the district said it needs at least 13 more drivers to keep more than 1,800 daily stops covered<\/a>.<\/p>\nBut what does it actually take to get behind the wheel of a school bus? Spectrum News wanted to know.<\/p>\n
Before any Manatee County school bus hits the road, drivers are checking for any and all safety issues.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of the pre-trip inspection, a daily requirement for school bus drivers across Florida.<\/p>\n
To an untrained eye, it can look intimidating. But transportation director Jamie Warrington said that with the right training, driving a bus can become second nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a very minimum, I\u2019ve had folks go through the training process in two weeks \u2014 at the maximum, it\u2019s been up to five weeks,\u201d said Warrington.<\/p>\n
In Manatee County, it starts with an online application, an interview, and a background check.<\/p>\n
Then, it\u2019s into the classroom where applicants study for a CDL Class B learner\u2019s permit.<\/p>\n
After passing four knowledge and skills tests, they\u2019re back at the bus barn for hands-on training, learning directly from people like Warrington, who helped write Florida\u2019s bus driver training curriculum.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that training, there\u2019s 14 units that cover everything from how to interact with students with disabilities, to proper ways to load and unload students, vehicle familiarization,\u201d Warrington said.<\/p>\n
Florida requires at least 40 hours of training for school bus drivers. Manatee County said its drivers get even more. Then comes time behind the wheel, at first without passengers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey start with simple driving, and then as they progress and get comfortable, we start taking them into tighter locations, tighter roads, tighter turns,\u201d said Warrington. \u201cAll of that is happening at the same time that they\u2019re learning their CDL, and practicing and prepping for their CDL exam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only after passing can they begin driving students, and even then, the training isn\u2019t over.<\/p>\n
For at least two days, an experienced driver rides along, watching from the front row and making sure the new driver is ready to go it alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really not difficult at all to do, it\u2019s just slightly larger than your average car,\u201d Warrington said.<\/p>\n
Several prospective drivers are now in various stages of training, but the district still needs more. Still, Warrington said no matter how badly they need drivers, there\u2019s one thing they won\u2019t sacrifice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not compromise safety,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not going to put anybody behind the wheel of a bus, with students on board, unless I\u2019m 100% confident that they can do the job, and that they are 100% confident that they can do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manatee County is also in the process of buying smaller buses.<\/p>\n
Drivers of those vehicles would still go through training, but they would not be required to obtain a CDL, removing what district leaders say can be one of the biggest hurdles for applicants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 School districts across Tampa Bay are, once again, in need of more school bus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4323,274,54547,113,7088,115,277,135,137,136,278,729,2032,835],"class_list":["post-362268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-andy-cole","tag-app-top-stories","tag-back-to-school","tag-education","tag-manatee-county","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-traffic","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}