A union that represents New York City school bus drivers may strike this week. The result will force parents to find some other way to get their children to school. It will provide additional hardship for the parents of the students who have special needs and who rely on those buses.
There seems to be an endless supply of news stories that talk about bussing and students who are in Special Education. Often, the stories are about incidents that are not positive ones. This story would fit that description as well.
There are about 152,000 students in New York City that rely on school busses to take them to school and to bring them back home. A total of 22,500 of them are students who have special needs. If the school bus drivers go on strike this Wednesday, it will require parents to find alternative ways to get their children to and from school. This is going to be especially difficult for parents of kids who have special needs.
The union representing the bus drivers is Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. It includes more than 8,000 bus drivers and matrons who will participate in the strike. The matrons accompany children on the bus and make sure that children get on and off the bus safely.
The dispute is over job protections. The union wants employee protections. They say current drivers with skills and experience could suddenly lose their jobs once their contracts are up in June. The city is trying to cut transportation costs, and has put bus contracts with private bus companies up for bid.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said:
We have told the unions in unequivocal terms: Do not walk out on our students. A strike would be not only unfair to children and families, it would be totally misguided because the city cannot legally offer what the unions are demanding.
He is referring to a decision made by the Court of Appeals. It prevents New York City from offering job security and seniority to bus drivers who aren’t New York employees.
NY1 notes that New York City will reimburse parents for some transportation costs if a strike occurs and their children cannot be transported to and from school by the school busses. It also points out that the strike will affect parents of children who have special needs the most, because many are attending schools that are not near their homes.
There is concern that parents will end up placing their child who has a special need into the hands of an untrained or intolerant adult either to transport their child to and from school or to watch their child during the time her or she would normally be in school. Some parents will keep their kids out of school until the strike ends, which means the strike will disrupt the education of kids that need the most consistency.
Image by Bill McChesney on Flickr