UW-Madison professor J. Michael Collins explains what impact Social Security changes will have for recipients.
The post Changes to Social Security Administration creating uncertainty for beneficiaries appeared first on WPR.
Denise Jess walked into a Madison polling place on Saturday to vote early in person and encountered a familiar barrier: an absentee ballot envelope with a blank space for writing in her name, birthdate and address.
Jess, who is blind, chuckled along with her wife, who accompanied her to the polls. Who was going to do all that writing?
A poll worker quickly offered help, reminding Jess that she had the right to assistance. Jess, who is executive director of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired, knew she had those rights. But the moment still bothered her.
“It’s just a bummer,” she said, comparing voting with other tasks she performs independently, like identifying birds by ear, paying bills online, posting on social media, and grocery shopping. Voting is a constitutional right in Wisconsin and yet, she said, it remains far less accessible.
Other industries have prioritized accessibility because it benefits their bottom line, she said, but voting systems were not originally designed with accessibility in mind.
“We’re making strides,” she said, “but it’s still always, always about retrofitting and trying to catch up.”
Jess’s experience illustrates a persistent tension in election policy: how to ensure both ballot security and accessibility for all voters. Electronic absentee voting is particularly nettlesome. Disability rights advocates have pushed for this option as a way for people with vision or other disabilities to vote independently, and in private, from home. But cybersecurity experts warn that current technology cannot guarantee that ballots returned electronically will be safe from hacking or manipulation.
Over a dozen other states provide fully electronic absentee voting for people with disabilities. In those states, voters with disabilities can receive a ballot electronically, mark it using a screen reader and return it electronically — similar to signing and returning a document electronically. Wisconsin isn’t one of them. Here, voters with disabilities must cast their votes on a paper ballot, or on an accessible voting machine at a polling place that prints out a paper ballot.
That means that voters who are visually impaired or unable to write must often rely on others to complete their ballots — undermining ballot secrecy, which is also constitutionally protected. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many disabled voters were reluctant to visit the polls in person, Wisconsin’s rules presented an even bigger barrier.
Last year, four voters with disabilities, along with Disability Rights Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit seeking access to electronic absentee voting. A lower court initially granted some voters that option, but an appeals court paused and eventually reversed that order. The case is now before the Dane County Circuit Court.
Beyond the roughly dozen states that offer fully electronic voting, a few others, including Vermont, Michigan, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, allow voters with disabilities to fill out ballots electronically, but they have to print out the ballots and return them by mail, drop box, or in person. Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election technology group, promotes this option as a step forward for states wary of fully electronic voting.
That wouldn’t solve the issue for everyone, though. Jess pointed out that many blind voters don’t own printers, meaning they’d still face accessibility hurdles.
At a time of heightened concern over election security and integrity, some technology experts say fully electronic voting is still not ready to be used widely.
Between August 2021 and September 2022, the University of California, Berkeley, hosted a working group of election, technology and cybersecurity experts to discuss the feasibility of creating standards to enable safe and secure electronic marking and return technologies. The group found that widespread adoption of electronic return would require technologies that don’t currently exist or haven’t been tested.
A 2024 report by several federal agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Assistance Commission, found that sending digital copies of ballots to voters is safe and that filling them out electronically is somewhat safe, but that returning them electronically adds significant security risks.
“Sheer force of will doesn’t suffice to solve this problem,” said Mark Lindeman, the policy and strategy director at Verified Voting. “There needs to be extensive technical innovations that we can’t just dial up.”
Lindeman said threats from electronic ballot return include the possibility that somebody hacks into the system and changes votes. One potential safeguard — having voters verify that their selections were received and counted correctly — remains unproven at scale, the UC-Berkeley working group said.
“That’s the fundamental technical tragedy at this stage of the game,” Lindeman said. “Paper ballots are obviously inconvenient for many voters. They pose real obstacles to voting, but we haven’t found a technical alternative to paper ballots that solves all the problems.”
In Wisconsin, Jess chooses among three imperfect voting options.
She can vote on Election Day in her polling place, whose layout she has memorized, though it can get too busy for her comfort. She can vote using an accessible machine but still has to hand-sign the poll book, something she typically does with the assistance of a poll worker and a signature guide, a small plastic card with a rectangular cutout that frames the area where she has to sign.
Alternatively, she can vote absentee in person during the early voting period, but then she has to receive help with paperwork and navigating an unfamiliar polling place.
Or she can fill out an application online and vote by mail, which she avoids because she can’t fill out a paper ballot without assistance.
“It’s kind of like, what’s the path of least pain?” she said.
For this Wisconsin Supreme Court election, given the potential for bad weather, she opted for early in-person voting at the Hawthorne Public Library, which isn’t her regular polling place.
“There’s enough consistency here at Hawthorne, but still there are surprises,” she said, sitting at a table at the library on Madison’s east side. “Even the simple navigation of going to the table to get the envelope, getting in line. They’re queuing people to wait behind the blue tape, which, of course, I can’t see.”
She could opt for more hands-on help from poll workers to speed up the process, but she said she sees her voting trips as a chance to learn more about the potential barriers for people with disabilities.
Some voters who are newer to vision loss or have more severe barriers can quickly become demoralized by the extra energy they need to put into casting a ballot, especially if poll workers aren’t trained or ready to help, she said.
“We’ve had voters say, ‘I’m not going back. I’m just not doing that again, doing that to myself,’ she said. “So then we lose a voter.”
If electronic voting were available, Jess said, she would do it a lot more often than voting in person because she wouldn’t have to depend on transportation or the weather.
“It would just be absolutely liberating,” she said. “I might still vote in-person at my polling place periodically, because I like my poll workers, and I always like to visit with them and give them kudos. But it would surely ease some stress.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.
How one voter navigates Wisconsin’s hurdles for people with disabilities is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
For more than a decade Brooke Slavens has led the Mobility Lab, a research hub integrating multiple disciplines with the goal of engineering a manual wheelchair that reduces stress on the body. Now, her focus is on children.
The post Milwaukee research lab aims to improve wheelchair experience appeared first on WPR.
Bullets struck a school bus while it was transporting students with special needs in the Bronx, New York, reported ABC 7.
The incident occurred on Friday just before 2:20 p.m. The minibus drove through gunfire and pulled up to an address located about half a mile away from where the shooting took place.
Jose Polanco, a coworker of the school bus driver, told local news reporters that the driver told him he kept driving because his first thought was to get the children somewhere safe.
The bus was reportedly struck at least three times. One bullet struck the back window and two struck the side of the bus. The bus was transporting half a dozen students with special needs. No one inside the bus was injured.
Police said four suspects, all wearing black, were shooting at each other and the school bus got caught in the crossfire.
The shooting took place near a playground, with a school just down the block. The name of the school was not reported, at this writing. Teachers said the shooting sent the school into lockdown, sheltering nervous students and staff in place for about 30 minutes past dismissal.
The suspects fled on foot. One was wearing white stripes and black plants. The investigation is ongoing.
Related: Ohio School Bus Transporting Multiple Students Hit by Gunfire
Related: Pennsylvania Student Arrested After Allegedly Bringing Gun on School Bus
Related: 15-year-old Shot and Killed While Getting Off School Bus in Georgia
Related: New York School Bus Struck by Bullet
The post New York School Bus Hit by Gunfire appeared first on School Transportation News.
Amanda Davila was sentenced to three years in prison for the death of 6-year-old Fajr Williams, who fatally choked on a Somerset County, New Jersey school bus while wearing an improperly secured safety harness.
Davila faced up to 20 years in prison for the charges of aggravated and reckless manslaughter. Instead, a jury found her guilty of child endangerment on Jan. 13. On March 7, a judge sentenced her to three years in prison.
Davila, who was 27 at the time of the Julu 17, 2023 incident, testified in her own defense during the trial and claimed she was at fault but only partially. The defense argued that a family member of Williams improperly buckled her into her wheelchair that day. Davila also reportedly testified during the trial that she wasn’t trained properly on wheelchair securement and made a mistake. However, the school bus contractor she worked for provided monthly training sessions.
Davila’s lawyer said she shared responsibility with the family, who should have ensured the young girl was secured properly. Davila was the assigned bus monitor to Williams, who had Emanuel syndrome, was non-verbal and in a wheelchair. She was being transported to an extended school year program at Claremont Elementary School in Franklin Park New Jersey.
Related: Over a Dozen Injured in a New Jersey School Bus Crash
Related: New Jersey School Bus Driver Struck, Killed by Another School Bus
Related: Setting Realistic Expectations for School Bus Drivers of Students with Special Needs
Related: Three-Vehicle Crash Involving School Buses Leaves Seven Injured
Related: Operation STEER Hands-On School Bus Emergency Training Expands in Texas
As School Transportation News reported at the time, Williams was strangled by her wheelchair’s harness on the bus ride. The student reportedly slumped forward in her wheelchair after a series of bumps. She was wearing a 4-point harness that secured her to the wheelchair, but ultimately became too tight around her neck, blocking her airway.
Video from the bus ride showed Davila seated in front of Williams, on her cellphone and wearing earbuds, a violation of policies and procedures.
The case was also discussed during the 2023 Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs Conference.
The post 3-Year Prison Sentence for School Bus Aide Convicted in Choking Death appeared first on School Transportation News.
In the 1920s, some Americans’ concern for a U.S. in decline led to a rise in various discriminatory policies and movements that hurt vulnerable minorities. (iStock/Getty Images Plus)
As promised, the second Trump administration has quickly rolled out a slew of policies and executive orders that the president says are all aimed at “Making America Great Again.” This takes on different forms, including Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency quickly laying off thousands of workers at various federal agencies, and President Donald Trump pausing all funding for Ukraine.
Trump says that, among others, there are three groups that are making America not-great: immigrants, people with disabilities, and people who are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
These administration efforts began at a time when many Americans expressed an overall rising sense of dissatisfaction with the state of the country and politics. Just 19% of Americans said in December 2024 that they think the country is heading in the right direction.
This perspective is striking not only because it is so dark, but because it strongly resembles how Americans felt during a pivotal decade 100 years ago, when people’s dissatisfaction with the state of the country led to a series of discriminatory, hateful policies by the federal government.
It’s a period of American history that I think offers something of a mirror of the current political situation in the U.S.
In the 1920s, the economy was good, the U.S. had won World War I, and a terrible pandemic ended.
But many Americans did not see it that way.
They entered the 1920s with a growing sense of paranoia and a feeling that they had been robbed of something. Winning World War I had come at a terrible cost. More than 116,000 American soldiers died and twice that number came home wounded.
As the war came to a close, the U.S. – and the world – was in the throes of the flu pandemic that ultimately claimed tens of millions of lives, including about 675,000 in the U.S.
Other Americans were concerned about the possible rise of communism in the U.S., as well as the arrival of many immigrants. This led extremists to introduce and implement hate-based policies at the federal and state level that targeted nonwhite immigrants and disabled people.
Among the most significant results of that political moment was the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, a restrictive immigration policy that, among other changes, prohibited immigration from Asia.
Another pivotal movement was the Supreme Court’s 1927 Buck v. Bell decision, which affirmed that the state of Virginia had the right to sterilize intellectually and developmentally disabled people.
The Johnson-Reed Act prompted a major shift in American immigration policy, based on the fear of something that former President Theodore Roosevelt and others called “race suicide.”
The law introduced rigid restrictions keeping people out of the country who were not from Northern and Western Europe. The immigration quotas that it established would continue to be enforced into the 1960s.
The U.S. politicians who lobbied for this law were successful because they supported their effort by presenting evidence that showed purportedly scientific proof that almost all people in the world were biologically inferior to a group they called the Nordic Race – meaning people from Northern Europe – and their American descendants, who formed a group they called the “American Race.”
By restricting immigration from all other groups, these legislators believed they were counterbalancing a crushing period where war and pandemic had killed off what they saw as the country’s best people.
Different groups preyed on Americans’ grief about the war and pandemic and directed it against minority groups.
From Maine to California, a revived Ku Klux Klan attracted millions of followers with its belief that white people were superior to all others, and that Black people should remain enslaved. At the same time, a group of scientists, doctors and psychologists found enormous success in persuading the public that there were scientific reasons why hatred and discrimination needed to be incorporated into American government.
Their proof was something called eugenics, a pseudoscience which argued that humans had to use advanced technology and medicine to get people with good traits to reproduce while stopping those with bad traits from having the opportunity to do so.
Harry Laughlin, a eugenicist based at a research laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, was one of this movement’s most vocal representatives.
Laughlin worked for several different eugenics research organizations, and this helped him become successful at creating propaganda supporting eugenics that influenced public policy. He then gained a spot as an expert eugenics adviser to Congress in the early 1920s. With his position, Laughlin then provided the pseudoscientific data that gave the supporters of Johnson-Reed the claims they needed to justify passing the measure.
In Laughlin’s influential 1922 book “Eugenic Sterilization in the United States,” he detailed a road map for passing a law that would allow governments to sterilize disabled people.
After so much death during World War I and the influenza pandemic, Laughlin found fertile ground for making a case that the U.S. needed to stop people who might be considered “feeble-minded” from passing down inferior traits.
In the mid-1920s, Laughlin and his allies pressed a court case against a teenage woman whom the state of Virginia had deemed an imbecile and incarcerated at a massive Virginia institution for the feeble-minded. This woman, Carrie Buck, was incarcerated after she gave birth to a child in 1924 who was conceived as a result of rape. If Buck, who was 18 years old at the time, had any hope of being released, the officials who ran the institution demanded she be sterilized first.
All across the country, states had begun legalizing forced sterilization. Now, this case of Buck v. Bell made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1927, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. issued the court’s ruling, which had only one dissent. In it, he wrote that “three generations of imbeciles is enough” and extended the scope of a previous ruling that allowed the government to compel people to get vaccinated to include forced sterilization of disabled people.
Buck was forcibly sterilized in October 1927, shortly after the court’s ruling.
While it is unquestionable that sterilization and other discriminatory policies found common cause with Adolf Hitler’s rising Nazi movement – which used the eugenic ideas of sterilization and mass extermination – they persisted, largely unchallenged, here in the U.S.
Some people, including myself, argue that the spirit of these discriminatory policies still exists in the U.S. today.
Following stalemated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the American economy has been growing.
But sensing a grave decline, some white Americans have turned their sights on people with disabilities, immigrants, transgender and nonbinary people, and people of color as the source of their problems.
Trump regularly encourages this kind of thinking. In January 2025, he blamed an air collision that occurred over the Potomac River and killed 67 people on disabled Federal Aviation Administration employees, implying that they did not possess the intelligence to do their jobs.
Trump falsely said the Jan. 1, 2025, New Orleans terror attack was caused by illegal immigration, even though a Texas-born man drove a car into a crowd of people, killing 14.
At a policy level, Trump’s administration has made significant changes to the immigration system, including taking steps to remove legal protections for 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. And he has launched an unprecedented challenge to birthright citizenship.
There are limits to what history can say about the current situation. But these similarities with the early 1920s suggest that, contrary to many claims about the unprecedented nature of the current times, the country has been here before.
Alex Green is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Max Glass-Hui uses an electronic communication device, picking words that the device then speaks to his mother, Tiffany Glass. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Max Glass-Hui is an energetic 14-year-old who romps through the modest home on Madison’s West Side where he lives with his mother.
Born with Down syndrome and diagnosed as autistic, Max can read words and understand what’s spoken to him, but he doesn’t talk. Instead, he communicates with an electronic device about the size of an iPad, pressing words that the machine then speaks on his behalf. “Good-bye,” he tells his mother through the machine one recent morning, as she sits with him in his bedroom.
Tiffany Glass smiles affably, acknowledges her son’s assertion of independence, and steps out of the room.
Their interaction isn’t so different from those any number of parents and children have every day. For this parent and this child, however, it might have seemed unimaginable a generation ago.
Not so long ago, a child like Max was likely to spend his life inside the walls of an institution. Changes in social attitudes, medical ethics, and state and federal policy have made it possible for him to grow up and thrive at home.
One of those policies, says Tiffany Glass, is Medicaid — and without it, she believes Max’s life would have been much worse.
“His medical problems would not have been treated as effectively,” she says. “His quality of life would have been absolutely terrible. He would have been much more excluded from our community than he is now.”
Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance plan launched in the 1960s to provide health care for people living in poverty. In Wisconsin, it’s best known as BadgerCare Plus, which covers primary health care and hospital care for people living below the federal poverty guideline. But Medicaid touches hundreds of thousands of other Wisconsin residents as well.
More than half of Wisconsin’s nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid after spending down most of their other personal savings and assets. Other Medicaid programs provide long-term skilled care to people living in their own homes or in the community — people who are frail and elderly, but also people living with disabilities.
“I’m not sure people are aware of the lifeline Medicaid is to so many people,” says Kim Marheine, state ombudsman for the Wisconsin Board on Aging and Long Term Care. “Without Medicaid some of these people have no place to go for services.”
Congress is currently rewriting the federal budget in ways that patients, families, health care providers and advocates fear will upend the program dramatically, ending coverage for millions who have few or no alternatives.
The Republican majority in the U.S. House wants to find $4.5 trillion in federal funds to pay for renewing tax cuts enacted in 2017 during President Donald Trump’s first term. On Feb. 25, the House, voting along party lines, cleared the way for a budget resolution that carves $880 billion over 10 years from programs under the purview of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The text of the bill doesn’t doesn’t specify where those cuts come from — a point Republicans have emphasized to rebut claims that the vote was an attack on people’s health care. Nevertheless, Medicaid “is expected to bear much of the cuts,” according to KFF, a nonpartisan, nonprofit health news and research organization.
“What is in the jurisdiction of that committee? Well, the largest dollar amount is Medicaid,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) at a press conference in Madison Feb. 19. Advocates dismiss Republican denials, treating Medicaid cuts as a foregone conclusion and holding GOP lawmakers responsible.
“The draconian cuts to Medicaid that every single Wisconsin Republican voted for are an absolute wrecking ball,” says Joe Zepecki of Protect Our Care, a national advocacy group for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. In that wrecking ball’s path, he says, are the state budget, tens of thousands of Wisconsin businesses that bill Medicaid, and more than a million state residents whose health care Medicaid covers.
Medicaid is funded jointly by federal and state governments. Federal law guarantees that the U.S. will pay at least half of the program’s cost, with the state paying for the rest. Wisconsin has a 60% federal contribution; the remaining 40% comes out of the state budget.
For fiscal year 2023, Wisconsin’s Medicaid expenditures totaled $12.5 billion, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a Congressional agency. The federal government paid just under $8.2 billion of that; Wisconsin paid the remainder, about $4.4 billion.
A Medicaid reduction on the scale that the budget resolution requires “will leave enormous shortfalls for the state heading into the next two years, all so Trump and his MAGA majorities can deliver another tax cut to huge corporations and CEOs like Elon Musk,” Zepecki says. “The federal money disappearing doesn’t mean the needs disappear, which is likely to force everyone else to pay even higher costs for their own health care.”
According to the January 2025 enrollment numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), about 1.3 million Wisconsin residents rely on Medicaid for day-to-day health care, long-term care or both — more than 1 out of 5 state residents.
They include more than 900,000 Wisconsinites who are enrolled in BadgerCare Plus. The health insurance plan for people up to age 65 covers doctor’s office visits, preventive care, surgery, hospital stays including childbirth, and other day-to-day health care needs for families living below the federal poverty guidelines. Children are covered in families with incomes up to 300% of the federal guideline; BadgerCare covers one-third of Wisconsin’s children.
Medicaid also covers alcoholism treatment, substance abuse treatment and other forms of care for mental health. “Medicaid is one of the largest payers of mental health care in the state,” says Tamara Jackson, policy analyst for the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities. It is the major funder of county mental health services, whether provided directly by a county agency or in partnership with a community agency, according to the Wiscons Counties Association.
Covering mental health is more than simply covering the cost of medications that may be prescribed. “Depression and anxiety medications are most effective in combination with the use of counseling services,” says Sheng Lee Yang, an Appleton clinical social worker. But if patients prescribed a medication aren’t able to get counseling as well, “their symptoms are only being treated at a 50% rate. That’s not real effective.”
Medicaid is part of health care all across Wisconsin. A study from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families released in January found that residents of rural counties in the U.S. are more likely to rely on Medicaid for their health coverage than urban residents. In 27 northern and central Wisconsin rural counties, the share of children on Medicaid is higher than the state average, the study found.
Medicaid’s reach doesn’t stop there, however. Through nearly 20 different programs, Medicaid covers the health care of more than 260,000 additional Wisconsin residents.
For about 10,800 frail, elderly people who could not otherwise afford nursing home care, Medicaid pays the cost — about 60% of the state’s nursing home population.
Medicaid has also expanded beyond primary health care or nursing home care. Programs launched over the last several decades now allow eligible people who need long-term care to get the same services through Medicaid at home or in the community that they would receive in a nursing home.
To join those programs states apply to the federal government with proposals that would waive standard Medicaid rules. The idea is that if someone who needs long-term care can remain at home or in another homelike setting, the overall cost of care will be far lower than in a nursing home, stretching the Medicaid dollar farther.
More than 43,000 frail elderly or disabled adults in Wisconsin receive long-term care at home or in the community — in assisted living, for instance — under Medicaid waivers. Family Care began piloting in individual Wisconsin counties about 25 years ago as a nursing home alternative. It has since gone statewide, joined by allied programs that allow people to customize their care plans.
For elderly relatives who needed the intensive level of care offered by a nursing home, Family Care “gave them a tremendous alternative to skilled nursing care,” says Janet Zander, the advocacy and public policy coordinator for the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources.
“A lot of work Wisconsin has been doing, and other states as well, has been shifting how we provide care to people’s homes,” says Jackson.
Beth Barton’s daughter, Maggie, was born 25 years ago with cerebral palsy. She doesn’t talk and is not able to move about on her own, and for her whole life she’s needed complex medical care, Barton says.
One of Medicaid’s earliest waiver programs is named for Katie Beckett, a child from Iowa whose story led the Reagan administration in the 1980s to authorize long-term health care at home for children with disabilities instead of only in a hospital or nursing home. In Wisconsin, there are about 13,500 children enrolled in the state’s Katie Beckett waiver program.
When Maggie was a child, the Katie Beckett waiver enabled the Barton family to care for her at home. The family’s health care comes through the company plan where Beth Barton’s husband works. Medicaid served as a secondary insurer for Maggie, covering insurance copayments and for her care that the family insurance didn’t pay for.
Growing up, Maggie was able to attend Lakeland School, a public Walworth County school for children with disabilities. School “was difficult” her mother says, but it also provided rewarding interaction for her daughter. The school’s therapeutic pool became part of Maggie’s daily routine, where “she could be free,” Barton says, able to enjoy sensory experiences outside her wheelchair.
After Maggie turned 18, she was enrolled in IRIS — a Medicaid-funded long-term care program. While Family Care works though contracts with managed care providers, IRIS, a more recent variation, allows people to make their own arrangements for services, including home health care and personal care.
IRIS Medicaid funding helps pay for a social worker who visits four times a year and respite care when Barton can’t be at home. It also covers home modifications, such as an accessibility ramp.
Without the support Medicaid has provided throughout Maggie’s life, Barton believes her daughter might well have ended up in an institution. She’s not optimistic about that option.
“Her unique needs are best met one-one,” Barton says. “If we didn’t have private duty nursing, if we didn’t have Medicaid to meet those needs, I honestly don’t think she’d be with us.”
Another Medicaid waiver covers certain purchases children with disabilities need as they grow up.
Danielle Bauer’s 3-year-old son, Henry, was born with Down syndrome and has also been diagnosed with autism. The family lives in Wausau, and Wisconsin’s Children’s Long-term Support waiver helped cover the cost of a sensory chair that offers Henry “a quiet retreat to prevent meltdowns,” Bauer says. The family also got coverage for a specialized high chair that will grow with him as he gets older.
“It has made a huge difference in his quality of life,” Bauer says of her son. “He is capable of so much more, but without these supports, families don’t have resources to help kids like him.”
Until Jessica Seawright’s son was born nine years ago, she and her husband had no inkling their child would have a disability, let alone a serious one. Because of a chromosome abnormality, he has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
“We didn’t have anything show up in terms of prenatal testing,” Seawright says. “This came out of the blue.”
The Children’s Long-term Support waiver helped the family purchase a wheel-chair van to transport their son. It also helped cover the cost of widening a doorway in their home on the South Side of Milwaukee so he can get into the bathroom using his chair.
Seawright is a social worker and therapist. Her employer provides the family’s primary insurance, with the couple paying about $300 a month toward the premium as well as covering their own medical and dental copayments.
The Katie Beckett waiver has made it possible for Medicaid, through BadgerCare, to pick up her son’s medical costs, Seawright says. He often has to go to the emergency room and has other complex medical needs. He has recurring seizures, and he has trouble swallowing and needs a gastric tube. He’s been prescribed various medications and formula supplements as well.
Without that support, she says it’s likely that the family would burn through the $5,000 annual cap on their out-of-pocket health care costs.
“We would be making really tough choices — what can we afford out of pocket each year? It would be a question of how often we pay for foot braces when he outgrows them,” Seaward says — along with the medications, supplements and formula he needs.
“It’s not that we don’t want to pay for our fair share, but with the cost of his care it’s not possible to keep up with,” she says.
Tiffany Glass is a University of Wisconsin research scientist, studying why children with Down syndrome often have trouble eating, drinking and swallowing. She was in the process of deciding what direction she wanted her research career to take when her son Max was born; his diagnosis pointed the way.
“Up until the mid-1980s in the United states, a lot of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities were institutionalized, because their communities didn’t have the resources to accommodate them,” Glass says.
UW medical ethicist Dr. Norman Fost wrote in a 2020 journal article that as recently as the late 1970s it wasn’t unheard of for parents to allow newborns with Down syndrome to die without medical intervention.
“It’s a really dark part of our history,” Glass says.
Medicaid changed that for Max — supporting him for his medical care, communication (it has paid in the past for an electronic tablet that speaks for him), and activities of daily living.
“He needs help with all of those things,” Glass says. “It adds up to needing skilled care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For his whole life he’s required that type of care, and he probably always will.”
In addition to providing resources for Max’s care at home, Medicaid has also enabled Glass to pursue her scientific calling. Without it, her research career might have stopped before it started, she says.
Regular child care centers are unlikely to take someone whose disabilities are as severe as his, she has found, but the children’s long-term support waiver has covered the cost of respite care.
“That has allowed me to work outside the home for a decade as a research scientist,” says Glass. “If Medicaid hadn’t been there, I probably would not have been able to develop my research career. I would have had to stay home — to the detriment of scientific research.”
Now, however, she and countless others who have come to rely on the program — adults and children, people with disabilities and caregivers for elderly relatives — have grown anxious about whether they will still be able to count on the care that Medicaid has made possible.
“Those arrangements are still very fragile,” Glass says. “We’re all very worried that if funding for Medicaid is reduced or eliminated, that could have really terrible implications for our families.”
This story is Part One in a series.
This report was updated to correct the spelling of Max’s last name.
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Constance “Connie” Sue (Newton) Murray, a dedicated advocate for child safety and former owner of E-Z-ON Products, Inc., passed away unexpectedly on Oct. 26, 2024. She was 80.
She was buried at Forest Hills Memorial Park in Palm City, Florida, on Jan. 29, her daughter Wendi Hancock told School Transportation News.
Murray’s life was defined by compassion, innovation and an unwavering commitment to improving transportation safety for children and individuals with special needs.
She was born on April 23, 1944, Zanesville, Ohio, and graduated from Philo High School in 1962. She worked as a registered nurse for more than two decades, bringing care and comfort to those in need. Her passion for helping others ultimately led her to transition into the safety industry, where she made an indelible mark.
Murray founded E-Z-ON Products, Inc. of Florida, a company dedicated to designing and manufacturing safety restraints for children and adults with disabilities and special needs, in 1985 and served as president. Under her leadership, E-Z-ON Products developed multiple innovations that continue to be widely used in school transportation today. Her dedication earned her recognition as a pioneer in the industry, with many considering her an icon for her contributions to student safety.
Hancock, recalled the passion that drove her mother’s work.
“Honestly, my mom loved to help people,” Wendi Hancock wrote to STN in an email. “When she first acquired E-Z-ON, the company was manufacturing racing seatbelts for cars. She saw a greater need and used her nursing background to create the safety vest for transporting special needs students and patients.”
She went on to describe her mother’s impact.
“During the time she owned E-Z-ON, she developed multiple other products that became widely used in the school industry,” Hancock added. “She even created specialized equipment for Johns Hopkins Hospital to help transport immobile patients or those needing more support than a standard seat belt could offer.”
“My mom prided herself on making the best product for everyone,” she said. “She had a kind soul and was always there when you needed her most.”
Murray’s influence extended well beyond her business. She was a devoted advocate for the student transportation industry and a beloved figure within the community. A testament to her commitment was her sponsorship of the slots tournament at the STN EXPO West conference in Reno, Nevada. This annual event became a favorite among attendees and vendors, serving as a platform for building camaraderie and celebrating the industry’s shared mission. Colleagues and friends recall her generosity and warmth, which left a lasting impression on everyone she encountered.
Murray sold E-Z-On Products in 2017.
Beyond her professional achievements, Murray’s personal life reflected her values of care and dedication. She was a skilled seamstress and quilter, sharing her creations with friends, family and local organizations. Her community involvement earned her accolades, including being named Senior Citizen of the Year, highlighting her tireless efforts to give back and make a difference.
Murray is survived by her daughter, Wendi (Fitz) Hancock (Patrick), and her beloved granddaughter, Alexandra. She was a cherished sister to Ronald (the late Sue) and Donald (Shirley) and held close ties with many other family members and friends.
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The post Connie Murray Remembered for Advocacy of Child Safety, Securement in School Buses appeared first on School Transportation News.
In a workshop titled Fit for Duty: Setting Realistic Expectations for School Bus Drivers of Students with Special Needs, industry veterans explored the challenges and nuances of finding and retaining drivers equipped to meet the needs of students with disabilities during the Transporting Students with Disabilities (TSD) and Special Needs Conference in November.
The session featured Alexandra Robinson, a 34-year education veteran who has served as a special education teacher and executive director of the Office of Pupil Transportation in New York City; David Johnson, Iowa Association for Pupil Transportation executive director; William Tousley, a Farmington, Michigan Public Schools bus driver trainer; and Lorena Valenzi, head bus driver trainer from the Shenendehowa Central School District in New York.
Panelists began with the premise that the correct fit for a driver for students with disabilities or special needs is “more than just a good hire” in an era when a shortage of drivers can easily lead to a quantity-vs.-quality tug of war.
Tousley, who joked that after 48 years in the transportation business he is “starting to like it,” said despite perpetual driver shortages, hiring practices must center around drivers who are best qualified to safely transport children with special needs. “What really matters is how we take care of the kids,” he said.
Others also acknowledged the difficulties of balancing the immediate need for quantity with the critical need for quality in hiring. As Tousley noted, “It’s harder to get rid of people than to hire them,” making the initial selection process crucial. Valenzi described how her district’s office staff, including mechanics, often step in to cover routes, raising concerns about operational decision-making when key personnel are behind the wheel.
Robinson stressed the importance of hiring drivers who are not only physically fit but emotionally and mentally prepared for the unique challenges of transporting students with special needs. “We must separate the behavior from the passenger,” she explained, emphasizing that the role requires patience, adaptability and empathy.
Robinson noted that children’s behaviors and attitudes have changed over the years, which necessitates changes in driver qualifications and traits. “Have kids stayed the same? They have not,” she said, highlighting the need for flexible training tailored to various applicant backgrounds, whether they come from military, factory or corporate settings.
Training emerged as a central theme, particularly for emergency preparedness in the wake of a 2017 Riverside (Iowa) School District tragedy in which a driver was physically unable to escape a bus fire that also claimed a student’s life.
Panelists underscored the importance of agility tests, routine camera reviews and open communication with parents and school staff. “We can’t guarantee the safety of children in emergencies unless we practice with them,” said Robinson. She added that cameras should be celebrated as tools to ensure safety and accountability.
Tousley reflected on the trust placed in drivers: “In what other industry can you pull up in a big vehicle, and they’ll give you, their kids?”
Panelists stressed the critical role drivers play in fostering community trust and bridging the gap between transportation and education.
Finding the right fit for drivers goes beyond hiring. Robinson urged districts to reassess existing staff and address those whose attitudes or inflexibility hinder the team. “If you hesitate to say you want this person driving a child, they shouldn’t be there,” she asserted.
The session also reinforced the concept that school transportation is an extension of the classroom. “We’re here to make a difference in kids’ lives,” Tousley said. From greeting students warmly to understanding their daily struggles, drivers can positively impact children’s school experiences.
Panelists agreed that by fostering patience, flexibility and strong communication, transportation departments can better support students with special needs while maintaining a high standard of service even in the face of persistent driver shortages.
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I was inspired by the reaction of attendees at the recent TSD Conference to the concept of celebrating student success during transportation. When this idea was presented in November in Frisco, Texas, where I moderated two panel discussions, it seemed like
virtually everyone was writing it down. Not that celebrating is such a novel idea, but the fact it was being noted by so many attendees, to remember when they got back to work, meant this idea merits at the least more discussion. I decided to flesh it out a little and hopefully show more people why we should be doing it.
We all know transportation is an essential service for many students with special needs. We also know that we should be taking every opportunity to educate students. We certainly want to teach students how to wait for the school bus. We also want to teach them how to enter and exit the school bus, and, perhaps most importantly, how to ride the school bus. Doing all of these by the age of 18 or 22 is a priority, to meet the call of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
These skills need to be passed on to all students at every opportunity. It is essential that these competences are taught and reinforced often.
We will not succeed in every case, but if we start early enough and stick with it, most students will achieve some success, and more than a few will master skills. Students show safer behavior as they become educated. We should celebrate all of them. They are all successes and so are we for our role in their development.
Here’s where the value of celebrating starts to multiply. Shouldn’t the teachers and aides in the classroom celebrate the students’ successes? Yes, because they are responsible for similar advances. They probably have taught the students those same skills in a different setting. They may not have taught the student to show the driver the bus pass, but they could have taught them how to present their student ID to the librarian. They might not
have shown the student how to stand in line waiting to get on the bus, but they probably showed the student how to wait in line to come into the classroom from recess.
Parents also need to take the time to celebrate their student’s success. Most of their communication with the school site is negative. “I only hear from the office when there is a behavioral problem involving my student,” is a complaint we often hear. That alone justifies inviting them to celebrate. But there are so many more reasons.
Here are a few:
• They can see the students demonstrate their progress. We can take the parent and student out to the bus, so the student can demonstrate what they have learned.
• We can also use the opportunity to answer other questions that the parent(s) might have.
• They can see what we’re going to teach next and prepare their students.
• They can come to understand that they are not alone, that struggles they’ve had are shared by others.
• They might be able to gain the confidence that, just maybe, their children will be able to safely ride the public bus when they progress into the world without our care.
The principal, special education staff, and other site employees also need to share in the success. They all played a role in the success. Why not celebrate? The final group that must be invited consists of school bus drivers and transportation staff. How often do we
celebrate them for what they do? We owe them this celebration. In particular, we should be praising our drivers and aides for their ability to educate. That is, the drivers and aides actually teach skills that children will use for life. The drivers do all this for every student without asking much from us. If you can, pay them the extra hour or two the celebration requires, and celebrate them as educators.
These celebrations don’t have to take long, but they are essential. Invite the special education staff, the site staff, district administrators, and others. Maybe food services
can chip in some nutritious snacks (at a huge discount we hope.) You might be surprised at who shows up and just how much they appreciate it. We’re celebrating students’ success but we’re also celebrating everyone’s role in the students’ achievements. What could be better?
Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the January 2025 issue of School Transportation News.
Pete Meslin is a TSD Conference advisor and a retired director of transportation for Newport-Mesa Unified School District in California. He authored the “Bus in the Classroom” program to teach students with disabilities how to safely prepare for and ride school buses.
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The foundations of transporting students with disabilities and special needs begin with recognizing that vehicles are an integral piece of the entire school experience and that transportation professionals have a central role in Individual Education Programs (IEPs), three panelists said during the Transporting Students with Disabilities (TSD) and Special Needs Conference in Frisco, Texas last November.
Panelists Alex Robinson, Rosalynn Vann-Jackson and Susan Moorehead emphasized every transportation department professional’s responsibility in supporting the academic and personal growth of students with disabilities.
“What happens on the bus is an extension of the classroom and can make or break that student,” industry consultant Robinson explained. “We need to make sure drivers, transporters and parents understand that the goals on the bus match the goals in the classroom. And that can’t happen without effective communication.”
Vann-Jackson, the chief support services officer with the Broken Arrow Public Schools in Oklahoma, stressed the importance of leveraging the collective knowledge of transportation teams. “One thing I’ve learned in pupil transportation is you can’t do it all yourself. Look to the people on your left and right,” she said.
Susan Moorehead, area safety and training manager for Zum Services, agreed. “This is a career where you can make a difference in enhancing the education process of students,” she added. “It’s so much more than driving—it’s about shaping a part of their educational journey.”
The panelists highlighted the evolving role of transportation professionals in IEPs, which are legally mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These plans ensure students receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.
“Transportation is a related service under the law, but we often don’t treat it as such,” Robinson said. “The least restrictive environment for transportation starts with general education buses, yet too often we default to special education buses without fully considering the student’s needs.”
The panelists advocated for transportation professionals to be included in IEP meetings, especially when changes in placement, equipment, or support are being discussed.
“You are the expert in transportation,” Vann-Jackson said. “You see things every day that teachers and administrators don’t. If a child has seizures triggered by flashing lights, you need to share that. If there’s a new wheelchair that needs securing, you’ll know how to handle it before anyone else.”
Moorehead added, “Transportation professionals are part of the educational process, not just vendors dropping off students. … It starts with the contract and getting involved immediately with the special education department. … Build relationships with special education departments and show them the value you bring,” Moorehead said.
The panel also addressed the challenges faced by transportation teams, from managing sensitive medical information to maintaining student safety during emergencies.
“There needs to be a chain of custody for medication on the bus. A backpack is not the best place,” Robinson said. “And confidentiality is critical. Drivers shouldn’t be discussing a student’s medication or behavior over the radio.”
Vann-Jackson emphasized the importance of selecting the right people for the job. “Drivers and attendants need to have patience, compassion and the ability to work with children from all backgrounds. If someone tells me they don’t like kids, I tell them UPS is hiring,” she said.
She continued, “It’s not just about attendance and whether we can count on that driver or attendant. It’s about temperament. They need to be able to communicate back to children with patience. We have to provide tools and resources, and they have to be willing to take on those tools and resources.”
Technology and training also play key roles in enhancing the transportation experience. Moorehead highlighted the use of artificial intelligence and other innovations to better understand students’ needs. “The children who need us the most are the ones we can know the most about, thanks to technology,” she added.
The panelists closed the discussion with a call to action: Involve transportation teams early and often in the educational process.
Robinson shared the poignant example of a 22-year-old student whose love for school kept him alive beyond his expected lifespan. “Transportation professionals are part of that IEP team, and what we do matters. Don’t hesitate to speak up and demand the resources you need to provide the best possible service for these students,” she told audience members.
She cautioned, “The reason districts or contractors get into trouble is they know something is important and they don’t ask for it or demand it.”
In the end, the message was clear that pupil transportation is about more than simply getting students with disabilities and special needs from Point A to Point B; it’s about ensuring they arrive ready to learn, grow and thrive.
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A school bus emergency that requires evacuation becomes even more multi-faceted when the unique needs of students with special needs or disabilities are factored in. At the 2024 Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs Conference (TSD) Conference, attendees of the Hands-on School Bus Evacuations for Students with Special Needs & Preschoolers class encountered this in real time during.
The TSD Conference brings together student transporters, special educators and other stakeholders for collaboration, education, networking and the critical hands-on training needed for those transporting our most precious cargo. Due to increased interest, two evacuation classes were held at the conference, one on Nov. 9 and one on Nov. 10. Both were hosted by Frisco Independent School District.
Launi Schmutz-Harden, industry consultant and TSD Tenured Faculty member, was one of the instructors for the class. Her many years in transportation have given her unique insight into the impact of emergency training. She noted the importance of collaboration when developing emergency response training. She listed meetings with emergency personnel, occupational & physical therapists, nurses, teachers and parents all as invaluable when determining an effective strategy to keep students and staff safe during emergency situations.
STN reached out to attendees who participated in the evacuation class to document their experiences. One such attendee was Joe Boyles, a school bus driver driver-trainer for the Montana Association for Pupil Transportation (MAPT). He had been driving a non-yellow school bus since 2013 and began operating his first yellow school bus route in 2023. His experience driving a bus with students with special needs only began last August. He explained that there was a need for a driver-trainer specifically for drivers of special education routes, which led him to attend the TSD Conference.
“I registered for the evacuation training because I have a student in a wheelchair and I did not have any training on evacuating a student in a wheelchair,” said Boyles. “I know that evacuations are a challenge any time, but I felt that if I got this training, I could bring it back to our district as well as create my own training for MAPT.
Misty Horttor, the route coordinator for Elko County School District in Nevada, said her experience working with students with special needs began in 2017, when she applied for a job as a substitute bus aide on for special education routes. Her career progressed to school bus driver, then driver-trainer, and she now serves in not only as route coordinator but site supervisor and lead trainer. She learned about the TSD Conference while attending STN EXPO West in Reno, Nevada.
She said the evacuation greatly interested her as “our drivers, especially our new drivers, are always intimidated by the thought of evacuation and evacuation drills. If there is a way to help them become more confident in their abilities, I am all for it.”
Both Boyles and Hortter said they received a wealth of information from the class. The classroom part of the evacuation class also includes a quiz for participants.
“The classroom part was great in that I needed the information to make the practical part make more sense. If you know the why we are doing this, the practice and practical part makes more sense,” said Boyles. “Coming up with an evacuation plan was probably the most informative for me. I needed to do one for my bus and this training gave me the information I needed to write that evacuation plan.”
“One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching this class is witnessing the attendees engage in brainstorming sessions to develop evacuation plans,” added Harden. “Their passion for their work and commitment to the children they support often leads to emotional moments, underscoring the importance of this training.”
The hands-on training has participants enter a bus filled with theater smoke to mimic conditions during an on-board fire. The vehicle also contains dolls representing student riders with various special needs and disabilities. Using fire extinguishers and other tools, attendees implement evacuation plans to safely remove the students. Horttor said she rescued a student in a car seat, using belt cutters, evacuated a student with a blanket and other challenging scenarios.
“You have no idea how disorienting the smoke will be until you are in the bus,” noted Horttor. “How difficult it is to sweep the whole bus to make sure no one was missed and how staggering it can feel to realize that in a real situation, which I’m sure would be a hundred times more stressful, you would have lost an actual child. It was an eye-opening experience that I would love to try with all of our drivers.”
Boyles noted how he appreciated the smoke for the added realism, saying, “It was a real eye opener for me. To be able to search a bus while keeping low is a lot harder than you would think. Knowing it was practice helped me to not panic and make a thorough search. I just hope that if I ever need to do a search, I can keep calm and be thorough.”
Horttor noted the importance of having an evacuation plan and practicing it is often underestimated by many. Engaging in the training at TSD also provided valuable input from student transportation professionals from other operations across the country that are facing their own unique challenges, she said. “This training made us think about the what ifs, including some what ifs that haven’t crossed our minds. But thanks to our very knowledgeable instructors, we hope these situations never happen, but we have plans in case they do.”
Harden shared feedback she received from Ann Taylor, coordinator of transportation at Clay County Schools in Florida, who has attended the evacuation class three times. “She appreciates the collaborative learning environment, where students share valuable insights with one another,” said Harden.
Harden continued that many participants of the class are using the information they learned at the TSD evacuation class at their operations in such states as California, Delaware, Florida, Oregon and Texas.
“As this was the first national training I have ever been to, I did not know what to expect. I was a bit overwhelmed as I am a new special needs driver,” said Boyles. “I truly believe that I gained much information that I will be able to use at our school district. I can also use that information in training other drivers across the state of Montana.”
Boyles continued “I will say that I learned so much at this conference that I am very glad I attended. I got so much information that I hope to use in the future at our school district. I plan to have a meeting with the Transportation Director about things we can implement and make our buses safer and have our drivers better trained. I would suggest to everyone, only change one thing at a time.”
Horttor summed up her experience saying, “I feel better about the training we are providing to our drivers as well as the things I can add to our training program in the future to hopefully help our drivers become more knowledgeable and confident in their ability to handle the situations that may come with this job.”
Harden noted the importance of registering for trainings early due to high demand and not underestimating the amount of time that should be spent on continuing the training.
“It is crucial to understand the importance of practicing evacuations with students, as it can take up to a year for them to learn how to exit safely in an emergency. For some students, the height of the backdoor can be daunting, akin to jumping from a two-story building. Planning and practicing is essential for the students that ride the bus,” said Harden. “This training is crucial at TSD, which serves as a comprehensive resource for those involved in transporting students with disabilities. We discuss real-life scenarios and ensure that all attendees are prepared for emergencies.”
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Routing students with special needs and disabilities requires pupil transportation professionals to implement innovative thinking and solutions to achieve the best outcomes, a panel of experts shared during the TSD Conference in Frisco, Texas in November.
The session was moderated by Kerry Somerville, chief executive officer of Transportation Planning Solutions in Gilbert, Arizona, who has nearly 40 years of experience in school bus routing and a personal connection to special needs transportation. His daughter has cerebral palsy and rode the school bus. He said he remembers vividly the many challenges his family endured when working with the school district to ensure their daughter received the transportation service she needed.
The TSD Conference conversation highlighted key strategies for optimizing services while keeping costs down.
Alemnesh Allen, special education transportation coordinator with Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, shared how flexible routing and technology are essential to managing the district’s 500 special education routes. With more than 135,000 students in the district, including 85,000 who are transported daily, Allen emphasized the importance of collaboration between school bus drivers, bus lot supervisors, and case managers.
“You can have special needs students on regular buses,” Allen explained. “We always consider how we can cut costs, including using alternative vehicles for longer trips.”
Kala Henkensiefken, special education transportation coordinator for Independent School District 31 in Bemidji, Minnesota, underscored similar points. In her rural district, which covers 700 square miles, she combines resources by using full-sized buses with three paraprofessionals to support students with higher-functioning abilities. This approach not only saves money but also integrates students with special needs into a regular bus environment.
“The kids would get on the bus and say, ‘Oh, I’m on a regular bus.’ It made them feel like their peers,” Henkensiefken noted.
Data was a recurring theme throughout the conversation, particularly when it comes to ensuring that the routing system reflects students’ unique needs. Henkensiefken shared her experience of initially struggling to enter the right information into the system, which confused both drivers and parents.
“I was routing it in the system but wasn’t getting the right data,” she explained. “We created a simple Google doc to collect vital information from parents, and over time, it helped streamline communication and made parents feel more involved in ensuring their child’s safety.”
Dana Rosen, assistant director of transportation specializing in student safety and campus support with the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in Houston, Texas, stressed that clear, real-time communication with parents also plays a crucial role in minimizing complaints.
“If you use software with a parent app, you can give them more information and they feel more in control,” Rosen explained, adding that parents who can track bus schedules in real-time are less likely to call and feel more confident that their child is being safely transported.
One of the most significant challenges discussed was the integration of transportation with students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
“Transportation is part of the IEP,” noted Allen. “It’s critical that transportation professionals are involved in the IEP process.” However, this is often easier said than done. While Allen advocates for transparency and equitable treatment, she admitted that attending every IEP meeting is impractical due to resource constraints. Instead, she ensures that transportation professionals are well-educated about the unique needs outlined in the IEPs.
Henkensiefken echoed this sentiment, noting that even small changes in a student’s condition, such as a shift in mobility or medical requirements, must be considered when making transportation decisions.
“Sometimes a child who was once non-ambulatory is now able to walk, and those changes can affect their bus needs,” she continued.
This underscores the importance of regular updates and clear communication.
Driver shortages are another critical issue facing transportation departments, especially as districts struggle to compete with private companies like FedEx and Amazon for CDL-certified drivers. Rosen shared her solution: Bringing in non-CDL drivers and offering them opportunities to grow within the transportation program.
“We can’t keep enough CDL drivers, so we need to think outside the box,” she said, adding that many paraprofessionals or staff from other departments can be trained to drive, often with minimal additional training.
Both Rosen and Henkensiefken said they have found creative ways to utilize paraprofessionals in transportation, leveraging their existing relationships with students to enhance safety.
“They already know the kids,” Henkensiefken noted. “So, we adopt them under the transportation department. It’s a win-win.”
The panelists agreed that having a clear, transparent process is essential for smooth department operations. “If any change comes through, it should go through one central document,” Rosen said. “This ensures accountability and provides a log of everything. It’s vital for both safety and efficiency.”
Allen emphasized that communication with parents and schools is key to avoiding misunderstandings. “I remind people that you’d never put a child in a classroom with a new teacher without informing them first. It’s the same with transportation,” she said, adding that ensuring the right information gets to the right people at the right time makes all the difference in providing safe and effective transportation for students with special needs.
The panel discussion revealed that while the logistics of special needs transportation can be complex, there are many strategies to improve efficiency, reduce costs and ensure safety. By integrating technology, fostering clear communication and prioritizing collaboration between transportation professionals and families, districts can overcome challenges and better serve students with special needs. The key to success, the experts agreed, lies in staying flexible, data-driven and always focused on the well-being of the children being transported.
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A common thread throughout the 33 years of the National Conference on Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs, better known as TSD, has been collaboration and communication. Student transporters must be vocal early and often with special education community peers to ensure their perspectives are considered when developing individualized education programs for students.
The impact on transportation as a service, as mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the individual transportation plans that result from IEPs is profound. TSD is the place where not only student transporters gather to learn and problem-solve. So do special educators, physical and occupational therapists, nurses, and speech pathologists. All these professionals play a supporting role satisfying the right of students with disabilities satisfy to receive a free and appropriate public education and in the least restrictive environment.
This is what makes transporting students who are medically fragile so complex, and it’s vital student transporters get things right. In November, a panel consisting of a transportation director, school nurse and physical therapist that was moderated by consultant and TSD tenured faculty member Sue Shutrump discussed the critical importance of collaboration and communication between all stakeholders involved in transporting students with these complex needs.
Panelist Laura Beth Blankenship, a pediatric physical therapist with Knox County Schools in Tennessee, noted the increasing number of students riders with ventilators, tracheostomy tubes and severe positioning needs. Further complicating matters, she said some students lack personal adaptive equipment, affecting how a student is positioned and secured on the school bus.
As a result, more and more is asked of school bus drivers and monitors, observed fellow panelist Kenny Mulder, the director of transportation for the Special School District of St. Louis County, Missouri. Angela McDonald, the school nurse consultant for the Kentucky Department of Education, added that mainstreaming students with these various health conditions on general education routes necessitates comprehensive training for all transportation staff, especially when administration of medication is involved.
For all these reasons and more, student transportation needs to be better integrated into the IEP process from the beginning, rather than being left out of the loop.
To do so, the panel suggested:
• Develop a transportation team that include representatives from nursing, special education, physical/occupational therapy, and other relevant departments. This team can create guidance for IEP teams on key transportation-related questions to address.
• Advocate for transportation staff to attend IEP meetings, when possible, especially for students with significant medical, behavioral or mobility needs. This ensures their input is heard and transportation-specific accommodations are included.
• Provide training for all school bus drivers, not just those on specialized routes, on common medical conditions, emergency procedures, and safely assisting students with complex needs. Leverage school nurses, therapists and other experts to provide this training.
• Work with state and local lawmakers to ensure transportation is treated as a related service under IDEA, with clear requirements for training, staffing and equipment. Use regulations to push for the resources needed to transport students safely.
• Foster open communication and relationships with parents. Parents can be powerful allies in ensuring their child’s transportation needs are met, and they may be willing to share critical medical information that the school district lacks.
The goal, the panel shared, is for school districts to develop comprehensive training programs for all school bus drivers and aides so they are equipped with information they need when transporting students who are medically fragile. Could a system, perhaps within routing software, flag student medical conditions and intervention plans? Could a centralized directory of student medical conditions and emergency plans be created and distributed to transportation staff? Do transporters have access to student emergency medications on the bus? How are student transportation requests received, and do they include the necessary medical plans and information? Important questions all of them. What more could you ask in your operations and of your school district?
Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the January 2025 issue of School Transportation News.
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Q’STRAINT, the worldwide leader in Wheelchair Passenger Safety Solutions, is synonymous with safety. Securement is one element of traveling that passengers rarely consider, simply because it’s expected. But that was not always true for mobility passengers in school buses or even public transit. For over 35 years, Q’STRAINT has developed technology that addresses the questions and concerns of securement for mobility passengers.
Today, Q’STRAINT’s trailblazing technology is used every day, all over the world and has become the gold standard in wheelchair securement; and the benefits of their most recent technologies extend to not just to passengers, but to drivers and transportation companies as well.
Q’STRAINT believes that all mobility passengers deserve access to the same level of safety as those around them. From research and development to engineering and support, Q’STRAINT provides innovative solutions that makes safety accessible. Q’STRAINT’s products have transformed the way mobility passengers travel by simplifying and speeding up the securement process, providing passenger independence and decreasing dwell times. They work on-site and hands-on with real mobility riders, drivers, maintenance directors and transit properties to improve and iterate on new products.
Q’STRAINT’s ‘promise’ is to Make Safety Accessible for All, and this promise extends into all areas of operation and influence: Quality, Testing, Standards, Training, Products, and Beyond.
But technology alone is never enough. Q’STRAINT continues to be at the forefront of defining and establishing securement regulations worldwide. They also work with global standards groups to ensure that safety becomes accessible for wheelchair passengers in every country — guaranteeing the highest levels of safety for all.
Innovative Technology: Taking the guesswork out of securement
Q’STRAINT ONE is an all-in-one wheelchair securement station that replaces the many parts and obstacles of traditional 4-point securement with a simplified single platform system.
Q’STRAINT ONE gets back to basics by making securement simple and straightforward with visible indicators, audible feedback, and push button operation, allowing operators to proceed with confidence even with even the most difficult mobility devices.
The system helps reduce liability by standardizing securement procedures and training as across fleets by having everyone follow the same process. The all-in-one design reduces the guesswork associated with properly anchoring securements into the vehicle floor, as well as alleviating concerns about missing parts and storing system components.
Finally, Q’STRAINT ONE is the only vehicle integrated wheelchair securement solution that has been fully crash tested to meet all current ADA standards. It’s a single approach to safety that makes every securement a simple process.
The views expressed are those of the content sponsor and do not reflect those of School Transportation News.
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The first issue of 2025 highlights transporting students with special needs and disabilities. Read more about considerations of using non-yellow school bus vehicles, handling student behavior advice from TSD Conference speakers, how transportation can utilize Medicaid reimbursement, how to create a transportation plan for students with special needs and more! Also check out the 2024 TSD Conference Recap.
Read the full January 2025 issue.
Cover Story
Atypical Student Transportation
Using non-school bus vehicles such as vans is nothing new but never so widespread, especially to address increasing rates of students being classified with disabilities and who are experiencing homelessness. Cost savings can be had, but at what price for safety?
Features
It’s All About Communication
TSD Conference attendees learn from experts on what students with disabilities are really saying when exhibiting behaviors on school buses.
Hurricane Response
Student transporters discuss how their operations were pressed into action by Hurricanes Helene and Milton as well as the lessons they learned for the next big storm.
Special Report
School Districts Use Data, Routing For Medicaid Reimbursements
Technology can make the paperwork of tracking Medicaid-eligible transportation services well worth the exercise. But there is much more to the process.
TSD Conference Recap
See some of the action from the industry’s premier event for the transportation of students with disabilities and special needs. Read more about sessions throughout the magazine.
Editor’s Take by Ryan Gray
Handle With Care
Thought Leader by Pete Meslin
Celebrate Accomplishments When Transporting Students With Disabilities
Publisher’s Corner by Tony Corpin
Strategies for Attracting And Retaining Staff
The post January 2025 appeared first on School Transportation News.
Industry expert, NAPT Hall of Famer, TSD Tenured Faculty Member, and consultant Linda Bluth, Ed.D joins us for the first time on the podcast to share insights on students with special needs. She addresses the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), departmental collaboration, aides, alternative transportation, substitute drivers, training and more.
New Zonar CEO Charles Kriete discusses the technology provider’s combination with GPS Trackit, as well as efficiencies and innovations planned for the future.
Read more about special needs and leadership.
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Meeting the daily challenges of transporting children with disabilities is real and
complex. These challenges are not new, but they are increasingly multifaceted. On top of the challenge list in many school districts is driver shortages, followed by the cost of transportation services. What can be overwhelming is the increase in competing priorities to safely transport children with disabilities.
The pressure resulting from how to accomplish safe transportation for these children can result in inadequate decision-making. Guided by the principles of safety, responsibility and entitlement under federal and state law it is imperative to aspire to respond to challenges for safe transportation of children with disabilities by timely addressing the “Do’s and Don’ts” under pressure. I am realizing more and more about the importance of knowing what is and is not required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
In addition to federal law, it is critical to be well-versed about state law pertaining to the related service of transportation for eligible children under the IDEA. Under the
IDEA Part B regulations, transportation is defined as a related service that includes: “(i) Travel to and from school and between schools; (ii) Travel in and around school buildings; and (iii) Specialized equipment (such as special or adapted buses, lifts, and ramps), if required to provide special transportation for a child with a disability.” (34 CFR §300.34(c)(16).
At first glance, this IDEA definition appears clear. In reality, unique individual child transportation requirements necessitate extensive knowledge about the related service of transportation and its explicit requirements.
Understanding the role of the individualized education program (IEP) team’s responsibility under the IDEA to develop, approve and implement the related service transportation is essential. Approved transportation services should always be documented in the IEP to avoid misunderstandings and potential IDEA compliance violations. The IEP team meeting should always include all the qualified personnel necessary to make an informed decision, including the parent.
Don’t make unilateral transportation decisions without the attendance of all stakeholders that are required for implementing an IEP. The following is an example of a costly mistake that happened multiple times during my career. The IEP team, under pressure from a single parent, required that a child be picked up first and dropped off last.
This was solely based upon the parent’s work schedule and not the needs of her child, based upon their disability. Unknown to transportation, the IEP team approved the request. It was not feasible to implement but still approved and written into the child’s IEP. The parent emphatically stated her request was “required under the IDEA.” The IEP team was intimidated and believed her.
This IEP decision resulted in a hearing officers’ requirement for the school district to add a new route to implement the approved IEP service. Can you imagine the unintentional effect of this IEP team’s unilateral decision? Make sure that the IEP team is fully knowledgeable about the IDEA transportation related service requirements, and do not make a decision based upon false information.
Another example of a costly mistake is when a parent at an IEP meeting claims, citing IDEA, their child is required to be transported to after-school care 17 miles away from
their home address. The IEP team unwisely believes the parent and approves their request.
The lesson to be learned is don’t believe everything that a person says without knowing how the IDEA addresses a specific issue. Be knowledgeable about what state law says on a specific topic and how the school district’s policies and procedures address the issue. In the previous example, it is likely that if the school district transports children without disabilities to requested after-school care or daycare, the school district will also be required to do so for children with disabilities as a matter of equity. These are just two examples of challenges whereby poor decision-making resulted in an avoidable costly error.
It is essential to know federal and state laws pertaining to transportation service eligibility requirements for children with disabilities. It is wise to rethink in advance
how to best provide these transportation services for children with disabilities. Utilizing school transportation data can improve decision-making. Accessing all funding sources helps to offset costly transportation services. One example is billing Medicaid when it is an allowable transportation expense.
Communication and coordination between multiple school district departments is key to problem-solving. It is key to be knowledgeable and current about best practices and school transportation literature concerning safe transportation of children with disabilities.
Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the November 2024 issue of School Transportation News.
Linda F. Bluth, Ed.D. is a national compliance and regulatory expert on IDEA transportation law and provisions. She is a tenured faculty member of the TSD Conference, a regular STN contributor, and a Hall of Fame member of the National Association for Pupil Transportation.
Related: California ‘Rising Star’ Supports Students with Disabilities Through Driver Training, Education
Related: TSD Foundation Class Provides Basics to Transporting Students with Special Needs
Related:(STN Podcast E236) TSD 2024 Recap: Supporting Students with Special Needs as Unique People
Related: Sexual Abuse Prevention Expert Provides Strategies When Transporting Students with Disabilities
The post Recommended Do’s and Don’ts for Meeting the Challenges of Transporting Children with Disabilities appeared first on School Transportation News.
Keynote trainers and conversations at the TSD Conference and Trade Show last week focused on seeing students with special needs as people first and consistently supporting them in their distinctive requirements.
“I always ask: ‘Is this in the best interest of the kid?’” Dana Rosen, TSD keynote speaker and assistant director of transportation services for student safety and support for Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in Texas, shares how she uses her special education background to support both transportation staff and students with special needs on the school bus ride.
Read more about special needs.
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