After last week's incident in which a nonverbal four-year-old was left on the bus – but discovered quickly according to school officials following the required 'bus sweep' at the garage following drop-off – the Macomb Community Unit School District No. 185 is enhancing its 'gold standard' protocol to 'platinum' level.
A parent of a MacArthur Early Childhood Center student received a call from her son's school, last week regarding his supposed absence that day … however, the four-yearold was supposed to be at school after being picked up at his daycare for afternoon classes at the center. According to MCUSD 185 Superintendent Mark Twomey, within 10 minutes of the call from school to his mother, a bus garage employee found the little boy asleep under the seat during the required 'sweep' that drivers perform after their rounds. As a result of the incident, Twomey said the district has enhanced its already 'gold standard sweep' procedures.
As part of the district's original policy (Section 4: Operational Services), Policy 4:110 states 'the school bus driver: walks to the rear of the bus before leaving the bus at the end of each route, work shift, or workday, to check the bus for children or other passengers in the bus.' Policy 4:110AP adds: 'Perform a visual sweep for children or other passengers at the end of a route, work shift or workday by: a. activating interior lights of the school bus to assist the driver in searching in and under each seat, (625 ILCS 5/12-816(c)) and b. walking to the rear of the school bus/vehicle checking in and under each seat (625 ILCS 5/12816(a),(b)).
'I've been superintendent for 13 years and we've had this policy in place for as long as I've been here,' Twomey said. 'The national gold standard is for the driver to walk to the back of the bus at their final destination, which is usually the bus garage, looking under seats, to make sure no child is still on the bus; however, after last week's incident, which was discovered very quickly because of our policy, drivers will now do that sweep at their last stop, before they even get back to the garage, so if a child is still on the bus, they're found before even leaving the stop. Even if that last stop is in the country, they'll pull over to a safe place and walk from the back to the front to make sure there is not a child remaining on the bus before even returning to the garage.'
Once at the garage, drivers are required to do a second sweep, he added. There is a 'final check' button at the rear of the bus's interior that the driver must walk back and push and then walk toward the front, while checking under and around seats, Twomey shared. If the driver fails to push that 'final check' button before they shut and lock the bus doors, an alarm will sound.
'We now have a two-step process in place to ensure this does not happen again, and this is something our new transportation director, Melissa Peterson, suggested,' he stressed. 'I want to point out that in this incident, everything worked as it should. When a child does not arrive at school and the parent has not called in the absence, the school calls the parent, which occurred in this instance. School staff called the preschool to make sure he had gotten on the bus, and by the time they were calling the preschool, the driver had discovered the child during their sweep and found him asleep under the seat.'
According to Twomey, this is the second incident in his 13 years as Macomb's superintendent. The first incident occurred during his first year as the district's leader, and it was the 'sweep' policy that discovered the child in that case as well, he noted. If a child is left on the bus and discovered later – that is, if a sweep doesn't occur – the driver will be terminated immediately, Twomey added.
'This is something we take very seriously,' he concluded. 'No matter where the last stop occurs, at Lincoln School, in the country, our drivers will do the sweep before they even get back to the garage, and then another sweep will occur before the bus is locked for the day. And we will be doing this during both our AM and PM routes.'
