Daily School Bus
The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) provides school transport assistance (STA) for eligible students at St Joseph's School. The Ministry contracts a transport service provider to deliver our daily school buses. The Ministry manages the daily school bus service but St Joseph's School has coordination and delivery responsibilities, and shares the responsibility with the Ministry and the transport service provider to ensure student safety. See School transport assistance eligibility and applications 
.
Health and safety responsibilities
Our school works with the Ministry, including the regional transport advisor (RTA), and their transport service provider (TSP) to ensure that we meet our responsibilities as a 
PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking) under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and our responsibility to ensure student safety under the Children's Act 2014. Our school health and safety policies, including our processes for child protection and risk management, apply to our use of the Ministry-managed transport service provider. See Child Protection and Risk Management.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 defines and outlines the health and safety responsibilities of different types of duty holders within a workplace.
A PCBU is a "person conducting a business or undertaking". At St Joseph's School, the whole board is the PCBU, including the principal. If events, activities, or services involve more than one PCBU, then PCBUs work together to establish responsibilities and actions for health and safety.
Also see Bus Safety, Behaviour, and Incidents.
Coordination and delivery responsibilities
We meet the coordination and delivery responsibilities outlined in the Ministry's School Transport Roles and Responsibilities Guide 
.
As required, our school has nominated a bus controller to serve as a single point of contact for school transport matters between our school community and the Ministry. We notify the Ministry when there is a change of bus controller at our school. See School bus controllers .
The bus controller takes responsibility for coordination and delivery. This includes:
- acting as the first point of contact and communicating with our school community about school bus transport, including eligibility, applications, service details, safety and behaviour expectations, and any changes to services
- assessing student eligibility and maintaining accurate and up-to-date lists of all students receiving school transport assistance (see Eligibility for transport assistance )
- ensuring a safe environment for students getting on and off the bus at school, including coordinating and documenting relevant processes for this (e.g. appropriate supervision)
- communicating with the Ministry, including providing student data, and submitting conveyance allowance applications as required
Daily school bus conveyance allowances are payments made to parents/caregivers to help with transport costs for eligible students where other school transport services are impractical or unavailable.
Students may be eligible for a daily school bus conveyance allowance if they meet all three transport assistance criteria and there is no school bus available, or they live more than 2.4 km away from the nearest school bus route.
Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga: Additional eligibility criteria for the school bus conveyance allowance
- communicating with the transport service provider(s) and regional transport advisor, including providing an after-hours contact number and working collaboratively to address safety hazards and student behaviour
- providing information and support to students and caregivers during and after any incident or emergency
- reporting any incidents, accidents, and emergencies to our regional transport advisor.
(For schools with a Ministry-managed bus service) The principal assures the board at least once a year that the school meets our responsibilities as a PCBU and our responsibilities to ensure student safety in relation to the bus service managed by the Ministry of Education. See Review Schedule and Board Assurances.
Related policies
Legislation
- Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
- Children's Act 2014
- Education and Training Act 2020
Resources
- Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga:
- Waka Kotahi l NZ Transport Agency: Bus wardens
: Term 4 2023, Term 1 2019
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