Thirty-five years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was signed into law, becoming a landmark piece of legislation that prohibits discrimination based on disability and guarantees equal access for everyone. The law has had a wide-ranging impact, from helping differently abled individuals seek employment without discrimination to ensuring accessibility standards for public buildings, schools and transportation systems. Yet as we celebrate the transformative nature of the ADA, the differently abled community continues to confront evolving challenges.
One example is the concerning shortage of school bus drivers both in Connecticut and nationwide, an issue that disproportionately impacts students with special needs. It is essential that we find ways to not only attract more school bus drivers to the profession, but that we prioritize recruiting the type of patient, emotionally intelligent individuals who have the temperament to work with and care for the growing number of students with special needs.
Differently abled students face many challenges in accessing education, from finding suitable learning methods to ensuring safety in the classroom. But what is often overlooked are the hurdles special needs students experience simply getting to and from school.
Unlike a typical bus route, special needs students require personalized transportation provided by highly trained drivers and aides who pick them up and drop them off at their front door. As the safety director of a school bus company that specializes in transporting students with special needs in Connecticut, we are constantly exploring new ways to recruit drivers who are patient, empathetic, compassionate, and able to exhibit calm in stressful situations to reduce anxiety for our passengers and their caregivers.
Safety consciousness, consistency, reliability, and trustworthiness are key attributes that every driver transporting students with special needs must have. While any school bus driver bears a tremendous amount of responsibility for the safety and well-being of the students they transport, those who work with special needs students must be able to provide the routine and structure that these students need and thrive on.
Because of the tailored, personalized service we provide, our drivers and aides form close bonds with students and their families. In fact, many drivers transport the same students for years throughout their entire academic careers. This level of experience, familiarity, comfort, and trust are critical to the work we do. However, finding individuals with these specific skillsets makes these jobs tougher to fill when there are already widespread bus driver shortages.
Finding more specialized drivers has become an even bigger priority as the number of differently abled students continues to grow. In 1990 – the year the ADA was signed into law – roughly 4.7 million students with disabilities were enrolled in grades K through 12 in the U.S. In 2022, that number increased to 7.3 million.
To meet this demand, we are exploring new avenues to find and recruit the drivers we need and that our passengers deserve, including partnering with churches and community organizations to find individuals who may never have considered a highly rewarding career as a bus driver for students with special needs.
We are hyper-focused on advancing the goals that the ADA’s groundbreaking legislation first codified 35 years ago by providing personalized, door-to-door transportation for students with special needs. We are collaborating with community organizations to attract and recruit new drivers and aides who can support and enrich the lives of differently abled students and to ensure that all people are afforded the same opportunities, no matter their circumstances.
David Pizzo is a state of Connecticut DMV Certified CDL/STV Instructor and the Director of Safety and Training for Sunrise Transportation, an outsourced student transportation services provider for children with special needs in Connecticut and Northern Illinois.