Advice to Parents: Prepare Your Child to Take the Bus
The bus is a very safe way for your child to travel to and from school. In fact, school buses are the safest vehicles on the road! Very few deaths and injuries involve a school bus.
Most mishaps take place outside the bus, so here are some precautions you can take.
Don’t let your children arrive at the stop too early. They may be tempted to wander or get into mischief.
Make sure they know what to do if they miss the bus: come back home; or at school, report to a teacher — and never, never accept a ride from a stranger.
If the stop is a long way from home, plan and discuss with your children where they can go in an emergency.
If it is dark on the way to or from the bus, make your children visible. Use retro-reflective tape on their clothing and avoid dark colors.
Make sure they wait well away from the roadway, and stay well back until the bus has come to a full stop and the door opens
Explain they must walk at least three metres (10 feet) away when crossing in front of a bus so the driver can see them.
Forbid running and horseplay
Tell your children to come straight home from the bus – no detours.
Do’s and Don’t at the Bus Stop
Do make sure the driver can always see you
Do stay back from the road
Do wait quietly in line
Do stay back until the bus stops, its lights start flashing, the door opens
Do enter the bus single file
Don’t push or shove
Don’t run into the street
Don’t throw things
Don’t stop to pick up anything that drops while you are crossing in front of the bus
