The organization in charge of school bus operations across the region is making some changes for the 2020-2021 school year.
The Northwestern Ontario Student Services Consortium has approved several transportation policy changes.
General Manager Dan Ridgway says one of the main adjustments is removing the requirement for high schools to conduct evacuation drills as part of annual training.
“Bus safety training is still going to be delivered annually in classroom with secondary students. What has changed here is the requirement for secondary schools to complete an on-site evacuation drill.”
Ridgway says they heard feedback from high schools that this was a challenge to implement and to get participation.
He says “Schools may choose to have an evacuation drill and of course the Consortium would still facilitate that if the request were to come through to us. But this just takes away the requirement. There is no legislative requirement for this to be done.”
Ridgway points out that high school students have already taken part in these drills annually throughout their school careers.
Other changes approved:
-Section 1.2 regarding transportation of Other Pupils of the Board has been amended to remove the requirement for a board to have a cost recovery agreement in place to transport Other Pupils of the Board.
-Section 7.0 regarding transportation of students with shared custody arrangements has been amended to reflect that students in Kindergarten to Grade 6 may have two sets of morning transportation arrangements, and one afternoon arrangement. This eliminates the requirement for alternating week schedules for morning arrangements and does not reduce or alter transportation service levels for families with shared custody if students.
-Section 8.0 regarding transportation of students with special needs has been amended to allow special transportation arrangements to be made in consultation with member school boards without reference to identification through the IPRC process.
-Section 10.7 regarding transportation service agreements with bus operators has been amended to allow discretion of the Consortium board when applying the cap of 60% of Consortium operations that can be contracted to one Operator.
