The New Jersey Senate has passed a bill that would help ensure safer transportation for students with disabilities by requiring that school bus personnel who work with students with disabilities call 911 in potential life-threatening emergencies. Currently, there is no such requirement.
The measure would also require local boards of education and school bus contractors to provide training related to school bus safety and interacting with students with disabilities. It also stipulates that a school bus that transports one or more students with disabilities must be equipped with a video camera, a two-way communication system, communications equipment, and a global positioning system (GPS), a provision that applies only to those vehicles transporting students with disabilities who have special transportation requirements. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services estimates it would cost school transportation firms between $ 1,100 and $ 3,900 per vehicle to install the necessary recording and communication equipment.
The bill establishes penalties for failure to comply with the requirements. The legislative effort, sponsored by Senators Anthony Bucco, (R-Essex), and Patrick Deignan, Jr., (D-Middlesex), is in response to a series of student deaths on school vehicles in which staff on the bus, including nurses and aides, failed to intervene or call 911 in a timely manner. In some cases, there was no video recording, or the video had been destroyed.
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