Boulder Valley School District

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BVSD Transportation

Special Needs Students

Transportation Procedures and Practices

The following procedures and practices were updated for 2018-19.

Primary places of care (student residence or child care location)

  • A student will be transported from one primary place of care per segment of the day (AM, Midday, PM)
    • Ex: Pick up at home in the AM, Drop off at Child care facility in the midday. NOT Pick up at home in the AM Tues/Wed, at child care Thurs/Fri
    • This transportation is to be on a full week, 4 or 5 day schedule, depending on the program
       
  • A student will be transported to or from a child care location as long as it is within the city of student's residence or school of placement, not to exceed 5 miles of driving distance by bus. This will allow the necessary time to service the next school in the route segment. Exceptions can be brought to the preschool location committee via the preschool community liaison or a transportation supervisor/director.
     
  • When there is a change in home address or childcare facility, please communicate with your preschool liaison. They will take the request to location committee for appropriate processing. Depending on the location of the new address, it may involve a re-location of school.
     
  • Two changes for stop locations can be requested per year. Exceptions for reasonable cause (ex. loss of job, divorce, new address) will be considered through a request to the transportation supervisor. Each additional change may take up to two weeks to process.


Adult to student ratio for preschool students on the bus

  • Follows preschool regulations, which is a 10-1 ratio


In order to provide safe transport of preschoolers:

  • Bus services cannot begin without a photograph of the child in the possession of transportation
  • Expect to be asked to show a photo ID at the stop when your preschool child is being dropped off to ensure the appropriate people are receiving the children
  • A preschool child must be met by an adult individual, defined as 18 years of age and older
  • The school and transportation need to have documentation in place for each individual receiving a preschool student, name and contact phone number. Please communicate with your preschool liaison to add any individuals to this list. The school will communicate with transportation.


Transportation strives to have a child with special needs on a bus within 3-5 business days after receipt of the transportation request. There are times of the year, due to the high volume of requests, it may take longer to have the student’s routing processed.


Student with dual residences

  • IF the addresses of both parents are in the neighborhood school’s attendance boundary, transportation will provide service from both residences, according to the parenting schedule.
  • If one parent resides outside of the neighborhood school’s attendance boundary, the primary address within the attendance boundary, listed in IC, will be the address used for transportation. As students with special needs are placed at schools according to their IEP program needs, rather than neighborhood schools, co-parenting situations will be reviewed on a case by case basis, with bus service determined by a transportation supervisor or director.
     

In education, there are many laws, rules and regulations that dictate the service that must be provided, but few of them offer directions or suggestions as to how the service is to be provided.

Transportation policies and procedures should be developed, adopted by the governing board or superintendent, as appropriate, and periodically updated to reflect changes in federal, state and local regulations. Despite such policies and procedures, an individual student’s IEP or Section 504 plan or a behavioral intervention plan (BIP) may override specific provisions. National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures.

Transportation, as a related service, should be established as the mutual responsibility of parents, transportation and service providers. It is to be provided based on the documented needs of the student.