School Bus Monitors
Advice to Parents: Prepare Your Child to Take the Bus
The bus is a very safe way for your child to travel to and from school. In fact, school buses are the safest vehicles on the road! Very few deaths and injuries involve a school bus.
Most mishaps take place outside the bus, so here are some precautions you can take.
- Don't let your children arrive at the stop too early. They may be tempted to wander or get into mischief.
- Make sure they know what to do if they miss the bus: come back home; or at school, report to a teacher -- and never, never accept a ride from a stranger.
- If the stop is a long way from home, plan and discuss with your children where they can go in an emergency.
- If it is dark on the way to or from the bus, make your children visible. Use retro-reflective tape on their clothing and avoid dark colors.
- Make sure they wait well away from the roadway, and stay well back until the bus has come to a full stop and the door opens
- Explain they must walk at least three metres (10 feet) away when crossing in front of a bus so the driver can see them.
- Forbid running and horseplay
- Tell your children to come straight home from the bus - no detours.
Do's and Don't at the Bus Stop
- Do make sure the driver can always see you
- Do stay back from the road
- Do wait quietly in line
- Do stay back until the bus stops, its lights start flashing, the door opens
- Do enter the bus single file
- Don't push or shove
- Don't run into the street
- Don't throw things
- Don't stop to pick up anything that drops while you are crossing in front of the bus
- Don't yell and shout
- Don't bring your pet on the bus