THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT /THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK/ ALBANY, NY 12234

Office of Educational Management Services/BOCES

Room 876 Education Building Annex

Albany, New York 12234

(518) 474-6541 - (518) 474-3936

Fax: (518) 474-1983

State Director’s Message

March 1, 2008

Dear NYS School Bus Driver Instructor:

Welcome to the 2008 Professional Development Seminar. Last year we completed a three-year program that had every SBDI prepare and give a 10-minute presentation on a school transportation topic. This gave SBDIs the opportunity to receive feedback on their presentation skills and for us as a group to re-emphasize SBDI presentation skills. This year we are shifting from a global approach to presenting to a more specific one, introductions. Master Instructors will be providing instruction on creating effective introductions and then in the afternoon, you, the SBDIs will use that information to create effective introductions in groups based on interests you expressed in your pre-session assignment.

The SED-required Driver/Attendant/Monitor Refreshers also are moving from the global to the specific. Both refreshers are inspired in part by New York State fatal school bus accidents.

f  Rather than focusing on loading and unloading by reviewing every step in the process we are going to look at the three loading zone accidents that have happened in the last few years using a case study analysis method and letting the drivers and attendants put their expertise to work. Our goal in this is for them to be critically reflective, not just about these accidents, but in their own observations and actions at the bus stops they see every day.

f  In a similar fashion we are going to look at pretrips and posttrip inspections, not the details of entire walkaround process, but five issues of specific importance, mirrors, emergency exits, security, sleeping children, and pumping down the brakes. The last issue also arises from a fatal school bus accident in 2006.

I hope that this more detailed look at specific instructional strategies and training topics will give you some useful tools for your presentations toolkit as well as providing compelling training for your bus staff.

Marion Edick, State Director
Pupil Transportation Services
518-474-6541
email:
website: www.emsc.nysed.gov/schoolbus/