Keeping kids safe on the school bus is a community effort. Safety and acceptable student conduct is developed through cooperative efforts of principals, parents, students, and bus drivers. Parents can help by teaching their children bus stop safety and by being supportive of transportation policies.

• Please ensure your student is at their bus stop 5 minutes before their pickup time. School buses are large and have many blind spots. Please understand that our drivers may not see your student approaching the bus from your home, especially on dark mornings! We often use sub drivers who may not be familiar with which homes the students live in. Ensuring your student is at the stop and ready to load not only keeps our routes running efficiently, but is the most important thing you can do to ensure your child's safety. Running toward a bus after it has stopped is incredibly dangerous!! Umbrellas are allowed on the bus if it is raining and we encourage proper outdoor attire for colder weather.
• Help teach students of the "DANGER ZONES" around a school bus (10 feet all around the bus). In these danger areas, drivers may not see students!
• Getting students to and from the bus stop is the responsibility of the parent. For some, this may require a brief morning and afternoon walk to the bus stop location. This may also require students to cross the street before the bus arrives in the morning. Whenever possible, we encourage all parents to be at the bus stop with their students and ensure their safe passage to and from the bus stop. If you have concerns about your student's safety, you are encouraged to accompany the student to the bus stop or arrange a neighborhood buddy to walk with your student.
• Please don't wave your child to cross the street when getting off the bus. Our students are trained to wait for a hand signal from the driver before crossing the street. If you wish to meet your child at the afternoon bus stop, please wait for them on the side of the street where our doors meet the sidewalk - rather than across the street. Kids get excited to see their parents and tend to dart across the street before we've cleared traffic! We appreciate parents teaching their child to wait until the driver gives the signal that it's all clear. 
• Never walk behind or next to a bus. If an item is dropped near the bus, inform the driver and/or wait until the bus has departed before picking the item up.
• Parents, we encourage you to meet your driver and know your child's bus number. Communication is key to safety!
• Parents should always expect the bus up to 10 minutes early in the afternoon due to student participation in after school programs and fluctuating ridership. Our drivers cannot sit for extended periods at bus stops to ensure someone is home at your house. Please work with your child on an emergency plan in case you are not home when your child arrives. We encourage students to have walking buddies, when possible, with whom they can hang out until you arrive home to meet your child. 
• Please call the NACS Transportation Center at 637-6165 if your child will not be riding for an extended period of time.
• Make sure your children know their full name, address and phone number. It helps to have it on a card inside their book bag.
  
• Make sure the student is properly dressed for the weather conditions. Attach reflective tape to their jackets or book bags when walking in the dark.
• Please write your student's name on his/her belongings. 
• Avoid sending your student too soon or too late to the bus stop.
• Escort students who are not familiar with the bus stop until they know the way and understand bus stop safety procedures.
• Articles too large to be held on the student's lap will be prohibited on the bus.
• Students may not ride the bus home with a friend on a different bus. If students already ride the same bus, they may get off with a friend only with a note signed by both a parent and a school administrator. Without a signed note, students must get off the bus at their assigned stop.
• It is always helpful with rural students who don't ride every day to have some type of signal for the driver if they need picked up. Suggestions to consider: a porch light, garage door open, or some other light the driver can see in the darkness to alert them the student is riding that day.
• We request that students who live on heavily traveled roads (Lima, Coldwater, Carroll, Tonkel, etc...) please call the Transportation Center if they are not riding. 
• Please talk to your student about the dangers of driver distraction. The school bus is a roaming classroom and all school rules apply on the bus. Our drivers often transport twice as many students as a typical classroom. In an effort to help our drivers keep their attention on the road, we do expect excellent behavior on the bus.
• The number one leading cause of bus accidents are distractions to the bus drivers. All students must conduct themselves in an orderly manner so that drivers can concentrate on safely operating the bus at all times. When a student becomes involved in behavior that is distracting, it jeopardizes the safety of those on the bus. The severity of the violation will determine the course of action taken.