COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON THE DISABLED AND THE HANDICAPPED - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, June 12, 2007 1:40 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN CAROL ANN CAMPBELL, CHAIR COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN JUAN RAMOS COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO RESOLUTION 070211 - Resolution authorizing City Council's Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped to hold hearings to investigate and determine how many disabled and/or handicapped school age children are transported to and from school... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good afternoon. I'm Councilwoman Carol Ann Campbell and in attendance is Councilman Kelly and Councilwoman Tasco.
This is Resolution 7 No. 070211, resolution authorizing City Council's Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped to hold hearings to investigate and determine how many disabled and/or handicapped school age children are transported to and from school under the supervision of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission; and to determine the means, method and criterion used by the Philadelphia School Reform Commission to ensure the safety of this group of children in transit; and to determine what are the special transportation needs of this group of children and what can be done to address these needs.
Would any Committee members wish to make a statement? 3 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 (No response.)
Good afternoon, Councilwoman Campbell, members of City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities (sic). My name is John Lombardi. I am the Administrator for Transportation Services for the School District of Philadelphia. I am pleased to offer testimony on Resolution 070211. Councilwoman, much of the testimony in this resolution is similar to the former resolution. If I may, may I start in the couple paragraphs down where it says "currently," because it's just a repeat of what I already indicated?
Thank you. Currently, the School District 4 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 transports 7,355 students who are either receiving special education services or are assigned to an early intervention program or approved private school. These students travel to and from school each day on 555 school bus routes and 90 cab routes. Of the 555 bus routes, 110 of the buses are equipped with lifts to accommodate the non-ambulatory students. Approximately seven non-ambulatory students are assigned to each bus. In addition, of the 555 special education bus routes, 90 percent of the buses are equipped with some type of safety restraint. The Office of Transportation Services complies with the terms and conditions of each individual student's IEP, Individual Education Program, as it relates to travel. For example, most students receiving special education services are assigned to a bus route that has a bus attendant who travels the route every day. Some routes are assigned additional bus attendants when a 5 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 student's IEP requires more support during the travel to and from school. In addition, some students travel with therapeutic support service workers as part of the implementation of the student's positive behavior plan. Finally, 90 percent of the students are picked up from home, eliminating the need to wait for a school bus at the corner stop. The School District takes very seriously the safety of all students it transports. To that end, bus drivers are not allowed to travel on limited-access highways, the Schuylkill Expressway, I-95, when there are students present. All drivers must obey all traffic laws, and the use of stop arms and crossing arms is mandated. Further, drivers must have a valid commercial driver's license and comply with all federal and state transportation mandates. In an effort to continually improve the service provided to our students, drivers must attend 6 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 ongoing staff development and training sessions, and all drivers are tested every four years in order to maintain their school bus certification, which is the state law. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before this committee. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Thank you for your comments. This Committee is charged with investigating and making a determination as to how many disabled and handicapped school-age children are transported to and from school on a daily basis. Would you tell me how many disabled and handicapped children are transported each day under the supervision of the School District?
Will you reiterate that, please? 7 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211
What is the definition of "disabled" used by the School District?
I'll ask my colleague, Mr. Pardini, from our Office of Specialized Services to respond to that.
Joseph Pardini, Director of Specialized Services. We would use the same definition as an ADA or an IDEA legislation for the 13 categories of handicapping conditions.
How are these definitions used in determining the transportation needs of this group of children?
Well, when the IEP team meets or a 504 plan meets, they consult with the occupational therapist or the physical therapist or the nurse to determine whether there's any additional 8 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 needs for the child during the transportation to and from school; for example, whether the child needs a harness or the student needs to be assisted on and off the bus. Those consults are done between the occupational therapist, the physical therapist and the IEP team.
Bus attendants are trained by the School District. They also work in the classrooms with the teachers so they can receive additional training in the classroom working with the students.
But are they trained in taking care of or providing for children that are disabled?
Are children who are disabled by sight allowed to bring guide dogs onto school buses? 9 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211
You said "if." There aren't any children that use guide dogs?
Okay. The statistics you provided in your testimony speaks to the totality of students who are transported, but does not provide this Committee specifically with the number of disabled students transferred completely. Was that 7,000 the complete amount, according to your latest records?
Seven thousand three hundred fifty-five are the number of special education students that we transport. Non-ambulatory students, about -- I won't say about. Six hundred fifty non-ambulatory students. 10 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211
May 2007. That's the latest data we have from our IT division.
Do you have any supporting documentation that would indicate to us the number of disabled students that are transported by your office?
Any supporting documentation? I can probably obtain through our IT division information about specific students, yes, ma'am, numbers and such.
No. I didn't bring any with me, ma'am, no. I just brought the totals.
What type of buses are used by the School District which you've referred to as being 90 percent equipped with safety 11 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 restraints?
We purchase transit style buses. They are manufactured by Blue Birds.
We purchase transit style school buses, which are the SEPTA-looking buses. They're international manufactured and Blue Bird manufactured. The 90 percent buses that are referred to in my testimony, those buses are equipped with some seat belts, some harnesses for students based on their individual needs that's provided on the Individual Education Plan for that student.
That's the type of safety restraints you're referring to?
Which students travel with therapeutic support or service workers? 12 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211
That would be CBH. Community-based mental health organizations have some students who receive therapeutic support services and sometimes they need the person to ride the bus with them to and from home in order to implement their behavior plan.
That would be through an interagency meeting in the IEP team meeting.
Do you ever put children that are categorized as special needs in the category of disabled? Because sometimes they are.
What I asked you was, do you ever put children that are special needs children in the category of disabled?
Yes. They would be receiving -- they would have a 13 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 disability as far as under IDEA, they have special needs or a disability, yes.
Tell me, what is the behavior on the buses of these children that are disabled usually?
That would -- every child is different. Every bus ride is going to be different. Children have different -- it depends on the day they had. They could have a bad bus ride home. But that's why they have behavior plans, to work with them if there's behavioral issues for the children.
No. 16 That's not what I asked you. What I'm asking you, is it never any incidents or is it sometimes or is it quite often?
There's sometimes there's incidents, and they're reported, and then we -- if it's a continual incident with the same student, we have a meeting at the school to deal with the behavior on the bus to figure out how we can present a positive behavior plan for 14 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 the student on the bus, whether that includes now asking if the child has a therapeutic support staff, to increase the hours for the therapeutic support staff to ride the bus or whether we need additional bus attendants on the bus to help us support the students.
Yes. Good afternoon. Earlier in your testimony, Chairwoman Campbell asked the number of young people transported by the Philadelphia public school system. When you submit the back-up documentation, please indicate the number of children that are Philadelphia public school students.
Separate from private school students, parochial students. 15 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211
Okay. On the buses, in view of the fact that these are disabled children, what is the law, what is the standard for supervision and coverage? On regular school buses, young people travel alone, with the exception of the bus driver. Is there any different stipulation for disabled children?
At least one bus attendant on the bus to help the driver monitor the students on the bus. So there's at least one bus attendant. Many buses have additional attendants, as I indicated, when students exhibit that they need more support during travel to and from school.
Okay. A reimbursement question. We know that the 16 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 Commonwealth reimbursed the City for transportation of students. Does the same apply for disabled students or is there a separate funding stream for young people who are disabled?
It's the same, ma'am. The only difference in the reimbursement is for the non-public student, the reimbursement is greater for the non-public student than it is for the public and the charter school student. There's a formula that drives the reimbursement. And for the non-publics, they affix a dollar amount to each student. It's $385 now. So we get what the formula provides, plus $385 for the non-public student. So it is greater for the non-public school student.
Okay. Well, thank you for your testimony. So we'll look forward to the documentation that you're providing to the Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Lombardi, I just have a quick question to you. You mention 90 percent of the buses are equipped with safety restraints. What about the other ten percent? They don't have any restraints in them?
Regular ed students, just students who are eligible because of the distance requirement, their hazardous route that they couldn't walk to school, the desegregation student. So it's the regular ed student who are riding the buses.
They 18 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 wouldn't be classified as disabled, then?
As the expert for the City in this area, what can be done to improve the safety of this group of children?
Well, we comply with all of the federal and state mandates that are out there, Councilwoman. Most recent enactments of laws were regarding the stop arm on school buses, the cross arm in front of the bus. Probably the biggest thing in our industry that concerns us as school bus transportation providers are the number of cars that pass school buses when they're picking up or discharging students. The eight-way lights are flashing and there are cars going by completely ignoring them. And the police have ticketed many cars, but there's just still too many. And it's not a 19 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 Philadelphia phenomena. It's all across. Each year in October the state conducts an initiative on that matter, and we're asked to participate, and we do, and we report to the state how many cars are found to be passing school buses, and there's a national mission of it, and fines have increased for doing those types of things, but there's just too many of that occurring. As I mentioned in the previous testimony, many of the kids who are injured as a result of a school bus incident are either crossing the street or being discharged from a bus where the cars are ignoring the eight-way flashers. So that's an area. That's a big area of concern.
But what I asked you was, as the expert, what do you think can be done to improve the safety of this group of children?
Greater enforcement and greater follow-up on the part -- 20 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211
Enforcement of the laws regarding passing school buses that are picking up and discharging students.
You think that's the only area that they would be in harm's way, would be from the cars passing?
Okay. Thank you very much. I want to note that Councilman Ramos is here. Councilman Ramos.
To the issue of safety and the importance of 21 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 education at every level when it comes to anything we're doing for young people, does the School District have a standard operating procedure wherein parents and students are simply educated about some of the disturbing facts of what happens with children when they simply don't take the time and follow traffic safety regulations, if you will? Because the thing is, with information, even among students themselves recognizing what they have to do, knowing that you have no control over drivers who are going to violate the arm that's put out and the flashing lights, is there any kind of standard orientation that happens every single year when they return to school for parents and students around this issue?
We have a school bus safety team that visits the schools throughout the year. It's been scaled back this past year, but we hope to reinstate it to its full capacity for the 22 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 upcoming year. These individuals are school bus drivers, they're bus attendants. There's a team. There's a program. There's a presentation that's presented to the kids to emphasize the importance of behaving themselves on school buses, don't get out of your seat, no eating, no drinking, horsing around, hitting each other and so on.
And that's on the bus, but now we're talking about once they are discharged from the bus.
It also includes when you exit the bus, make eye contact with the driver, make sure that the stop arm is out, don't pass until the driver gives you the okay to pass across the street. So those types of things are discussed. We go through the fire drill. We do fire drills twice a year. It's state law. And when we visit the schools and we provide our program, there's also a mock fire drill exercise that we go through where the kids go out the back of 23 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 the bus through the emergency exit.
So talk to me more about this team. Is it a team per region? Is it one team for the entire district? Just speak in some greater detail about this team which is --
It's a team of school bus drivers and bus attendants. These are individuals who work -- most of our drivers work split shift part time and they're off in the middle of the day, and these individuals go out to the schools in the middle of the day.
Upon request, ma'am. We send a letter out to the school principal and we --
So it's the principals who have to take the leadership role?
Yes. They would request it. And we visited hundreds of 24 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 schools over the years and presented our program to thousands of students.
So you're saying it's been scaled back. What does that mean?
We've had to scale back some of that program this year, but we hope to reinstate it for the next year.
We couldn't visit as many schools as we would have liked to this year.
There's two teams right now. There were six on each team, six individuals. So we were trying to get as many kids as possible.
So they're deployed throughout the system based on a request registered by the principal?
In your recording of incidents, are you able to sort of track where you have higher incidents of --
Yes, we do, ma'am. We have statistics on behavior referrals. Mr. Pardini mentioned about if students act up on the bus. Whether it's a special education student or a regular ed student, there's a method for reporting that. There's a form that's used. The driver completes it, refers it to the principal for follow-up action. When it involves regular education students, the same procedure takes place. There might be a counseling session with the parent. There might be a suspension from the bus as a result of their behavior on the bus. So that process is in place and we do identify schools where there are 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 greater number of kids. If it's a specific student that has a record for two or three referrals, we'll contact the principal regarding that student and ask for specific follow-up for that student. So, yes, ma'am, there is a follow-up process for that. We send letters out each month to all the regional offices and all the principals of the schools regarding incidents that occur on the buses, and it refers to a specific school, a specific route number and there are specific students who are identified, and that goes out on a monthly basis to all the schools, public and non-public and charter as well.
Okay. So if we move to the tenor of this legislation with the goal being to improve safety, has there ever been any discussion of a requirement for if the teams are not able to be deployed, then principals actually making that a part of the return-to-school first day, first 27 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 week, first month orientation? Ever any discussion in that way?
I don't recall, but it's certainly something that we could investigate. I might say that on the public school side, we transport about ten percent of our population. So there aren't a lot of public school students that use school buses. And if you factor out the number of public school students who are special education, there's about 5,000 of those. The number of regular ed students who are riding a bus is not that significant, but it's certainly something that we could consider at the beginning of each school year to have some type of orientation for those that ride the bus.
And because young people who don't ride the bus benefit from that type of information and education as well.
Okay. 28 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 Thank you again.
Thank you, Madam Chair. How does the transportation of our disabled/physically challenged children compare in the services that we provide to other cities, other jurisdictions?
Is there an association out there that grades how good the system is working?
Yeah. We're a member of the Council of Great City Schools, which is a national organization that really focuses on major cities. I think the criteria for subscription is, there needs to be at least 60,000 students in your school district. So we're talking about the New Yorks, the Philadelphias, the Chicago. And, you 29 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 know, I network with many of those transportation directors on a regular basis and we talk about costs, we talk about different types of the operation, things in the operation that occur, and I believe that we're right on schedule and on par with just about everybody in the country.
When it comes to the pure issue of safety and the treatment and the way they're transported --
There's no such rank. There's not exactly a ranking, Councilman, but I will say that the form that we established for the referral of kids, I've sent them to other major cities and they've duplicated it and put it in place in their operation.
How would you classify it? Would you classify it 30 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 as very good, excellent, comparatively speaking to New York, LA, Chicago?
I'm the Transportation Administrator and I think we have the best drivers in the country. I think that we have the most devoted people in the country. I think that they're committed to doing the job. I just think we have a great organization. We have great people who are dedicated. No matter when you ask them to do something, they'll do it. No matter what time of the day, whether it's a weekend, whether it's an evening, I mean, they're there. They're committed to our kids. Some drivers, they transport kids from kindergarten to 21 years old. At the Widener School up in Broad and Olney, we have drivers that never come off the route. They've been on the same route every year. They're that 31 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 committed. So, I mean -- and I've done reviews of other school districts for the Council of Great City Schools. I've been to Rochester, New York and New Orleans and San Diego. When we're sitting around talking about transportation operations, our operation is right there with the latest technologies and the compliance with all the laws and rules and regulations. And there's things that we do with regard to licensing of drivers that I don't know anyone in the country does. We started this some 15 years ago. We send a listing of all of our bus drivers, all of our people, all of our contractor people, to PennDOT every two weeks to verify that their license is valid. I don't know anyone in the country that does that. Most people check when they get hired and they check them monthly maybe. We do it on a biweekly basis, and we do it with the database in Harrisburg that's completely 32 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 accurate. Someone can show you a license that looks like it's valid, but if it's been suspended, you may not have any way of knowing that. So we go right to the source for that. But that's one of the things that we do that no one else does as a measure of safety to make sure that all the drivers have all their credentials.
Thank you. Thank you for everything you do in such a challenging type of job. I have had kins in my family that have used your services. I believe I still have a nephew that does, and we're very grateful the way that you care for them and look out for their safety.
No system is perfect, but I've seen it in my own family how this service has been done with a lot of care. Thank you.
Thank you, 33 6/12/07 - DISABLED - RES. 070211 Councilman. I will say, Councilman, I had a full head of hair 27 years ago when I started.
This hearing is over. This is going to be referred back. We're going to recess it to the call of the Chair. Thank you very much for coming.
Thank you. (Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped adjourned at 2:10 p.m.) - - - 34 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on June 12, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)