POLICY: EBCD
CATEGORY:
INCLEMENT WEATHER / HAZARDOUS
ROAD
CONDITIONS
POLICY STATEMENT:
The Board believes that school buses
should operate on all school instructional days except when inclement weather
and/or hazardous road conditions constitute a significant hazard to the
safety and well being of school bus students.
GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES:
1. Schools shall remain
open on all scheduled school days, regardless of weather conditions.
2. If parents decide to
send or take their child to school in inclement weather, it is the parents'
responsibility to ensure that the child is adequately clothed for the existing
weather conditions.
3. If parents decide to
keep their child home, it is the parents' responsibility to ensure that the
child does additional homework, so that the child does not fall behind those
who attend school.
4. Should weather
conditions become extremely adverse during a regular school day, the principal
may request approval from the Transportation
Coordinator to initiate
proceedings for an early departure of students.
5. If parents are away from
home when adverse weather conditions develop, they should anticipate an early
school dismissal and act accordingly, so that the child will not arrive home
and be unable to enter.
1. No school bus shall
operate on days when the temperature in the area is equal to or lower than -40
degrees Celsius at
2. The Transportation Coordinator may cancel
buses when weather conditions are so inclement, or road conditions so
hazardous, as to constitute a risk to the students being transported.
3. Individual operators are
granted discretionary power to cancel or alter their route to ensure the safety
of the students being transported; and shall advise the parents of the students
on their route, the principals of the affected schools, and the Transportation Coordinator.
4. The Transportation Coordinator
shall, no later than
5. Should weather
conditions become extremely adverse during a regular school day, bus drivers
shall contact the principal(s) involved who may request approval from the
Transportation Coordinator to initiate
proceedings for an early departure of students on their route.
6. In the event of early
departure, bus drivers shall take all necessary precautions to ensure that
students arrive home safely. Should it
be impossible to do so, drivers shall keep them on the bus, and shall contact
the parents to make alternative arrangements.
7. The
Transportation Coordinator shall develop, at the beginning of
each school year, a telephone fan-out system for bus drivers.
8. Each driver shall
prepare a telephone network for parents along his/her route. A copy shall be left with the Transportation Coordinator and the Principal(s).
DATE OF
ADOPTION:
DATE OF
AMENDMENT:
REVIEW DATE: December 2005
LEGAL
REFERENCE: Section 44
(3) (c), School Act
CROSS-REFERENCE: Policy EB - Safety Program