Getting student rowdiness on school busses under control Is the goal of a bill gaining momentum in the state legislature?

House Bill 446 requires local school boards to set expectations for bus riding students and their parents and establishes disciplinary actions for misbehavior.

Even up to losing bus riding privileges.

Last November, the Courier Journal reported that the state's largest school district, Jefferson County, was forced to cancel nearly 100 routes after bus drivers organized a sickout and 143 called off work because of student unruliness.

Certainly, if for some reason the system unintentionally fails and a response to a dangerous situation report result in a driver feeling still threatened or unsafe, transporting a specific student, this concern should be considered.

This bill directs boards to implement a policy that will allow a driver to opt out of transporting that student and that will look different for different counties and is not meant to be burdensome for administrators or other drivers when considering other routes and options.

It is intended to reduce unintentional falls within the system and when addressing potentially dangerous students and circumstances.

Drivers have a huge responsibility and we should respect and address concerns thoroughly.

You know, this just started when we had some bussing issues in Jefferson County, and we come to find out discipline on the bus is one of the reasons that we were losing drivers.

And as we continue to examine this issue in Jefferson, we found out the whole state is having some issues.

So.

So this is I believe this will be a good way to address these problems.

In setting guidelines.

Local school boards would work off a model policy developed by the State Education Department.

Students and parents would have to sign a form acknowledging the policy each school year.

Failure to do so could mean bus riding privileges are revoked.

House Bill 446 cleared the Senate Education Committee and now needs approval by the full Senate.

Having enough drivers to get kids to and from school is also an issue lawmakers are trying to settle.

Louisville Republican Emily Calloway's House Bill 447 allows school districts to use passenger vehicles like vans to shuttle kids back and forth to school.

School districts could own lease or contract vehicles.

Van drivers wouldn't have to have a CDL, a commercial driver's license like school bus drivers do.

Which proponents hope will the more folks to take on bus duty.

We've got kids and drivers seeing really late nights on the bus.

And that's that's another, quite frankly, unacceptable practice.

So in smaller districts, having a 30 ton vehicle transport only handle a handful of students on curvy back roads is antiquated and unnecessary.

And so this bill will improve our entire Commonwealth's public schools, transportation routines by allowing the districts to include specifically nine passenger vehicles in their daily bus routes.

We will see a more efficient approach to transporting our most precious cargo implemented statewide.

The Senate Education Panel approved House Bill 447, and it now advances to the full Senate docket.