Ventura County Grand Jury • 2008-2009 • Agency Response
Response to: School District Administration: Is the Cost Too High?

Grand Jury Report Dated June 3, 2011 Concerning School Bus Safety*

Published: July 01, 2011 5 pages
View Original PDF

Findings and Recommendations 8 findings

F01 Page 3
School transportation systems have been studied extensively at the national level, and that information indicates that school buses are one of the safest modes of transportation. (FA-01 through FA-04) OVSD agrees with this Finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R01
Page 4
The VCOE should assume responsibility for the collection, collating, and reporting of County school bus safety information. OVSD tracks critical school bus safety statistics and uses the information to evaluate Transportation Services within the District. Additionally, the California Highway Patrol is required to investigate all school bus accidents in the State of California. Establishing another database and data collection system would not provide additional useful information. As a result, OVSD will not implement this recommendation.
F02 Page 3
Nationally, the majority of people killed in school transportation-related crashes are not school-age bus riders, but are occupants of other vehicles involved or pedestrians. Students are safer as passengers on school buses than they are a passengers in cars involved in crashes with school buses, or as pedestrians in school bus crashes. (FA-02) OVSD agrees with this Finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R02
Page 4
The VCOE should develop a standard form for the annual collection of school bus safety information from the districts. This information should include: the total number of students who ride the bus to and from school on a daily basis; the total number of students who are transported for field trips, special events, or athletic events; total miles ridden by students; and total number of school bus-related accidents and injuries resulting from those accidents OVSD uses Governing Board approved forms and procedures for tracking and maintaining school bus safety statistics. Establishing another database, form and data collection system would not provide additional useful information. As a result, OVSD will not l. implement this recommendation.
F03 Page 3
Not all districts maintain information on school bus safety statistics. Some districts do not track this information at all, while others rely on their contracted bus companies to do so. (FA-10) OVSD disagrees with this statement because of its broad implications that school districts do not maintain appropriate school bus safety statistics in accordance with established law. OVSD maintains all school bus safety data required by law. Additionally, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) maintains information regarding school bus accidents.
Related Recommendations (1)
R03
Page 4
The Districts should use the VCOE standard form recommended in R-02, above, to collect school bus safety information, report this information to the VCOE, and post it on district websites 4 OVSD uses Governing Board approved forms and procedures for tracking and maintaining school bus safety statistics. Establishing another database, form and data collection system would not provide additional useful information. As a result, OVSD will not implement this recommendation.
F04 Page 3
Due to the lack of comparable, consistent school bus safety statistics provided by the districts, it is not possible to determine objective measures of school bus safety, such as accident rates. Thus, it is difficult to conclude that school bus transportation in the County is safe, as previously demonstrated at the national level. It is only possible to infer that school bus transportation in the County is safe from the information provided by the districts. (FA-03, FA-10 through FA-13) OVSD disagrees with this statement because of its broad implications that school districts do not maintain records in accordance with established law. OVSD maintains all school bus safety statistics that are required by law, and uses this information to evaluate the safety of Transportation Services in the District. Further, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is required to investigate school bus accidents and has a database capable of tracking the accidents by county. Data are available to the public and can be used to make an educated conclusion regarding the safety of school bus travel in the county.
Related Recommendations (1)
R04
Page 5
The VCOE should use the forms provided by the districts to collate school bus safety information for the County and post it on its website. OVSD does not have the ability or authority to implement this recommendation. . . . 5
F05 Page 3
School bus safety statistics, for districts or for individual schools, are not readily available to the public. (FA-09, FA-15 and FA-16) 3 OVSD disagrees with this statement. OVSD believes the public has access to and can obtain all the school bus accident and transportation program information that the CHP and District are mandated to collect and report.
No recommendations for this finding
F06 Page 4
The efforts of the CHP, including certifying school bus drivers, investigating school bus accidents, and inspecting school buses, contribute significantly to ensuring school bus safety in California. However, the CHP does not collect information at the school district level. (FA-17 through FA-19). OVSD agrees with this Finding.
No recommendations for this finding
F07 Page 4
The Grand Jury was unable to identify any single local agency responsible for collecting, collating, and reporting County school-bus safety information on a countywide basis. (FA-14, FA-18, and FA-19) OVSD agrees with this Finding.
No recommendations for this finding
F08 Page 4
It is unclear whether seat belts on school buses significantly increase school bus safety. (FA-21, FI-25 through FA-28). OVSD agrees with this Finding. RECOMMENDATIONS:
No recommendations for this finding

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.