All schools experience bus misconduct and truancy issues. In this case, an elementary student was suspended from the bus due to misconduct. The student already has a truancy issue due to his number of absences for the current school year. Upon notifying the parent of the bus suspension, the parent expresses that he/ she has no means of transportation, and the child will have to stay at home the day of the suspension. Should we as school leaders just let our students miss school ? It is the parent’s responsiblity to ensure that his/her child attends school regularly. Our school debated over this issue. We evaluated our county student code of conduct policy and truancy policy. We decided to find transporation for the student, but we also implemented several interventions that would possibly aid the student in improving his/her bus behavior and instill the importance of daily school attendance. Some of the interventions we implemented were moving the student to the front seat of the bus, monitoring and providing daily positive feedback to the student about his/her behavior, and having the student make a bus safety poster which was hung up in the student’s classroom.
Although policies must be enforced, it is also important to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy and modify your actions accordingly in dealing with specific instances.
