bus and to know where and when all students are on the buses. Students scan when they get on and off the bus with their own personal ID card. When scanned, each personal ID card allows the district and the bus driver access to emergency contact information in case of an emergency event while the students are on the bus.
Fourth grade students were asked to share their thoughts and opinions about the bus attendance system. Maggie Niebuhr mentioned, “It [the bus system] makes me feel safe on the bus”. Kenley Campbell feels good about the bus system and said, “If I ever get on the wrong bus, they will know where I am at”. Ashton Lundin was thinking how proactive this system is if ever faced with an emergency and shared, “If we get in an accident, they will know who is on the bus and that makes me feel safe”.
Lastly, Josie Platt gives advice to all students, “keep it [your id] on your bag because if you take it off for any reason it will not help the bus drivers”. Many students have found ways to keep track of their ID cards, like these two students pictured, Alannah Reynolds and Mia Kenny, who use lanyards around their neck and on their backpack.