NBC 6’s Kristin Sanchez spoke with some of the adults responsible for making sure their precious cargo gets to school safely.
It’s back-to-school for kids Tuesday in Broward County Public Schools. Safety is a top priority, especially when it comes to getting your kids on and off the bus.
Drivers have been practicing their routes and were set for the first day of school.
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WATCH HERE“Trust me, it’s not just a job, it’s like a profession,” said one Broward County school bus driver.
This year, BCPS has enough qualified employees to fill all of their 784 routes. Almost 56,000 students will be shuttled to and from school each weekday.
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“We are bus drivers, we are mothers, we are fathers, we are confidants, we are friends, we are protectors and we know to drive them safely from point a to point b,” said the bus driver.
Public school transit has been gearing up for this first day for months.
“We would like for them to walk the child to the stop the first day,” said Dr. Simone Clowers, assistant director of student transportation.
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The goal is to help your child become familiar with their bus stop and remember where to wait. For drivers, that means you’ll need more patience this month on the road.
“Now they have to stop when we open our stop arms and let us through. So there are going to be some delays, but it’s going to be much smoother opening than last year,” said Clowers.
A reminder for drivers who are traveling on the road: if there are two lanes, cars traveling in both directions must stop. Included in that are two and three lanes roads with a center turn lane. If the road is divided by a median, cars traveling in the opposite direction are not required to stop.
