accessible schoolbussing

[boxofdelights]

How do kids who use wheelchairs get to school? Do schoolbuses normally have ramps or lifts? Does it depend on how rich the school district is?

Is it still common for there to be a different bus for kids with special needs? Is "shortbus" still a slur that elementary school kids would understand?

Comments

[eeyorerin]

In the district we live in, there are some schoolbuses with lifts, but not a lot of them. The school provides separate busing for students with special needs who are better served by being in a smaller or quieter bus environment with paraprofessionals.

I don't think my kid would understand what is meant by "short bus," but I could ask him when he wakes up.

When I was in school in the 80s and 90s, we had wheelchair accessible buses, but not many of them.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you!

[loligo]

I asked my kids (age 14 and 10 now) if they had ever heard "riding the short bus" as an insult, and they couldn't even imagine what it might refer to. So I explained, and they said that there actually is a separate smaller bus that kids with behavior problems ride, but it's just temporary, like a detention.

They said that some busses have wheelchair lifts and some don't, and as far as they could figure out, the ones with lifts get assigned to the routes as needed.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you!

[jesse_the_k]

In my supposedly innovative school district, which does have better-than-average supports for a wide range of impairments, wheelchair users are bussed in separate vehicles. Some are the classic yellow short-bus. Others are "cutaways": trucks with bus cubes welded atop. Most have lifts.

There are some very complicated funding issues involved: money to transport people with disabilities comes from several different Federal and State agencies, and is disbursed from them based on the age of the person being transported.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you so much!

[petra]

My very rural district had at least one wheelchair accessible bus when I was a teenager in the 1990's, and assigned it to the relevant route (my route, though not for me). I can't imagine we had funds to spare, but it was a state or federal requirement, so they did it. It was not a short bus, and they didn't use a short bus for special needs kids.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you!

[badgerbag]

My teenager had no idea what it meant, but his district doesn't have school buses. "I'm not exactly good at popular slang, though," he adds.

[boxofdelights]

Thank you!