This situation made me think of bus drivers who transport preschool students or those with special needs. These drivers often have to manage the fit and use of not just one but multiple child safety restraint systems (CSRS) on the bus every day. Even the best efforts made at the beginning of the school year to correctly select a CSRS and set it up to fit each child can’t be expected to last the school year because, as everyone knows, kids grow.

Therefore, it is always beneficial to have a plan to regularly assess child height and weight at scheduled intervals throughout the school year. Districts that have a proactive routine to check for proper CSRS fit not only ensure child safety, they often spare on-bus personnel from daily hassles. On the other hand, programs that respond to problems after the fact may allow usage or safety problems to go on too long.

Other routine CSRS maintenance activities can yield similar rewards. The entire inventory should be logged to track the age of each CSRS, and units that have expired based on manufacturer’s recommendations should be replaced. Likewise, each CSRS should be regularly checked for wear and damage. Defective parts can sometimes be replaced, or a new CSRS might be needed. The log is also useful for keeping track of recalls on CSRS.

All of these activities take effort, but they are well worth it for children’s safety. To sweeten the deal, these efforts can lead to a CSRS fleet that makes the day-to-day life of on-bus personnel much easier.

Denise Donaldson is a certified child passenger safety technician and the editor of Safe Ride News is an independent publication based in Edmonds, Wash. The publication's mission is to develop accurate and up-to-date information on child safety, advocate for improved standards, laws, and programs related to childhood injury prevention  supporting and collaborate with other organizations and agencies working in the field of child passenger safety.

Even if you don't watch the new version of the show that originally aired from 1968 until 1980, you might recall the weekly challenges faced by Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett, U.S. Navy, and a hand-selected task force of Honolulu Police Department detectives as they scour the islands to solve the most serious crimes. The Dec. 4 episode "Pahele," which is Hawaiian for: "A snare, noose, trap; to ensnare, trap; deceit, treachery."

The show centered on an ambush of a school bus that is taking kids and some teachers on a field trip. Two armed suspects feign a traffic collision that the bus rolls up on, only for one of the motorists to turn her gun on and kill the bus driver who egresses to see what's the matter.

What ensues is ripped from a real-life event, the 1973 Chowchilla school bus kidnapping. An armed gang hijacked a loaded school bus east of San Francisco, and later moved the 26 students and the driver to another van before burying it in a rock quarry. The school bus driver and some of the students were able to dig their way out, and the three kidnappers — who were seeking a $5 million ransom — were apprehended. They continue to serve life sentences in a California prison.

The dramatized version of events portrayed in "Hawaii 5-0" certainly contained content that the discerning student transporter might scoff at. You be the judge. But the show captured the polarizing fear that such an incident could cause in a community amongst parents, law enforcement and politicians.

In the end, McGarrett and his sidekicks capture the perps, and the children and teachers are saved.

"Book 'em, Danno."

"A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Children’s Theory of Mind (ToM) and Adolescent Involvement in Bullying" concluded that identifying and supporting children with poor ToM early in life could help reduce their vulnerability for involvement in bullying and thus limit its adverse effects on mental health.

The researchers from King's College of London studied more than 2,200 families with children who were 5, 7, 10 and 12 years old to gauge their ToM, or the capacity of humans to understand the mental states of emotion, desire, hope and intentions. Theory of mind affects the way children imagine the feelings or thoughts of others. Poor ToM is thought to be at the root of most difficulties that people with Asperger's or other autism spectrum disorders experience.

The researchers used eight standardized tasks of the children when they were 5 years old to to assess their ToM. Then, the study identified which of those children were involved in bullying as victims, bullies or bully-victim at age 12. The researchers found a direct correlation between involvement in bullying activities during early adolescence and having poor ToM in childhood.

The study could have some interesting legs for student transporters when attempting (and training how) to understand child behavior on the school bus as well as when reporting and intervening in bullying and harassment incidents.

Transporters of students with special needs are being presented with yet another challenge when it comes to medications on board the school bus. Adding to the usage of epinephrine and insulin shots by students, bus drivers and monitors are now increasingly faced with students who rely on Diastat, typically a rectal gel used in emergency situations to stop cluster seizures caused by epilepsy and other disorders.

The California School Nurses Organization (CSNO) says on its website that Diastat and other anti-seizure medications should not be used in a school setting because they fall within the realm of conscious sedation. CSNO recently fought the passage of SB 161, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Oct. 7. The law allows school district personnel, such as bus drivers and aides, to be trained to administer Diastat and other injections when a school nurse is unavailable. The NAPT Special Needs Committee met on this very topic last month in Cincinnati, as there are yet no standards for administering these drugs on the bus.

The number of students who require life-saving medications has increased, said Deborah R.G. Cesario, a school attorney with Lozano Smith in San Diego in a recent issue of LRP's Special Ed eNews.

"This increase appears attributable to more students being found eligible under Section 504 [now that] most mitigating measures may no longer be taken into account [since the passage of the ADA Amendments Act]," she said. "As such, school districts are going to need to quickly assess student symptoms and administer life-saving medications like the Epipen, Diastat, or insulin, not just in the classroom, but also during transportation to and from home and school, field trips, and other extracurricular activities."

***

This week, Indiana Attorney General Gregory Zoeller reiterated a similar ruling he made last summer that it is unconstitutional for school corporations to charge school bus fees, either directly or indirectly via a third party. The issue re-surfaced earlier this year when the Franklin Township Schools contracted with the Central Indiana Educational Service Center to provide transportation. CIESC was to charge parents a fee of $47.50 for the first child and $40.50 for each additional child to ride the bus.

***

The yellow school bus made this weeks front page of Education Week to go along with an article on the volatile mix of tax cuts and mounting needs of public school districts. The photo shows a Jefferson County (Colo.) Public Schools bus that is taking a student to a local middle school. The school district is charging fees for students to ride the school bus. Voters there defeated a referendum on Nov. 1 that would have used new sales and income taxes to raise $3 billion for education over the next five years

***

Student transporters required to comply with federal drug testing rules were reminded this week that on Dec. 1 they must begin using the new custody and control form, or CCF .

***

The Society of Automotive Engineers International, commonly known as ASE, is presenting a symposium next month on alternative-fuel innovations in school bus powertrains. Scheduled for Dec. 5 in Raleigh, N.C., attendees will hear the pros and cons of converting to hybrid-electric, propane or CNG.

***

J.J. Keller & Associates, a regulatory training and compliance provider, said earlier this month that the FMCSA's hours-of-service final rule for commercial drivers was being reviewed in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before publishing in the Federal Register. The review period can last for up to 90 days.

Finally, from the "little birdy told me" department: Television viewers should be on the lookout over the coming months for a PBS series that will feature an hour on transportation, and within it a focus on school busing in the United States.

No one was asking Levell to the dance, something she confided to one of her bus mates. J.T. Thomas, a rookie with the Chicago Bears, accompanied Levell to her end-of-school-year formal dance after hearing a story from his 7-year-old brother who has autism and rides the same school bus as Levell. Levell has spina bifida, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth, and is confined to a wheelchair most of the time.

After securing permission from both Levell's parents and the district, Thomas escorted the young girl to an event that she was worried she would not be able to attend.

"I'm not used to the attention, but I like it," Levell said. "It's been amazing. I can't wait to hear what everybody has to say."

Thomas has promised that if he secures a position with the Bears this fall, he will do everything he can to get game tickets for Levell and her family.