Transportation Department

Letter to Parents

We know you share our concern for the safety of the children that ride our buses. The Washington County School District has an excellent safety record with highly skilled bus drivers that are State Certified. With another 56 hours of training by State Certified instructors as well as ongoing driver monitoring and retraining, your child's school bus is much safer than your personal vehicle on the road. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the US. Department of Transportation and other authorities agree that school buses are the safest* form of transportation for getting children to and from school.

Riding in a school bus is much safer than using any other form of transportation – including personal vehicles and railroad and airline travel. According to the Transportation Research Board, part of the National Academy of Sciences, a child is 13 times safer in a school bus than in other modes of travel. Children driving to school or riding with other teenage drivers are 44 times more likely to be fatally injured than in a school bus. ("The Relative Risks of School Travel," 2002.)

We are working hard to ensure a bully free and safe environment for students on the bus. We want to enlist your help as a parent. Encourage your child to communicate with their bus driver, teacher or administrator if they don't feel safe on the school bus. We ask that you impress upon your child the importance of following bus safety rules and to obey the bus driver at all times. Staying in their seat at all times is a must for a safe ride to and from school. For more information, please visit our "Public Access Page".

Another issue we must all face is the rising cost of fuel. We at transportation are committed to staying focused on balancing the needs of the students and at the same time are actively engaged in minimizing or limiting the related transportation expenses. To see how we are doing this, please take some time to read this document.

Thank you for visiting our web page.

Please remember that we are... Working with you because we care.

Launi Schmutz -- Director of Transportation