By Molly McGee Hewitt, PhD, CAE Have you ever heard someone describe their leadership philosophy or explain how they do business, only to quickly see that their actions tell a very different story? Leaders who “talk a good game” but fail to walk their talk quickly lose the trust, respect, and support of their teams and followers. Walking our talk is about living authentically in every aspect of our lives. From how we treat our families, how we engage in our communities, and how we show up at work is evidence of our leadership. For example, I once worked for a leader who spoke constantly about accountability. Yet deadlines were routinely missed, and established policies and procedures were often ignored. Accountability was demanded of staff but not modeled at the top. The result was high turnover, low morale, and a culture of frustration. It was a powerful reminder that leadership standards must begin with the leader. Walking our talk is not always easy. Sometimes, our words sound great and we believe them at the time, but life intervenes. We preach one thing and end up delivering a separate message. Many times, no one calls us on this discrepancy, and we may not even notice that we are not in alignment with own words. Sometimes, we may even extend courtesy to ourselves and grace for our failings while we refuse to share that forgiveness with others! Leadership requires more of us. It demands self-awareness and emotional intelligence that start with looking inward. Reflection, honesty, and intentional thought are essential. The more senior you are in leadership, the less people may want to share concerns or challenges with you about you! That makes personal accountability and self-monitoring even more critical. Personally, I find that journaling is a good way for me to reflect. I will take an issue or a challenge and try to write out my thoughts or concerns. I ask myself some questions that only I can answer. For example, did I add to this issue or did I show leadership? Did I expect more from others than I contributed? Was I clear in my communication? Did I listen to other people? Did I keep my word and did I keep commitment? Holding myself accountable enables me to understand how I lead and to acknowledge what I need to work on! Another powerful way to strengthen leadership is through collaboration with other leaders. Engaging in our industry and participating in state and national associations creates opportunities to connect with peers who face similar challenges. Having trusted peers and colleagues where you can share and honestly address issues is priceless. I am blessed to have that in both my personal and professional life! These professional colleagues offer me new perspectives and an honesty that enables me to improve and grow. So, how about you? Are you walking your talk as a leader? December is a natural time for reflection, and an ideal moment to make thoughtful leadership commitments as we prepare for 2026.

  By Brad Beauchamp School buses are the safest form of on-road transportation in the United States, bar none. Every day, roughly 480,000 school buses transport about 25 million students to and from school. That remarkable safety record did not happen by accident. It is the result of decades of engineering focus, regulatory evolution, and a deep-rooted commitment to protecting what matters most: our children. At Blue Bird, that commitment is woven into the fabric of who we are. As we approach our 100-year anniversary in 2027, our long-standing motto, “Your child’s safety is our business,” continues to guide every design decision we make. Safety is the foundation we build upon. Engineering Safety from the Inside Out The modern school bus owes much of its safety profile to the transition to all-steel body construction in the 1930s. That philosophy remains central today. Our buses utilize full-steel roof bows and robust structural designs intended to protect passengers in the most demanding circumstances. We have also made critical structural tests standard that others may still treat as optional. The Colorado Rack and Load Test, which emerged after a serious accident, ensures that roof deflection does not impede emergency window and door operation. The Kentucky Pole Test addresses side-impact integrity. These are embedded standards because structural integrity is not negotiable. Beyond the frame itself, we continue to strengthen occupant protection. In mid-2024, we made seat belts standard on our buses, ensuring every student benefits from advanced protection without added expense. When it comes to student safety, cost shouldn’t be a barrier, and at Blue Bird, it isn’t. Districts can provide the highest level of protection without added cost, making safety accessible for every community. In October 2025, we introduced another industry first: a driver’s side airbag in a conventional Type C school bus. This innovation represents the first time such a feature has been offered in this segment. Protecting the driver is essential. A well-protected, confident driver is better positioned to protect students. Visibility: The Critical Advantage Safety is not just about surviving an impact. It is about preventing one in the first place. That is why visibility, both for the driver and for other motorists, is an area of continuous improvement. When the Blue Bird conventional platform was redesigned in the early 2000s, visibility was a central consideration. Drivers need clear sightlines to see objects close to the front of the vehicle and around the loading zone. Good design reduces blind spots and improves reaction time. More recently, we have made LED headlamps standard. They offer brighter illumination, improved forward visibility, and greater durability. Importantly, they are also retrofittable on certain older buses, allowing fleets to upgrade safety performance without purchasing entirely new vehicles. We are also exploring advancements in driver-assist technologies, instrumentation, and camera systems. Modern camera systems are becoming more sophisticated, offering improved clarity and expanded viewing angles. At the same time, we are careful to strike the right balance. Technology should assist drivers and not distract them. The Passenger Loading Zone: A Shared Responsibility While students are exceptionally safe inside the bus, many tragic incidents occur outside it, particularly in the passenger loading zone. Entrance and egress demand heightened vigilance. We continue to emphasize public awareness campaigns reminding motorists that when a school bus has its red lights activated and is stopped, traffic must stop. Driver awareness in surrounding vehicles is critical. No engineering solution can fully compensate for inattentive or impatient drivers. That said, we support a wide array of lighting enhancements, camera systems, and visibility features designed to make the iconic yellow school bus even more conspicuous in all conditions. Some are factory-installed options; others are easily integrated through dealer or field installation. Our philosophy is flexibility: give customers the pathways and infrastructure to integrate the solutions that meet their unique needs. Customization with Purpose One of the strengths of Blue Bird is our ability to build buses in highly customized configurations. Districts and contractors operate under different state mandates, geographic challenges, and budget realities. Our job is to design vehicles that can integrate emerging safety technologies, whether installed at the factory or added later in the field. For example, anti-pinch entrance doors may be standard in one state but unnecessary in another. By engineering buses with integration in mind, we ensure that adding or retrofitting such features is straightforward and efficient. Looking Ahead The future of school bus safety will continue to center on visibility, driver assistance, and thoughtful integration of emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence, when applied appropriately, may play a role in enhancing awareness systems. As driver shortages persist, intuitive systems that help new drivers quickly familiarize themselves with vehicles and conduct thorough pre-trip inspections will become increasingly valuable. But innovation must always serve a clear purpose. We are not interested in adding technology for its own sake. We are committed to launching the right solutions; those that genuinely benefit school districts, contractors, drivers, and, most importantly, the students they transport. Brad Beauchamp is EV Product Segment leader at Blue Bird. Visit www.blue-bird.com for more information.

School BUSRide spoke with Kara Arundel, senior reporter for K-12 Dive (www.k12dive.com), about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) marking its 50th anniversary. She spoke about the milestone’s significance, the impact of IDEA on transportation, and how transportation professionals can continue to stay involved and enhance services for students with disabilities. We are marking 50 years of IDEA. How significant a moment is that, in your opinion? Kara Arundel: It’s a significant anniversary because IDEA began as a civil rights movement on the heels of a landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education. Before IDEA, there was no federal guarantee of a free, appropriate public education for students with disabilities. Now, some states did go ahead and make that guarantee, but it wasn’t uniform nationwide. What I also think is significant is the evolution over time of the implementation of IDEA. When the federal law first began, students with disabilities were allowed in the school building; that was a big moment. But fast-forwarding to now, there are accountability systems in place and best practices to ensure that students with disabilities have access to grade-level academic standards and that they are meaningfully included in other aspects of school life. How would you characterize the impact of IDEA on our education system and on the lives of the children it has served? Do you feel it has achieved what its framers set out to achieve all those years ago? Arundel: I think the impact of IDEA has been tremendous. I mean, parents have told me really heartbreaking stories of their children getting a disability diagnosis at a very young age and being told what their child wouldn’t be able to do, both as a young child and even looking into adulthood. It was always negative. I think IDEA has helped change that mindset and change the future of millions of students and children with disabilities because they’re getting educational support and peer interactions; interactions with their classmates who don’t have disabilities. I’m not an expert in the day-to-day, but I’ve really thought about this question because I think it’s important. One thing I’d say is that it should start with relationships and relationship building. That’s something that I hear a lot from special education experts. For kids, the school bus driver is the hero. So, the bus driver’s kindness and attention to each student and their family matters a lot. Is it perfect everywhere? No. But there has been a major focus for decades on supporting students with disabilities and also supporting those educators who work with those students and, really importantly, the families who have children with disabilities. To repeat something I heard recently: “Don’t forget that special education students are general education students first.” Our members are engaged daily in getting yellow school buses to transport 25 million children to their education, and that includes many students with disabling conditions. Can you comment on that role that we play? Arundel: Under IDEA, the student’s individualized education program team (whichincludes administrators, educators, parents, related service providers, and sometimes the students when they’re older) needs to consider whether each student needs transportation accommodations to support academic progress. That might mean having an aide support a student on the bus. Or it could mean the student is entitled to a pickup right in front of their home. Whatever the accommodation, it’s based on each student’s individualized need on a case-by-case basis. Under IDEA, this is at no cost to parents if the accommodation is listed on the student’s IEP. But it’s important to say that doesn’t mean school systems must transport students with disabilities separately from general education students. IDEA has a provision called “least restrictive environment,” which is about determining the best setting for students with disabilities, starting with the most general inclusion alongside their non-disabled peers. This applies to transportation, too. So, students with disabilities can and often do ride alongside their non-disabled peers when that’s the best setting. But sometimes students need a more restrictive setting, which might mean a specialized school bus. Again, this is decided case-by-case. How can we get more training and preparation for school bus drivers to help them do their jobs for students with disabilities and IEPs? Arundel: I’m not an expert in the day-to-day, but I’ve really thought about this question because I think it’s important. One thing I’d say is that it should start with relationships and relationship building. That’s something that I hear a lot from special education experts. For kids, the school bus driver is the hero. So, the bus driver’s kindness and attention to each student and their family matters a lot. The other aspect is safety. In addition to driving a bus and staying alert to traffic, a bus driver is monitoring student behavior. If a student with disabilities has accommodations specific to their bus ride, like special seating or loading/unloading protocols. The driver really should be aware of those. That goes back to relationships between transportation experts and the school or district administration. What do you see coming on the horizon that gives you hope for IDEA and special education, including implications for transportation? Arundel: I think we’ll see more innovative practices. Hopefully, that includes helpful technology for drivers as they safely transport students. I’m also thinking of overall road safety. I live in Washington, D.C., and some of these roads are really difficult to navigate in my small car. So I’m hopeful for more road improvements, maybe backed by technology like road-calming practices that can help traffic safety overall. Specifically for school buses, cameras that capture cars illegally passing stopped buses are hopefully helping decrease that behavior. As for special education, districts are struggling with teacher shortages as well as driver shortages, and that pressure extends across the entire school system, which all supports students with disabilities. That makes it harder to ensure best practices reach every area – not just the classroom but extracurriculars and the school bus. That’s why school experts Read More >

By Mash Angolkar Safety has always been the foundation of the school bus industry. Today, however, safety is no longer defined by a single feature or regulation. It is the result of deliberate engineering decisions, including how systems communicate, how drivers interact with technology, and how vehicles are designed from the ground up to support safer operations and to help prevent incidents before they occur.” As engineers, we must look beyond individual components and ask a larger question: How do we create a vehicle that actively assists drivers and support safer operation, while helping to protect students in real-world conditions? Integration: The Backbone of Modern Safety One of the most significant advances in recent years is integration. Our buses are built on a common architecture platform shared across our broader organization, giving us access to technologies proven over millions of commercial miles. Rather than adding systems after the fact, we design them into the vehicle from the beginning. This approach is especially important with telematics and camera systems. School districts operate in highly localized environments with unique funding structures and regulatory requirements. Instead of limiting customers to one proprietary solution, we engineer our buses to support a range of customer selected solutions. Dedicated communication drops, standardized J1939 data access, and pre-wire options allow districts to integrate the telematics or video systems that best fit their needs consistent with vehicle integrity or cybersecurity objectives. By isolating public data streams and protecting proprietary networks, our buses are designed to maintain both flexibility and reliability. Collision Mitigation: From Passive Alerts to Active Protection An important evolution in school bus safety is the active collision mitigation. Our collision mitigation system (where equipped) combines bumper-mounted radar with a windshield-mounted camera to continuously monitor the roadway ahead. The system evaluates whether an object is moving or stationary, alerts of lane departure, the calculated closing speed, and whether driver input matches road conditions, plus provides escalating alerts if certain conditions are detected. The system is fully integrated with the vehicle’s braking and throttle systems. When conditions for a potential collision are detected and the driver does not respond appropriately, the system provides escalating visual and audible alerts, which may include automatic brake application and throttle reduction, depending on system configuration. This is not simply a warning device. It is an active safety system built upon foundational technologies such as anti-lock brake systems and electronic stability control. Stability control evaluates steering angle, throttle position, and vehicle path, making real-time corrections to help the bus travel in the direction the driver intends. Equally important is how information is delivered. Alerts are integrated directly into the instrument cluster in the driver’s natural line of sight, reducing distraction and information overload. Many drivers are already familiar with similar technologies in their passenger vehicles, easing adoption and supporting confidence behind the wheel. Lighting the Critical Zones While advanced electronics draw attention, lighting remains one of the most effective safety tools on a school bus. We have transitioned extensively to LED lighting inside and outside the vehicle. Interior LED systems provide bright, clear illumination to support student supervision and post-route inspections, with dimmable options added in response to customer feedback. Exterior lighting enhancements focus on visibility for both the driver and surrounding motorists. Available perimeter lighting activates automatically when the entrance door opens, illuminating the ground from the front bumper to the rear wheels along the curbside. This helps improve a the driver’s ability to monitor students entering and exiting in low-light conditions. We also offer specialized rear grid lighting that illuminates a defined area behind the rear wheels when backing. This targeted illumination helps drivers in maintaining awareness of tire placement and roadside edges during early morning or nighttime operations. Standard illuminated school bus signage and fully illuminated stop arms help to reinforce the bus’s presence during loading and unloading. Optional LED headlamps and auto high-beam functionality enhance nighttime visibility, automatically dimming when oncoming traffic is detected. Designing for the Driver Improved safety is also about ergonomics and fatigue reduction. Our next-generation platform shortened the distance from the front bumper to the driver, improving direct sightlines to the ground in front of the bus. Rear suspension updates enhance ride stability and handling, directly influencing driver comfort and control over long routes. Features such as the column-mounted gear selector and electronic parking brake reduce repetitive motion and simplify operation. A less fatigued driver is a more attentive driver. Collaboration and Continuous Improvement Safety innovation does not happen in isolation. Strong dealer relationships and customer advisory councils provide real-world feedback that helps refine designs responsibly. Dealers also guide districts on retrofit opportunities, particularly for lighting upgrades, while more complex systems like collision mitigation are typically integrated during manufacturing. Looking ahead, progress will continue through refinement and expansion of existing systems. Our mission is to build a bus that supports the driver in the safe operation of the vehicle, helps protect students, and performs reliably where it matters most. Mash Angolkar is senior chief engineer at IC Bus. Visit www.icbus.com for more information.