I was just trying to get insight from other mamas who have had young kids ride the school bus to school. My daughter will be riding the school districts school buses to and from her day care center. The school knows which bus she needs to be on and the bus drops off and picks up right in front of the center so she won't have to walk any distance. Open house for her school is tomorrow night so I will get some of the questions answered there but wanted some insight so I don't forget anything.
What is the procedure for getting to the buses at the end of the day? Do they take a roll or anything on the buses so she doesn't get left behind? Will they help her on and off the bus when she gets to the school?
What other questions would you ask?
Bus procedures depend upon your school. In the elementary where I work, it's up to the kindergarten teachers and TA's to get those young students to their buses, the bus drivers aren't responsible for the kids getting on, the classroom staff does. This is a question that you need to ask at your school. You should also ask whether the kids wear seatbelts, whether the kindies must sit in a certain area of the bus and how many kids in a seat.
For Kindergartners at our school - each classroom is walked to the cafeteria every day and their buses are called, to include day care buses so there is no mass exodus to the school or day care buses.
Walkers and car riders are taken to the walkway by the office where the line has started for the car pick up. All of the children are accounted for before they are sent on their way...no Kindergartener is allowed to walk nor are they allowed to get off the bus by themselves...a sibling that is in AT LEAST the 3rd grade must be with them or a parent/guardian...no parent guardian the child will be taken back to the school
Kindergartners are usually escorted to the bus and then seated in the front couple rows of seats. get to know the buss driver. make that a priority. you want to know who is driving your child back and forth. get a good relationship with that person. my granddaughter rode the bus from kindergarten on. the driver noticed she had to walk 2 blocks from the stop to get to her house. he redid his route so he could drop her off at the corner in front of her house. it pays to get to know the people caring for our children.
All the elementary schools my kids have been to have walked the children to the bus. Even the 5th graders.
Kinders are usually in the front of the bus.
For the most part there is a teacher or aministrator to assist the children off the busses. .
Getting on the bus, the children are put on each bus by a teacher or asst.
Our high school kids in NC and here in VA are not released off their bus until the bus in front has released all its children.
My kids all had bus tags around their necks for a while.
At our school the daycare kids were dropped off at the front of the school, then went into the area by the office where all the drop off kids went to and then they were dismissed to their classes. I'm pretty sure the kindergarten kids were walked by an aide or someone to their class. After school was same way, they sit in the office area and then when they're bus gets there they take them out to it.
At our school, the kindergarten kids wear a little tag around their necks for a week or two until they all get used to getting in their correct bus line. It has their bus number on it and they see where that number line forms...
They also have a "buddy system" where the 4th graders help out the K kids find their line, etc.....
my daughter even now going into 2nd grade is walked to the bus. here, the buses are assigned colors, so they don't have to recognize the numbers but the color cones the buses are by. with your daughter being in a preschool, it might be different then in elementary, but at elementary they don't help them on and off the bus because there are too many kids coming and going. and on the bus they don't take roll call, because kids can be absent or go home early. however, the teachers should get them to where they need to go. i was SO nervous the first time my daughter rode the bus home. but everything worked out alright.
At our elementary school, the kindergartners are escorted to the classrooms in the morning and the to the buses with a teacher everyday afternoon.
I don't want to scare you but getting her on the bus is no problem. They have a line for kids that get on the bus and are walked there, however!!!!! Be sure to talk with your kid about the only place to get off the bus. My friends daughter got off the bus at the wrong stop. When her daughter wasn't on the bus where she was waiting for her they had to trace back all the bus stops and found her sitting, crying on someones porch. She didn't ring the people bells or anything she just sat of that porch and cried. It was so scary and so sad. My kids did fine but just to avoid any scary moments be sure she knows exactly where she is getting off.
Usually the bus kids line up and walk together from the classroom, with the teacher or the teachers assistant. There could even be a specified employee whose job it is to get the kids to the bus. They make sure the kids get on the right bus and often they ride along with the little ones. If they don't have an extra adult on the bus besides the bus driver say no. The kids can get up and run around, run up and shift gears, lean out the window, etc...if there is not other adult free from driving to manage the kiddos.
