New routes Monday Nov. 4 Since school began, parents of school bus riders with long routes have been demanding that the Office of Pupil Transportation add new special ed and general ed routes. Finally, a large number of routes were added in late October that start this Monday 11/4. (By the way, a search on the website reveals since May the DOE knew it would have to do so. Why don’t they route more generously in the first place?) Instead of sending out letters or making personal calls to parents, OPT only did robo-calls to those who will have a change. It’s up to us to get the details. Even on the weekend, you can use the automated system at 718-392-8855 with your child’s ID number and date of birth, or go to https://opt-osfns.org/opt/Resources/SchoolRouteStSearch/SearchResult.aspx We hope that those of you who suffered in September from mix-ups about your address or the child’s medical code will not have those problems repeated with a new company. Please inform pistnyc@gmail and (for students with IEPs only) the lawyers at nsiegel@stellp of any new incident that violates the right to safe, timely, professional transportation. See attached suggested formats for documenting the issues; also include the complaint numbers you receive from OPT. THE LESS YOU TOLERATE, THE MORE CAREFUL OPT AND THE COMPANIES WILL BE WITH EVERYONE’S CHILDREN. Unfortunately it appears that various companies are trying to scale back to keep up with the low bid situation. We know—from experienced bus drivers—that during the hiring for these added routes, certain owners tried to ignore the seniority list. We also believe that in the hiring over the summer by the new companies, training was not up to par; it shows in the turnover and complaints that we’re hearing about. It’s up to organized parents and the organized workforce to hold the companies up to standards, and to push those standards ever higher. Reminders of the current time limits and sources of advice are also attached. Please continue to tell the NYS governor about our support for increasing training and maintaining experienced drivers and matrons as bill A 8060/S 5848 proposes. You can call Governor Cuomo at 518-474-8390 or select topic “Education” at governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php Note: Later there will be some changes to who is driving each route (11/29) and who is attending (12/4) but not to the actual route. Check with your bus crew to learn whether they expect to successfully ‘pick’ the same route. If not, please start preparing your child to adapt to these changes. We’ll remind you in coming weeks.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 17:53:52 +0000
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