Transportation

In order to ensure the safety of each child, the School Board has set bus behavior guidelines. Please review these guidelines with your children. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for non-enforcement. Students violating these rules may forfeit bus-riding privileges. 

• Bus stops are generally located at corners or intersections. The designated area that students wait for the bus must be within a bus length to the corner (approximately 40 feet).
• Stopping at corners or intersections is safer due to the expectations of traffic. Students are also generally taught to cross at corners, not mid-block. When a bus makes a mid-block stop it can confuse motorists, who generally anticipate that buses will make stops at corners or intersections. It also provides the driver, or a substitute driver, a landmark (intersection) to identify prior to making the stop so the eight-lamp system can be properly activated to warn the public. This also allows the driver to scan the area for students when approaching the intersection.
• District policy for distance to a bus stop from home can be up to 3-tenths of a mile for elementary students and up to 7-tenths of a mile for secondary students.
• School buses use the eight-light system and stop arm at all bus stops. In order to properly operate the eight-light system, no bus stop will be made within 300 feet of one another.
• Buses are not allowed to travel down cul-de-sacs. Backing a school bus is a very dangerous maneuver. A full-sized bus needs 115 feet to safely turn and most cul-de-sacs do not fit this criteria.
• Buses are not allowed on private roads.
• There is not a fixed number of students that warrants adding or moving a stop. Stops are determined on an individual basis.
• Visibility from the home to the bus stop is not part of the criteria for establishing a bus stop.
• Stranger-Danger criteria are used only under documented, persisting or current cases that public safety can verify.
• A school bus driving by a home does not warrant adding or changing a stop. A high frequency of stops can make the motoring public impatient and cause drivers to drive around the bus causing greater safety concern than the distance a student has to walk to the bus stop. It also delays the bus, making the overall student time on the bus longer.
• Weather conditions are not part of the criteria for a bus stop change.
• School bus drivers do not have authority to change bus routes or student stops.

1. Minnesota Statutes and Minnesota State Rules contain provisions which are designed to protect school bus passengers by controlling the transportation of dangerous objects in a school bus. Prohibited objects include loose or bulky object that are not part of the regular education school program. Additionally, no object shall be so placed in a bus as to restrict any part of the passageway leading to any emergency exit.
2. No weapons of any kind may be transported on a school bus. These include, but are not limited to knives, guns, any nocuous or dangerous chemicals or any other potential weapon.
3. No flammable objects of any kind may be transported on a school bus. These include, but are not limited to gasoline, lighter fluid, spray paint, matches, lighters and any other flammable substances including any fireworks.
4. No animals of any type may be transported on a school bus. The exception being a, certified seeing eye dog for the visually impaired may be transported upon approval of the School District Transportation Department.
5. It is illegal to transport any object which is likely to cause injury to a student in an accident. Objects which may not be transported on a regular education school bus include but are not limited to the following:
   1. Skis and ski poles cannot be transported on any school bus.
   2. Hockey equipment cannot be transported on any regular education school bus.
   3. Golf bags and equipment cannot be transported on a regular education school bus.
   4. Bats and Lacrosse sticks cannot be transported on a regular education school bus.
   5. Buses specifically provided for extracurricular events, or any other non-regular education busing, may carry equipment on board the bus provided the equipment is secured and does not block the bus aisle or emergency exits. The School District will provide a trailer for big and bulky equipment on extracurricular trips including sports trips when deemed necessary.
6. Band instruments and athletic equipment may only be transported on a regular education school bus under two circumstances:
   1. The equipment must be small enough to be held on the students lap or;
   2. The equipment may be held between the students legs on the floor of the school bus and do not extend higher than the seat back. Under no circumstance may athletic or band equipment be transported that is not physically controlled by the student.
7. Items that are not part of the regular or extracurricular school sponsored program may not be transported on any School District School Bus. This would include but is not limited to skateboards.